14-20 June 2003. In La Sylphide, choreography by Carla Fracci and Niels Kehler based on August Bournonville. La Sylphide premiered in 1832, and though it hardly seems subversive or anti-establishment today, it was like nothing in dance before it. It upset the establishment and was hailed as the voice of the new generation; a potent expression of angst. It introduced the dance world to the Romantics, a generation of young artists who revolutionised ballet with their distaste for reality. La Sylphide was the first ballet to express successfully the Romantic philosophy: that the search for true happiness will always prove fruitless and the notion of a lyrical netherworld. This is represented by a creature who is half-human, half-bird, the spirit of a young girl condemned to dance forever or, in the case of La Sylphide, an elusive winged sprite.