Torn between admiration for the corpulent beauty of the corps ballerinas from Evgeni Panfilov Russian State Ballet, all over 15 stone, some well over 20, and their obvious attempts to impose a comic aspect to their performance, I saw in the slightly out-of-time movements and generous thighs a sort of joyful, gleeful exuberance, a world apart from the nervy, neurotic, stick-thin beauty of Natalie Portman in Black Swan.

Interpretations of classics, such as The Viennese Waltz and Swan Lake, were performed to professional standards but suffused with an irreverent buffoonery, as acres of milky, jiggly flesh wobbled like pannacotta to familiar classical strains.

Perhaps what I found occasionally frustrating was when The Big Ballet forced the humour and the ballerinas sacrificed their dignity in order to milk the joke. There was a fine balance between admiring the skills and beauty of the dancers and laughing at the fat lady dancing, a comic cliché in action.

The most delicate and amusing moments where the ones where the ballerinas danced their hearts out, showing off their training and professionalism with no self-referential “aren’t we funny” winks and nods.

The investment of heart and soul, as opposed to tongue-in-cheek recognition of the comedic potential of their corpulent forms, struck a chord, particularly in the shape of the prima ballerina, Tatyana Gladhik, who was by far and away the best dancer on the stage and blew everyone out of the water, a vision of delicate grace in a larger-than-expected form.