(Chelsea Update would like to thank Patricia Marsh for the information in this story.)
Ballet Chelsea is proud to present its spring ballet Sleeping Beauty on Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 28 at 2 p.m. at the Chelsea High School Performing Arts Complex located at 740 N. Freer Road.
This full-length, narrated ballet is family-friendly and choreographed by Ballet Chelsea Artistic Director Wendi DuBois. Set to music composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the original ballet was choreographed by Marius Petipa, and premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1890.
The Sleeping Beauty ballet is somewhat different from the well-known Disney movie. Like all ballets, the story is told through movement and music; there are no spoken lines. The prologue is the christening of Princess Aurora, long-awaited daughter of the King and Queen. Many people are invited to the celebration, including fairies who bestow wonderful gifts upon the baby. Uninvited, the reclusive fairy Maleficent crashes the party and casts a spell, promising that Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die before sunset on her sixteenth birthday. The Lilac Fairy uses her gift to soften the curse; instead of dying, Aurora will fall deeply asleep for 100 years, until she is awakened by true-love’s kiss.
In Act 1, Aurora’s sixteenth birthday celebration is underway. The Queen confiscates spindles (forbidden since Aurora’s christening) from an older couple. The King introduces four Lords to his daughter. She dances with each, but shows no particular favor to any individual, despite their romantic attentions. An old woman offers a bouquet of flowers to Aurora as a gift. Aurora pricks her finger on something in the bouquet, but reassures her family and friends that she is unhurt. However, she grows dizzy and collapses.
Maleficent storms in, reveling in the resultant chaos. The Lilac Fairy reassures everyone that Aurora is merely asleep, and the fairies places the whole kingdom in a deep sleep, until a Prince worthy of Aurora can return to break the spell.
One hundred years later, Act 2 begins with peasants entertaining Prince Philip and his friend in the forest. On his way home, Philip is lured deeper into the forest by a haunting melody. He meets the Lilac Fairy and Nymphs, who shows him a vision of Aurora. Determined to find the Princess, Philip is on his way to the castle when Maleficent casts the forest into darkness. Despairing, Philip is saved by the Lilac Fairy, who gives him a sword, which he uses to defeat Maleficent in the ensuing battle. Finally arriving at the castle, Philip awakens Aurora with a kiss. The fairies return, and the entire kingdom is restored to happiness.
The wedding of Aurora and Philip in Act 3 is a joyous affair, with many lords and ladies in attendance. Entertaining the royalty and nobility are many familiar fairy tale characters, such as Puss-in-Boots, Cinderella, Bluebird, Little Red Riding Hood, Little Thumb, and Little Bo Peep. Finally, the happy couple dances together in a celebration of their love and devotion. All, needless to say, live happily ever after.
Assigned seating tickets for Sleeping Beauty are available for purchase online here, at the Ballet Chelsea Studio, or at the door. Before the show and during intermission, join Ballet Chelsea in the music-filled Commons where tasty treats, flowers and gifts will be available.
Ballet Chelsea is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization which provides professional-level dance training to young dance students, through performance opportunities, enrichment activities, master classes, summer intensives and pre-professional studies. Ballet Chelsea is proud to be supported by the Wilkinson Foundation, the Worthington Family Foundation and the Chelsea Wellness Foundation.
