“Sleeping Beauty” is one of those stories that beats the odds. It’s a fairy tale, after all, not so complicated and full of fantastic plot twists, driven by an evil fairy and a pure-as-snow princess. The story is kiddie fare, really, and that’s certainly how it plays out in the animated film version that is once and forever a Disney classic.
But as a ballet, its appeal is much broader. Ten-year-old girls flock to it, swoon and cheer at the big smooch. But the audience always has just as many grownups, folks who don’t mind the silliness.
That is due, of course, to Tchaikovsky’s brilliant score and the choreography of ballet master Marius Petipa, who also collaborated on “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.” They created the piece back in 1890 with a sophisticated adult viewership in mind.
Tchaikovsky, still wary from some bad reviews of the earlier “Swan Lake,” threw everything he had at it. The score is written for a massive orchestra, complete with tam tam, glockenspiel and military drum. It stands alone as a fine piece of classical music, apart from the movement it was designed to color.
And it may be Petipa’s finest work. It doesn’t have the desperate drama of “Swan Lake” or the romance of “Giselle,” but it does have the Rose Adagio, which features one of the most difficult sequences ever created for a ballerina, and that comes in a grueling first act that requires its Princess Aurora to pirouette for her life.
“It’s so difficult,” said dancer Dana Benton. “It’s that classic ballet where everything has to be precise, all of the positions.”
Benton dances the part in Colorado Ballet’s latest presentation, which kicks off its 2018-19 season starting Oct. 5. She’s a company veteran, and this is her third “Sleeping Beauty” in Denver.
“Sleeping Beauty’s” appeal to adults is due to its complicated score and historic choreography. (Terry Shapiro, provided by the Colorado Ballet).
But it’s her first as Aurora, and she acknowledges being a little nervous about the whole thing. When a ballet is so familiar — and this one has literally been done thousands of times with its original choreography — people know it, and “it’s really obvious if something isn’t looking right,” said Benton.
Benton’s professional plan for the piece is to focus on the movement, which she describes as “pure ballet.”
After 18 years with Colorado Ballet, Benton has had her turn with some of classical ballets biggest heroines. This one is a little different.
“There’s not a lot of depth to the character,” she acknowledges. A lot of the things Aurora goes through happen to her, not because of her choices.
The princess is all innocence, for the most part, especially in the first act. “It’s her 16th birthday party,” Benton said. “She’s a little bit shy coming into her womanhood and getting attention from suitors.”
In the second act, things get a little weird as the famous spell that puts her under has been cast. At this point, she is “more like a ghost, so there is not a lot of expression about what is happening.”
It’s tempting to see “Sleeping Beauty” through a 2018 lens. Aurora experiences things audiences might see differently today than they did when the piece first appeared 128 years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia.
As Aurora is cursed and pricked by a needle that sends her into a long slumber, the teen princess is surely the victim of some violent shenanigans. She’s also — famously — kissed without her consent. And none of it is offered as metaphor; it’s just how the story goes.
Fortunately, there’s a lot going on to prevent the kind of deep thinking that could get in the way of simply enjoying the work — fancy costumes and elaborate sets, pageantry, a cameo appearance by Puss in Boots, and so many dances, culminating in the grand pas de deux that brings things to a close.
Then there’s the fact that a grown woman is cast as a 16-year-old. That’s all part of the acting job for Benton, and part of the ballet’s charm. She handles it with a youthful attitude.
As for the ballet’s appeal, that’s proven itself unchanging. It’s the audience that’s altered every time it comes around on any particular ballet company’s stage. There’s always a new crop of 10-year-old girls who are seeing it for the first time, and that keeps the work new.
“The audience is consistently changing,” said Benton. “And they love it no matter what age we are bringing it back in.”
Sleeping Beauty runs Oct. 5 -14, with afternoon and evening performances at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. More info at 303-837-8888 or coloradoballet.org.
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