Photos: Preparations in Bangkok

It is always a challenge working in venues overseas with language barriers and unfamiliar equipment. Though staff here are very willing tasks take longer than usual and the crew continued well into the night, focusing the lights.The stage of the Cultural Centre is very large and Christmas Carol, designed for all our touring venues in the UK, will look a little small but the energy from the dancers will make it look huge!

The Technical Rehearsal was a little challenging and as always there was not enough time in advance for the lighting to be as good as we wanted it. The rehearsal went well and by the performance the Technical Team and dancers pulled out all the stops to ensure that we gave an excellent performance.

I was delighted at the reaction from the audience - having seem the production myself many times it becomes a little difficult to be objective but the Company excelled and there were even more cheers at the end than there was at the opening night of Swan Lake by Zurich Ballet. The Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra was excellent and we couldn't have asked for better support for our production.

This evening the performance was enjoyed by both the Indian and Russian Ambassadors and I am honoured over the last three days to have met Ambassadors to South Africa, Taiwan, Korea, Slovakia, Switzerland and the EU as well as the two this evening.