FAIRYTALES from north of the border have proved a hit in the North East and the visit of Scottish Ballet this week will underline the point.
The Glasgow-based company returns to the Theatre Royal tonight with The Sleeping Beauty, the third ballet in the fairytale trilogy (the others being Nutcracker and Cinderella) of artistic director Ashley Page and designer Antony McDonald.
The production first came to the Newcastle venue in 2008 when Page, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, told The Journal how he and McDonald, his long-time collaborator, had given a favourite of the ballet repertoire a contemporary twist, adding a little wit and some extra choreography.
Naturally, The Sleeping Beauty – the famous Tchaikovsky score performed here by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra – lends itself to a long time span.
Page said: “We started with 1830s Regency Gothic. Then in act one, 16 years later, it’s early Victorian, so has different clothing, different behaviour and different choreography.”
Then everyone falls asleep, a century passes and they all wake up in the post-war Europe of 1946.
One neat twist is that this was the year the Sadler’s Wells Ballet – now the Royal Ballet – danced The Sleeping Beauty for the first time in the re-established Royal opera House with Margot Fonteyn in the lead role of Princess Aurora.
“The choreography has an edge to it,” said Page. “It’s classical and contemporary.”
Ballet purists will recognise the sections of original choreography by Marius Petipa, supremo of the Russian Imperial Ballet.
Four years ago it went down a storm in Newcastle, paving the way for the company’s return two years ago with Nutcracker.
Scottish Ballet said yesterday they don’t have future dates scheduled for Newcastle but the programme wasn’t yet confirmed so this could change.
Spokeswoman Heather Crumley said: “Our next tour is a collaboration with English National Ballet and National Dance Company Wales inspired by the 2012 Olympics, and we will be touring to Glasgow, Cardiff and London in the summer.
“We’ll be back on tour with Nutcracker next winter.”
She added that a live webcast event can still be watched as a video on the website www.scottishballet.co.uk
The video focuses on three of the dancers preparing for their roles in The Sleeping Beauty and features video diaries and rehearsal footage.
It has been a good month for the Scottish Ballet dancers.
Last week Sophie Martin, who dances the role of Aurora, won the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Female Performance (Classical).
The Sleeping Beauty is at the Theatre Royal from tonight until Saturday with the 2pm Saturday matinee an audio described performance for the visually impaired. Box office: 08448 112121.