Ten years ago, the Mariinsky Ballet (then known as the Kirov) unveiled a production of The Sleeping Beauty that attempted to take it back to the first version unveiled in St Petersburg in 1890. The result was a kaleidoscopically colourful vision, full of grand effects, lasting for almost four hours. I adored it: it gave real, lively insight into the masterpiece of classical ballet that Petipa and Tchaikovsky created.

However, the company's acting director Yuri Fateyev has jettisoned that reconstruction, so the version of Beauty performed at the weekend was one staged by Konstantin Sergeyev in 1952. The problem is that it looks more old-fashioned than the one made in 1890. With the exception of a gauzy red forest for Act 2, the sets by Simon Virsaladze are garish and flat, and, while the costumes are attractive, they appear alongside some of the worst wigs ever to walk on stage.

Admittedly, the Mariinsky juniors are often better than the higher ranks of other ballet companies but for a work on the scale and grandeur of Beauty, you need soloists in the many featured roles.

Even the two principals (Evgenia Obraztsova as Princess Aurora and Igor Kolb as the Prince) weren’t at their best. Obraztsova is a small, pretty dancer but she didn’t deliver the regal grace you want in the role. Nor did she connect with the underlying melancholy in Tchaikovsky’s melodies. Kolb looked strained, over-emphasising many of the steps, although he was much improved in the final act.

The 'Crazy in Love' hitmaker has enrolled herself for ballet tutorials in New York and attends classes without an entourage.

The singer used Manhattan's Ailey School to rehearse for her last tour, and she recently checked in for an open ballet class, where she pirouetted alongside bemused dance wannabes, according to America's Star magazine.

The Chicago-based Joffrey is considered one of the top ballet companies in the world. In the midst the worst-ever flooding on the Iowa City campus last year, Swanson says he was contacted via email by the leaders of the ballet and the Des Moines auditorium with offers of help. This single performance is what resulted.

"It's important for us to keep the arts alive," Swanson says. "The whole arts campus was really devastated by the flood and when you get offers like this, from the Des Moines Civic Center and from the Joffrey, it just shows you that good things come out of bad things." U-of-I officials are still in the process of determining where to build the new auditorium, as the current location on the banks of the Iowa River is clearly no longer an option. Swanson says the price tag for Hancher -- Part Two -- is a bit overwhelming.

The Mariinsky Ballet has brought us a new Aurora, enchanting in manner, brilliant in means, to illuminate Petipa’s sleeping princess and the company’s handsomely traditional staging which tells her story. Evgenia Obraztsova is youthful, lovely and, by today’s standards, might be thought petite.

She has a beautiful physique, an exquisitely placed head on a long neck, and she came on stage on Friday night, when The Sleeping Beauty completed the Mariinsky repertory for this all-too-short season, armed with dazzling skills. Her feet sparkle in small steps, and she charms the choreography – as she charms us – with that stylistic clarity, that inevitability of phrasing and pose, which are the product of St Petersburg’s long and golden traditions. She made her entrance for Aurora’s birthday, and won the audience by the sweetness and grace of her temperament and the freshness of dancing unclouded by mannerism, natural (in these most unnatural of circumstances) as a bird throwing off impossible roulades of notes. Thereafter the role, which can freeze a ballerina’s nerves, so absolute are its demands upon security of technique, was Obraztsova’s.

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet will also come to the Joyce for the first time, as will Balletto Teatro di Torino from Italy, making its first appearance in the United States.

Traditionally the tears of St. Lawrence are the meteor showers that may occur around St. Lawrence’s Day (Aug. 10). The new ballet ended with the dancers and Ms. Wainwright each extending an arm diagonally to the sky, holding what looked like a star.

The program says, “All choreography, music, and lighting are by Edwaard Liang, Christopher Wheeldon, Martha Wainwright, and Mary Louise Geiger, respectively, unless otherwise noted.” The “respectively” caused confusion. So, to Wheeldon followers, does the fact that only one item, “Tears,” is called a world premiere. (Summerstage had commissioned both the score and the dance.) On checking, I find that everything except Mr. Wheeldon’s “Fool’s Paradise” (2007) was having its premiere on Friday, and that all choreography was by Mr. Wheeldon except the dance quintet “Bleeding All Over You,” credited just to Mr. Liang, and “Tears,” which was by both men. Can’t Summerstage take more trouble over these matters?