Artiste: Michael Coleman

English National Ballet's current Nutcracker shows off the brilliance of the dancers across the ranks but after many years, the weaknesses in the plot and characterisation remain flawed.

The spectacular dancing of Erina Takahashi, Francesco Gabriele Frola and Jeffrey Cirio is the principal reason to catch ENB's revival of this creaky swashbuckler. 

Swan Lake in-the-round was conceived in 1997 by Derek Deane, former director of English National Ballet, and has been seen by over half a million people.