Scottish Ballet: Sleeping Beauty

This time I have video of a current ballet: The Scottish Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty. This one is filled with vibrant, bright colors and looks like fun. Too bad I am more than an ocean away... The production is touring Scotland, so it is more accessible if you are there.

This is one of my favorite ballets thanks to the music, I admit. I was raised on Nutcracker (or I raised myself on it and drove the parental units crazy wearing out recordings of it as a preteen) so Tchaikovsky will always be important to me. There's also a gallery on their site of images, but I don't have time to import them here today. It looks like a gorgeous production.

There is also video of a webcast they did backstage of a performance. This is a tech savvy ballet company!


Scottish Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty 2011 - Trailer from Scottish Ballet on Vimeo.

Moscow Festival Ballet and Sleeping Beauty

Because I can never resist pictures of a fairy tale brought to life in a ballet, I will share these images and the news about the performance. From Moscow Festival Ballet To Bring 'Sleeping Beauty' To Life:

The fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" will come to life with Tchaikovsky's score by the Moscow Festival Ballet at the McCallum Theatre on Monday, Feb. 6.

The performance is set for 8 p.m. at the Palm Desert Theatre, according to theater spokeswoman Cate Ervin.

In Sleeping Beauty, a baby princess, condemned at her christening by an evil fairy to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday, is saved by the gift of the good Lilac Fairy who declares that the princess will only sleep until awakened by the kiss of a prince.

The fairytale, replete with a king and queen, fairies both good and evil, a beautiful princess and a handsome prince, is presented with magical stage effects and courtly splendor.

The Moscow Festival Ballet has toured extensively throughout the United States and will tour North America for four months in 2012.

So they may be coming to a theatre near you, too. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite of the fairy tale ballets. And who doesn't love Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz? Even Disney used it although he added words...

From the theatre site:

The spectacular fairy tale, set to Tchaikovsky's classic score, is brought to life by the renowned Russian National Ballet. Under the direction of legendary principal dancer Sergei Radchenko, the famed company performs the magical masterpiece with grace and beauty. This production performed to recorded music.

Beauty and the Beast by the Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet has a new ballet production of Beauty and the Beast. I came across some press and foudn the ballet's website where these beautiful images were posted. Lovely. Wish I could see it! The images feature Martha Leebolt as Beauty with Ashley Dixon as the Beast. Photos by Jason Tozer.

From Traditional fairytale becomes ballet with a modern twist:

“I always go back to tales before Disney to find out where the stories come from. There are some wonderful Arabian versions of Beauty and the Beast that are quite dark but have a clear message. One version that inspired me years ago was the Cocteau movie which is wonderful, but that’s more for adults and I wanted to do something different,” says Nixon.

He wanted to give this classic fairytale a contemporary feel. “I was interested in how these ideas could apply to the world today. So the opening sequence looks like Made in Chelsea, or one of those reality TV shows, as well as a bit of a 50s look. It’s about how you look and being cool and yet into that I bring these fairies and sprites and goblins that everyone recognises from the story,” he says. “I wanted to use this idea of retail therapy and haute couture, so you see the girls coming home from their shopping trip with stacks of boxes and giant receipts and this led me to bring into the story this whole idea of debt. The father can’t pay these bills and the debt collectors come in from Gucci and they take the family home away and the family is left on the street.”

Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker

It's that time of year, time for the Nutcracker. If you are interested in reading both of the stories that inspired the ballet, I highly recommend Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E. T. A. V. Hoffmann (Author), Alexandre Dumas (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator) and Jack Zipes (Introduction).

The better news, discovered when I was looking up the book again, is that it is currently bargain priced in the paperback edition for $5.60 (the cover image is wrong) and it is also available in ebook format, but that isn't bargain priced right now.

Book description:

The original stories behind everyone's favorite Christmas ballet

It wasn't until the 1950s that seeing The Nutcracker at Christmastime became an American tradition. But the story itself is much older and its original intent more complex. This eye-opening new volume presents two of the tale's earliest versions, both in new translations: E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King (1816), in which a young girl is whisked away to the Land of Toys to help her animated nutcracker defeat the Mouse King, and Alexandre Dumas's 1845 adaptation, The Tale of the Nutcracker, based on Hoffmann's popular work. Irresistible tales of magic, mystery, and childhood adventure, these timeless delights and fresh interpretations about the importance of imagination will captivate readers of all ages.

I bought this one when it was first released and recommend it for the introduction and inclusion of both stories. It's an easy way to learn more about a holiday tradition.

Ella Bella Ballerina and Her Fairy Tale Ballets

Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella by James Mayhew isn't new, first published in 2009, but I've never featured it or its companion titles on SurLaLune, so why not today? I would have regularly devoured these when I was in the intended audience age. I hungered for ballet books and imagery for years and used up the resources at my libraries and bookstores.

Book description from the publisher:

Ella Bella loves Madame Rosa's ballet class, which is held at an old theater that seems touched by magic. One day, when Ella loses one of her slippers, Madame Rosa lends her another pair for dancing--and is then reminded of Cinderella and her story of the lost slipper. Madame Rosa recounts the tale to her students, and Ella Bella listens with heightened interest. When their day's lesson is over, Ella lingers at the theater, then opens Madame Rosa's magical music box and listens as it plays melodies from the Cinderella ballet. Suddenly, Cinderella's fairy godmother appears, and Ella Bella is transported into the beloved story of Cinderella. This delightful book's final page describes the ballet Cinderella, with music by the great Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev.

Ella Bella Ballerina and The Sleeping Beauty description from the publisher:

Little Ella Bella loves attending Madame Rosa's ballet class at the old theater. Most of all she loves the music that plays from Madame Rosa's special music box, the theme from The Sleeping Beauty ballet. One day, after ballet class has ended, Ella Bella is left alone with the music box on the theater stage. As its music begins playing, Ella is transported to the magical world where the Sleeping Beauty's story takes place. Entering the palace of Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty, Ella meets all the story's characters--not only the good ones, but also the sinister bad fairy--and she sees the famous story unfold before her very eyes. Here is an unusually imaginative retelling of the classic fairy tale, with illustrations that capture the story's magic and mystery. A brief postscript on the book's final page summarizes the history of ballet from its origins during the Italian Renaissance to the late nineteenth-century, when the famous Russian composer Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky wrote music for The Sleeping Beauty ballet.

Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan lake description from the publisher:

The newest title in Barron's charming Ella Bella series tells another story of Ella Bella, a little girl who loves to dance. In this story, Ella's kindly ballet teacher Madame Rosa is preparing her class to dance in Tchaikovsky's immortal Swan Lake, and as Ella learns the story and listens to the music she is transported in a dream into Swan Lake's setting. There, she meets Odette, a beautiful princess who is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer. This beautiful volume's story is enhanced with James Mayhew's color illustrations. A brief passage at the back of the book recounts the life of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his creation of the music for this famous ballet.

The Little Mermaid by Queensland Ballet

The Queensland Ballet is producing The Little Mermaid this weekend. So if you are in Australia, go and see it. For the rest of us, here is a short promo video that gives us a glimpse of how the story has been concepted for ballet.



And the synopsis:

The kind-hearted Little Mermaid rescues a Prince during a storm at sea, and so begins a journey that takes her far from her home beneath the waves. Determined to pursue her love on to the shore, she makes a bargain with the Sea Witch – but it comes at a heavy price.

This much-loved story from Hans Christian Andersen is more than a simple fairy tale. François Klaus’s charming and poignant ballet explores the nature of longing, how making choices may have lasting consequences, and how goodness can be rewarded in unexpected ways.

Ballet: Cinderella Goes to War

Now this is one I would love to see. But I don't live anywhere near this performance. If you are in the UK, however, you should look this one up if it interests you since it is potentially touring to several locations.  This is a new production of Cinderella from choreographer and director Matthew Bourne.

From Cinderella goes to war by Diane Parkes:

Set during the London Blitz, poor old Cinderella is as busy dodging the German Luftwaffe as she is dealing with the ugly sisters.

But Matthew hopes the essence of the children’s classic comes through his dance.

“I started with the basic story of Cinderella that people already know. I want them to follow the train of events of the fairy tale but also give it a certain complexity. It is fantasy and fairy tale.

“The essential elements are there. The missing shoe, the idea of being lost and then found. I worked in the step mother and the ugly sisters although I went for a larger family to ensure there were enough roles for my dancers.

“There is the element of a kind of prince and of a fairy godmother although mine is a guardian angel. All the elements which give this story its character are there but in a different way.”

In this story Cinderella’s prince is a handsome RAF pilot and, although the two become separated at midnight, the heroine does not disappear in a pumpkin – but in an explosion from a German bomb.

Matthew was very keen that the Second World War be more than just a backdrop to the story, it also generates much of the tale.

“I really love the Prokofiev music to Cinderella because it has such an edge to it and, when I was doing my research into the music, I realised that he wrote it during the Second World War. That made me wonder if that was what gave it its darkness.”

The more Matthew delved into the idea of setting the piece during that conflict, the more it seemed to fit.

“That was a period when there was a real urgency and a need to escape,” he says. “Ideas of time being limited and the risk of losing someone were very much war time themes.

Also, from the Birmingham Hippodrome site where the ballet is being performed.

New Adventures' new production of CINDERELLA is a thrilling and evocative journey through London during the Second World War. Matthew Bourne's interpretation of Prokofiev's haunting score has, at its heart, a true wartime romance. A chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz.

First seen in the West End in 1997, but now completely revised in this brand new production created to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Blitz. It features design by Lez Brotherston who won an Olivier award for his original designs, and new lighting designs by Neil Austin. The production will also feature sensational sound design by Paul Groothius which will take the audience into the heart of Prokofiev's magnificent score and the sound world of war-torn London.

CINDERELLA is both a tribute and a testament to the spirit of London during a time when every second counted and lives were changed forever. Bourne's vivid storytelling has never been more heart-stopping and touching, creating a unique and unforgettable depiction of a familiar and beloved fable.

Matchgirl Ballet

Next week is Little Match Girl week on SurLaLune, but since this is performed this Friday and Saturday by Columbus Dance Theatre, I am offering a preview:

From Ballet goes step beyond classic seasonal fairy tale by Bill Mayr:

The Little Match Girl centers on a poor girl sent out on the street by her harsh father to sell matches on New Year's Eve.

"She's very cold, so she starts to strike matches," Veach explained. "Each time she strikes a match, she has a vision -- a vision of a warm fire, a vision of a banquet where the food comes to life. She has a vision of her grandmother, who is dead, who takes her away to heaven."

The end of the story, Veach noted, is very sad: "People ignored her, and she dies in the cold. But her grandmother takes her away."

That ending, though, serves as the first act of Veach's ballet.

In the second act -- which "looks very different," he said -- the girl arrives in paradise.

"Costumes and scenery are time-nebulous because there is no time in paradise," he said. "All the people on earth who treated her badly dance for her. And she forgives them."

Fairy Tales and Theatre

Theatrical interpretations of fairy tales are some of the most common results in my habitual news searches. From small, local theatres to universities to off-Broadway and Broadway, there's a plethora of fairy tale related performances around the world every week. It's impossible to mention them all, but some sound so very intriguing that I'm always tempted to flood this blog with descriptions, links and reviews. Instead, I've decided to occasionally offer one blog with several short descriptions and links unless something appears to merit its own entry.

Here we go:

Down the Rabbit Hole: "Written entirely in Def-Jam Poetry, spoken word, verse and music, this one-woman musical, featuring 10 female fairy tale characters, poses the question, 'Does Happily Ever After Really Exist?'" An off-Broadway presentation in New York.

Briar Rose: The Tale of Sleeping Beauty: "The play is a musical based on various versions of traditional ‘Sleeping Beauty’ stories. Most of the story involves the villainous characters, Avarice (the evil fairy) and her minions, Vice and Versa." Already presented, this one is being shopped for new productions in New York and/or New Jersey.

Antonín Dvorák’s Rusalka: The first ever production of Antonín Dvorák’s Rusalka in Norway.

Tchaikovsky’s The Tsarina's Slippers: Rarely produced, this one is presented at the Royal Opera House in London this fall.

Matinee Magic Series: North Carolina Dance Theatre’s 2009-2010 Matinee Magic Series offers three family-friendly matinees. Designed especially for children's delight, the world premiere of Mark Diamond’s Once Upon A Time, September 19 and 20, opens the Matinee Magic Series. Other performances in this series will include Nutcracker in December and Cinderella in March.

Once Upon A Time begins with a grandfather reading classic bedtime stories to his young granddaughter. When the grandfather begins to fall asleep, the young girl’s imagination starts to run wild as her favorite fairy tale characters spring to life. The stories include “The Frog Prince,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Peter Pan.”

The Crumb Trail: "As the story goes, hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children, Hansel and Gretel. Um, then there's some stuff about starvation, child abandonment, kidnapping, cannibalism -- the usual bedtime fare for the kiddies. Surely you know this one. But you probably don't know it in anything like the way it's shown through the fractured, variable-focus viewfinder of "The Crumb Trail," a piece of intriguingly odd experimental theater by the Irish troupe Pan Pan Theatre, playing for four nights in the Time-Based Art Festival."

Little Red in the Hood: "“Little Red in the Hood” will be performed on Sept. 12 at the Dothan Opera House. This modern version, which is also a musical, tells the story of Little Red and her best friend, Ayanna, and their efforts to clean up their neighborhood, which has been overtaken by trash and “thugs.” The thugs are led by a man known as the Wolf." (Dothan, Alabama)

The Little Caribbean Mermaid and the Enchanted Ring: "The Little Caribbean Mermaid and the Enchanted Ring combines all the romance of a beloved fairytale with the hilarious elements of a traditional pantomime. The musical comedy tells the tale of Benjamin, a lobster fisherman's son who dreams of finding a great treasure under the sea. During his hunt he meets a beautiful mermaid and quickly falls in love, but the young sweethearts are from very different worlds. Their answer may lie with the Enchanted Ring they find, but there is someone much more sinister looking for the ring too." (This one particularly appealed to me through the interviews with the actors who have a great sense of humor and camraderie: "I can't wait until the panto is a success and the TCFAF decides to do the whole thing again on ice!")

Seven Ballet

Australian Stage magazine recently posted a review for a new ballet production, Leigh Warren & Dancers’ Seven. If you guessed it is a new interpretation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, well, you'd be right.

The overall shape of Seven can be summed up by referring to its source material: the tale of Snow White and her seven dwarfs. But to explain this complex piece through such a simple comparison seems crude. While Seven is a fairytale, it's one where the mirror on the wall is cracked, the stepmother isn’t always evil and the dwarfs live in what is basically a sharehouse, complete with rivalries and intimacies.

As always, follow the links to read more. I have to admit this one makes me wish I was a little bit more convenient to Australia. Perhaps someone will produce the ballet closer to my home someday.

Swan Lake Ballet & Anna Pavlova

Here is Anna Pavlova's tutu for the her role in Swan Lake, one of the most famous of all the fairy tale and folklore based ballets. This was displayed in a special exhibit in the Opéra de Paris Garnier in Paris. Of course, in the U.S. the opera house is perhaps most famous as the residence of the Phantom of the Opera, but it has hosted many famous performers and performances, including Pavlova. The costume was designed by Leon Bakst for her role as the white swan in 1905.