A THEATRE'S successful drive to boost audiences at ballet performances in a former coalmining district has been given an extra lift with news that its stage is to be graced by the internationally -renowned Moscow Ballet.

More than 30 of the world's top dancers will be pirouetting across the stage of the council-run Empire Theatre in Consett, County Durham, later this year.

Derwentside District Council's leisure marketing manager Sue Fox said last night: "This is a real coup for the district. We are absolutely delighted."

Mrs Fox said the decision by the company to visit the town during its tour of the country was an added bonus, following years of hard work to develop ballet as an art form in the district.

She said: "We have put on ballet at the Empire over the years, but numbers have stuck at about 150 a performance.

"Staff were becoming very dejected, but we decided there was some demand and rather than call it off altogether we decided to organise a two-year plan to focus on ballet as an art form.

"There may be the perception that people are not cultured in the area and do not want to see things like ballet.

"But this has proved wrong. In the space of only 18 months we have now exceeded our target and the latest production by Cwnmi Ballet of Gwent attracted more than 400 people."

So it came as the "cherry on the top" to attract Moscow ballet - le Classique, who will perform Nutcracker.

Mrs Fox said: "It will be an opportunity for those who have followed ballet religiously to see a professional company of highest standing at reasonable price."

Council leader Alex Watson said: "This is a golden opportunity for people in this area who do not get a chance to see world-class productions of this kind.

"It will put Derwentside firmly on the cultural map."

Tickets for the event on November 18, at 7.30pm, are £17 or £15 each for groups of more than five.

Thirty seats will be set aside under the council's social inclusion policy, and officers have yet to decide how they will be allocated. The show will run at Darlington Civic Theatre from November 12 to 14