Hey Everyone!!
Tomorrow night is officially opening night for Ballet West's production of Sleeping Beauty!!! It has been crazy and tiring, but for the most part, everything has been running smoothly! All you see as a patron is the polished finished product, but I bet you don't realize how much work it actually takes to move any ballet from the studio to the stage. I'm going to let you in on a few "behind the scenes" tricks of the trade!
This season we have four casts and two ladies will be making their very special debuts as Aurora! Principal Artists Christiana Bennett and Katherine Lawrence will be first and second cast Aurora and Principal Artist Arolyn Williams and Soloist Beckanne Sisk will both be premiering as Aurora!! We are so excited to be there for their first performances. Many ballerinas say that Aurora is one of, if not the hardest, role for a ballerina. First Soloist Rex Tilton will be Prince Desire opening night with Christiana and Principal Tom Mattingly will be dancing with Arolyn. Also, making their debut as Prince Desire will be Soloist Adrian Fry with Katherine and Christopher Sellars with Beckanne. It's been a pretty cool experience watching everyone grow in these roles. Even as a Soloist you watch and learn from your peers. I respect them all and wish them all the best!
The two roles I will be playing are Carabosse (Fairy of Jealousy) and Fairy Kindness. I always enjoy the opportunities when I get to play polar opposite characters during a performance run. Opening night I will play Carabosse and she is very special to me. I've always been a little infatuated with witches, so playing an evil witch is a treat for me. One of the coolest things about playing Carabosse is I get to fly on stage!!! I thought I would be scared the first time I got rigged, but it turned out the little witch in me made me a natural! The entire Prologue I dance with a harness under my costume!! Yes, it weighs a bit, yes, it messes with my dancing, and YES, it hurts my nether regions....hahaha!
Here is a video of me getting strapped in before the tech rehearsal this week. My awesome friend Demi-Soloist Katie Critchlow is always around to make fun of the experience!
Fairy Kindness is naturally delightful and not painful at all! I get to partner with my Fairy Cavalier (who happens to be Mr. Ronald Tilton) and dance a variation in the Prologue. The Prologue, if you do not know, is Aurora's Christening. As a Fairy, we each are blessing her with a gift. I have a beautiful blue tutu and fairy wings!
The schedule is kinda strange during theatre weeks and it takes a few days to get used to. We have class from 11-12:30pm and rehearsal for two hours after class each day. We then have to be back to the theatre no later than half hour call which is 7pm for Sleeping Beauty. For roles like Carabosse I have a wig call at 6:45 so I actually get to the theatre around 5:45 to get my make-up on and warm up. If I'm playing Fairy Kindness, getting to the theatre at 6pm gives me enough time to get ready and warm up for a 7:30pm show. Usually, our rehearsals run until 10:30pm and because Sleeping Beauty is so long, we probably wont get out of the theatre until that time after shows, too! We end up on the worst sleeping and eating schedules! Dinner is at 11pm! I always try to eat a protein packed meal after a show so that my body rejuvenates for the next day!
Sleeping Beauty runs February 7-16th at the Capitol Theatre in SLC. You can visit www.balletwest.org or ARTix for tickets to the show! I hope to see you all there and if you do come make sure to send me a message letting me know what you think!!!
MERDE (ballet's version of good luck) to all my friends this week!
xoxo
Allison
I also think that the witch roles are the best! You get to play someone completely opposite of you, and they are so much fun. Wishing I could see you take on Carabossa, but I'm sure you will do great! I hope you and everyone at Ballet West have a great performance run! Merde to you, the other dancers and everyone on the production crew! :)
ReplyDeleteHow fun that you get to be Carabosse! I've always loved that role - so much fun to act wicked on-stage! I am (was?) a big fan of Breaking Pointe and am so happy you started a blog to keep your fans up to date on what's going on at Ballet West!
ReplyDeleteLoved you as Carabosse tonight! Congrats on a successful opening night.
ReplyDeleteI flew to Utah from Washington, and my daughter drove from Idaho to see Sleeping Beauty Sat. night. It was breathtakingly FABULOUS! You were such an animated and humorous Carrabos! My daughter and I both have ballet backgrounds and watching Breaking Pointe together is one of our favorite things to do together. Even last summer when she had left for her 1st year of college watching the show kept us connected. We were really looking forward to watching the audition, rehearsal, and production process of Sleeping Beauty this summer. Yesterday we found out the show has been canceled! My heart to breaking! Can anything be done? Is there any talk of another network? Breaking pointe is such a great show- maybe to much quality for CW? I know someone that works for Discovery, that owns TLC- I'm going to write her and suggest they pick it up!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes!
Conae Lee Olympia WA
^^^ ps- Can't one of you be a vampire, or have supernatural abilities or something? :]
ReplyDeleteFor my Birthday I asked my husband for tickets to a ballet. Enjoyed Liliom by the Hamburg Ballet this past Saturday night. Thanks.
ReplyDelete