You know, I thought that Disney wrote that song (isn't that what it's called, "Once Upon a Dream"?) but actually, it's Tchaikovsky from The Sleeping Beauty. Who knew?
The dancing in The Sleeping Beauty was glorious. From ABT, I expected no less. The costumes were gorgeous, and sparkly and the sets were very elaborate and fitting for the telling of a classic fairy tale. Aside from that... some parts of it kind of dragged. There was a whole scene in some forest where the Prince dances with Aurora, and I was like, waitaminute, I thought you were asleep? But oh, he was dancing with a vision of her beauty, brought onto him by the Lilac Fairy (or something). She brings the Prince to wake up the Sleeping Beauty, and the entire village, who also all went to sleep. I thought it was just her?
So then she's awake! Hooray! And the two of them get married, and dance. And then their wedding guests (all characters from fairy tales) dance. And the Lilac Fairy dances. And all her minion fairies dance. And then a pair of guests dance - together! And him! And her! And him again! Ok, we get it! And then the Happy Couple dances! Together! And him! And her! Will you just live happily ever after, already??
I've only seen one other full length ballet (Shh! Don't tell my boss!) and it didn't seem to drag on so much. I think I prefer mixed rep pieces, because my attention started to wander a little bit. The dancers all have to be very skilled at communicating the story through their movements, since there is no speech or song or anything. If I hadn't read the story before hand, I might have been a little confused at some of it, and I was wondering how much of it all the little girls in the audience were really getting.
Overall, I was pleased with it, and I would recommend it, to people who enjoy ballet.
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