Northern Ballet, Tortoise & The Hare, ROH

Northern Ballet has built an enviable reputation as a specialist in narrative ballets; and it's kept the younger ballet audiences very much in mind, as over the years it's put its expertise into crafting a series of short, entertaining story works designed specifically with children in mind.

This year Tortoise & The Hare comes to the Royal Opera House's second stage, the Linbury. A free adaptation of Aesop's famous fable of the tortoise who, through industry and application managed to defeat the much faster, but scatty and arrogant hare in a race, this work has been created by specialist choreographer Dreda Blow and Sebastian Loe, on a lively score by Bruno Merz.

The basic story is embellished with a number of episodes that occur along the race and the introduction of a variety of colourful characters, such as bespectacled Molly the Mole, who's Tortoise's best friend, Bumble Bee, Squirrel, The Bunnies and the graceful, fluttering Butterfly (pictured top), all of whom provide plenty of distractions for Hare.

Production values are high: Ali Allen's sets are detailed and full of colour, and, of course, Northern Ballet dancers are well versed in telling a story through mime and movement.

At 40 minutes' duration Tortoise & The Hare is perfect even for the littlest, more fidgety children, to whom it should provide an unforgettable introduction to ballet. Older children, too, should enjoy it, and so indeed - why not? - should their adults.