Rudolf Nureyev was a true believer in classical steps: the legs flicking, slicing, cutting, cupping, stretching and retracting; the body swiveling one way, then the other; the arms holding steady, with stalwart complacency. When this dance geek in sex god’s clothing choreographed, he liked to tuck as many surprise steps into the crevices of negative space as the music permitted. Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty—with its “ton of music … whole huge canvases of it,” as Balanchine said—permits a great deal. Nureyev took full advantage in this 1966 Beauty for La Scala. The sumptuous Milanese production also honors the story’s Versailles setting and its note of foreboding. Franca Squarciapino’s satiny, ruffled, and flattering costumes come in a gorgeous stormy palette of blues and purples, dusty dream greens and roses, and Nureyev gives every royal waltz and mazurka its due, though they are often less stately than galloping, as when, late in the evening, after the toasts and the meal, corset stays are loosened and dangerous liaisons arise. —Apollinaire Scherr

Get your tickets soon: many of the December dates are sold out