Artiste: Yulia Makhalina

A double bill at the Birgitta Festival staged Scheherazade and the Polovtsian Dances, both performed in costumes and on sets based on the original designs dating from around 1910.

The great impresario Sergei Diaghilev faced many challenges when presenting his Ballets Russes in Paris at the turn of the 20th century (remember the near riot at the première of Le Sacre du Printemps?), and some things never change.