I had never seen a ballet my entire life, and I can now say I had the pleasure of seeing the ballet, the Sleeping Beauty, with live orchestral music by Tchaikovsky in the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The ballerinas were superb. I am someone who took only nine weeks of ballet when she was 9 years old and does not know much about it in general, but you would have had to be blind not to notice the difficulty of the moves the ballerinas and ballerinos were doing. They were always in synch, jumping several feet in the air, and holding their positions for minutes on point-toe. All with smiling faces and grace.

However, I was left more in awe of the orchestral music of Tchaikovsky. It was beautiful. In fact, a couple of us, myself included, found it to be so lulling that despite our best efforts, we wanted to just shut our eyes and listen to the music. The violins, the harpist, and the flutes were amazing and played great sequences. I think that if there hadn’t been a live orchestra, the ballet would simply not have been the same. You could see how well the ballet dancers and the orchestra had practiced together and integrated each move perfectly with each note played by the orchestra. I think my goal from now is going to be to listen to more Russian composers of the 19^th and 20^th.
Also, taking pictures of the live performance was not allowed, so I am attaching a link with a Sleeping Beauty soundtrack.