A choice of timeless classical ballets are heading from Russia to Dartford's Orchard Theatre this month.

Paul Revel looks at three epic tales; Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and La Bayadere, all being staged by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre ...

THE acclaimed Russian company, complete with full orchestra, is performing the three productions back-to-back, over four nights. Each ballet has its own elaborate sets and costumes. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is 10 years old, consisting of graduates from the St Petersburg Vaganova School and the Moscow State Academy.

The company includes established principal male dancers such as Yuri Glukhikh, Dmitri Akulinin and Andrei Yakhnyuk, and the prima ballerina is international award-winner Irina Kolesnikova.

Ballet masters the company's in-house teachers include former stars of the Kirov Ballet.

Tchaikovsky was 36 when he wrote Swan Lake, his first commission of a full-length ballet. When it premiered in Moscow in 1877 it recieved bad reviews and was declared a failure.

The re-staging still used nowadays by the legendary choreographer Petipa was presented in 1895, two years after Tchaikovsky's death.

The story of Prince Siegfried's doomed love for the Swan Princess, Odette (played by Kolesnikova), is one of the world's most popular ballets.

The ballet became familliar to a new generation of theatre-goers in 1995 with Mathew Bourne's groundbreaking production, complete with its controversial all-male swan chorus.

The Nutcracker was the third and last ballet composed by Tchaikovsky, opening in 1892.

This fantasy Christmas story features plenty of visual spectacle such as the Land Of The Sweets, the Nutcracker Prince and his armies of toy soldiers, the Mouse King and Clara's magical transformation into the Sugar Plum Fairy.

La Bayadere is based on an Indian legend. The music is by Leon Minkus and choreography again is by Petipa.

It concerns a murderous love triangle between the warrior Solor, the beautiful temple dancer Nikiya and the Rajah's daughter Gamzatti. Solor loves Nikiya but the Rajah decrees he must marry Gamzatti.

The jealous Gamzatti puts a poisonous snake into a gift of flowers, which kills Nikiya.

The scene known as the Kingdom of the Shades, where the dead Nikiya and ghostly temple dancers appear in a dream, is considered by many to be one of Petipa's all-time masterpieces.

St Petersburg Ballet Theatre,

January 25 & 26, The Nutcracker

January 27, La Bayadere

January 28 Swan Lake

The Orchard Theatre, Home Gardens, Dartford, all performances start at 7.30pm, tickets £28 & £30, discounts for family and double-show tickets, call 01322 220000.