Great Performances on PBS will be airing Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes on September 17, 2021. Bourne is well-known for his interpretations of Sleeping Beauty, The Red Shoes, Swan Lake and Cinderella.
From PBS:
Experience Hans Christian Andersen’s dark fairytale from acclaimed director-choreographer Matthew Bourne with this Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation starring Ashley Shaw, Adam Cooper, Dominic North and Michaela Meazza.
Matthew Bourne transforms the classic fairy tale into a wartime romance with a twist of Hollywood glamour. 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 Blitz.
Performed to Prokofiev’s magnificent score, this new production comes alive with heart-stopping choreography, vivid theatrical storytelling, and sumptuous award-winning scenic and costume designs that will transport audiences to the heart of war-torn London for a timeless story of the power of love.
La Bête et la Belle is renowned French choreographer Kader Belarbi’s compelling reimagining of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast – a psychological drama that explores the rejection or acceptance of difference, centring around Beauty’s discovery of the depth of true love. First performed by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal in 2005, Théâtre du Capitole’s reprise of Belarbi’s acclaimed production has confirmed its status as among the best of modern ballets, combining stunning set and costume designs with striking choreography that reflects the unique soundscape of the Ligeti-dominant musical score. Takafumi Watanabe and Julie Loria assume the lead roles in a production that instantly transports us into the beautiful dream world of this timeless masterpiece reinterpreted.
The Beauty Julie Loria
The Beast Takafumi Watanabe
Choreography and Staging Kader Belarbi
Recorded at the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, October 2013
What the press said:
‘‘…all the markings of one of the classic ballets: It had romance, spectacle and drama, and it was beautiful.’’ Times Argus
‘‘…filled with spectacular dancing by large ensembles set beautifully. Imaginative and colorful sets and costumes by Valérie Berman and effective lighting by Marc Parent completed the visual spectacle…’’ Times Argus
Matthew Bourne’s SLEEPING BEAUTY sees the choreographer return to the music of Tchaikovsky to complete the trio of the composer’s ballet masterworks that started in 1992 with Nutcracker! and, most famously, in 1995, with the international hit Swan Lake. Perrault’s timeless fairy tale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890. Bourne takes this date as his starting point, setting the Christening of Aurora, the story’s heroine, in the year of the ballets first performance; the height of the Fin-de-Siecle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forwards in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era; a mythical golden age of long Summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day; a world more mysterious and wonderful than any Fairy story! Matthew Bourne’s haunting new scenario is a gothic fairy tale for all ages; the traditional tale of good vs. evil and rebirth is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story, across the decades, that even the passage of time itself cannot hinder. Britain’s most popular dance showman works again with three of his regular collaborators, and New Adventures Associate Artists; The Tony and Olivier award winning designers, Lez Brotherston (set and costumes) and Paule Constable (Lighting) and Sound Designer, Paul Groothuis who created the acclaimed surround-sound for last years hit production of Cinderella.
After four public preview performances, "The Most Incredible Thing" had its official opening on 21 March 2011 at Sadler's Wells in London. Performances continued until 26 March, and all tickets were sold out. "The Most Incredible Thing" will return to Sadler's Wells in 2012 for two weeks prior to going on tour. The entire production was filmed by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Four on 1 July 2011.
Limited two CD release in special packaging. 2011 release from Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (AKA Pet Shop Boys) , the music for their first ever full-length ballet, The Most Incredible Thing is a collaboration with choreographer Javier De Frutos and Britain's leading contemporary dance theatre, Sadler's Wells. Based on the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same title. Tennant and Lowe proposed Andersen's story as the basis for a new ballet to Sadler's Wells in London in 2007 after a friend, the then Royal Ballet principal, Ivan Putrov, asked Neil Tennant if Pet Shop Boys would consider writing a piece of music for him to dance to at Sadler's Wells. The story is about a competition in a mythical kingdom where the King announces that whoever invents the most incredible thing will win the hand of the Princess in marriage and half of the Kingdom. What follows is creative, destructive but ultimately happy.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.Also, from the Birmingham Hippodrome site where the ballet is being performed.
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.
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.
Say it with dance! This gorgeous collection will enchant young dancers with stories from eight cultures, including the Polka in the Czech Republic, Limbo in the West Indies and the Waltz in Germany. Book with CD editions include stories read by actress Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeplyand Emma
). Ages 8 and up.