The never ending spring is in full swing at the sixth Siberian Ballet Festival

Choreographer Patrick De Bana is behind this performance of Stravinsky's masterpiece.

'We have been working hard on the ballet 'The Rite of Spring' directed by Patrick de Bana' said Igor Zelensky, head of Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

This is a new task for de Bana - he has never staged this Stravinsky's ballet before. The performances are on 11 and 12 June. 

'It will be interesting, and certainly unique: after all work is done from the scratch, and the choreography that has not been embodied anywhere before.'

The ballet is based on a dream of Stravinsky: a young girl surrounded by old men is dancing to exhaustion, to awaken the spring, but she dies. 

Famously on its first performance, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography sparked a riot in the French capital. 

On the night of the premiere the theatre was packed but the audience began booing, laughing and roaring. According to Stravinsky himself the audience did not understand the ballet: 'First there were single shouts, later they merged into the general buzz, and very soon the noise was so loud that it was impossible to make out anything.'

'A lot of work, endless rehearsals - and, finally, this mess', said  ballerina Romola Pulskain in her memoirs. 

Zelensky promises that Patrick de Bana's version of The Rite of Spring will not disappoint the ballet lovers.

'17 dancers are performing in the ballet. The main parts are danced by Natalia Ershova and Ivan Oskorbin. 

'The decorations are done by a Frenchman. And one of the best painters from Vienna is invited. It should be a grand performance'.