The Sleeping Beauty Ballet

The Sleeping Beauty Ballet

The Sleeping Beauty was performed by The European Ballet which I witnessed myself at the Kenneth More Theatre.

Act 1

The Christening

I saw The Sleeping Beauty Ballet at the Kenneth More Theatre on October 2008. The plot starts of with a christening of the Royal infant daughter, Princes Aurora. The fairy Carabosse was insulted by the fairies good wishes on the Princess and cursed that Aurora will grow up, but will die. The princess is assured she will not die, but is instead put into a deep sleep. A kiss from a prince would awaken her from her sleep.

Act 2

Scene 1- The Spell

On Aurora’s sixteenth birthday she is given some flowers and as she dances, she pricks her finger. She faints but recovers, yet nevertheless after a short dance she falls to the ground and appears to be dead. Carabosse’s curse on her was true. The lilac fairy arrives and casts a spell on the princess, sending her to sleep.

Scene 2- The vision

Prince Desire is hunting in the forest. He sees the lilac fairy. The fairy shows him to the way to the princess and then he is given a vision of princess aurora

Scene 3- The Awakening

Desire awakens the princess with a kiss. The spell is broken.

Act 3- The wedding

Aurora and desire get married. The lilac fairy appears to bless the marriage.

I had a really good view of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet from the front so I felt really engaged with it. I felt all the emotions they went through in the performance. The joy, the love, the anger and the beauty were all shown through out the Ballet. The elegance and flexibility of the ballerinas shows the dedication and commitment to their ambitions. Ballet in general I think feels extremely magical and subtle. It’s a very delicate and perfectionist piece of art. Sleeping beauty felt very magical and limitless. It was also very colourful and bright. I felt like the performance took me away to a dream world and I didn’t want to leave it. To me Ballet seems to be about co-ordination, expression and discipline. I could follow the synopsis fairly comfortably, even though it was a ballet. It just shows the power of action and the power of expression and movement. Ballet reflects the true human being instead of the false one which we live in today, in capitalism. It’s more to do with the feeling rather than the thought. Watching the Ballet made me realise that it’s about discipline but in a free way. Ballet is a very free art. Stories such as Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast presents some interesting ideas such as the conflict with good and evil, which in the end the good wins. This creates different kinds of emotions from very extreme angles. This is beyond the human emotions because of its use of magic and religion.

The Sleeping Beauty Ballet was a truly beautiful performance and reflects the wonders of people and what they are capable of. It was truly inspirational and a delight to witness such perfection.

I obtained the synopsis from the programme I bought from the Kenneth More Theatre.

The Rikowski web site, The Flow of Ideas is at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

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