El Lago de los Cisnes - Ballet Municipal de Lima

"Swan Lake" is the work most people learn what ballet is through, and that plays in its favour: you need no context, the Siegfried and Odette story follows itself, and Tchaikovsky's score does the rest.

The Ballet Municipal de Lima stages it at the Teatro Municipal downtown — a late-19th-century house that is, on its own, part of the plan. Watching classical ballet in an Italian-style theatre isn't the same as watching it in a modern auditorium.

Twelve performances between September and October. One of the most accessible ways into ballet if you've never been, and one of the most rewarding if you know the repertoire.