The Australian Ballet’s ravishingly beautiful production of The Sleeping Beauty, directed by David McAllister, sold out when it premiered in Sydney in 2015, and then subsequently in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. Due to popular demand, it is currently enjoying a return season at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, and will be performed in Adelaide next year.

Members of The Australian Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty. Photograph © Daniel Boud

There was an extra buzz in the air last night with Misty Copeland making her debut as Aurora as a guest artist with the Company. It’s the second time that Copeland, who is a Principal Artist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT), has made an important role debut in Australia; in 2014 she danced her first Odette/Odile in Swan Lake when ABT performed at QPAC. (In the process, she became the first African-American dancer to perform the dual role for the company, and only the second in history following Lauren Anderson at Houston Ballet in 1996.)

As Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Copeland was understandably nervous during the famous Act I Rose Adage, with its difficult balances, but as the nerves receded her performance gradually took flight. She...