Interesting comment, Alexandra, and worth thinking about in relation to the differing opinions.
Just to let you know, although I love "all dance" ballets (Balanchine, for example), I'm also more than partial to the white ballets and enjoy character dancing .. mazurkas, polonaise, whatever.
But there isn't any of what I'd call character dancing in Sylvia. There is a fair bit of pantomime, some of it not the standard classical bits (and refreshing because of it), but the rest is lightweight classical, "in character" for the part, ruffian, satyr or whatever, but certainly not in the tradition of character dancing.
Think of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet (virtually any production), except that she has a truly develped character ... the dancing expresses in movement, what Shakespeare expressed in dialogue. Whereas the characters in Sylvia are so unsubstantial and the story is so silly that any cheoreography to express the "nature" of these characters, although it can be charming at times, is mostly just fluff.
Just my opinion, of course, and I seem to be in the minority on this one.
Thanks for the welcome. I just wish I had discovered this site at the beginning of the season instead of the end!