Ballet West's Sleeping Beauty: Clockwork Toy Jewel Box Edition

We went to Salt Lake City this past weekend, because there is civilization there.  Also, Ballet West was presenting Sleeping Beauty in a recently renovated and incredibly gaudy little theatre that made up for its small size with as much gold and sparkles as could be crammed into the space.   It was a little like looking at a toy jewel box theatre, an illusion reinforced by the perfect shininess of very classically costumed dancers, a choreography which features slow ensemble work, and an orchestra with a very mellow tone (they do not tune sharp at all).  Sure the prologue had some very wobbly wobbles, but I am going to chalk that up to beginning of performance tightness and jitters, since all anteceding acts were technically solid.

Calling the production akin to watching a clockwork toy jewel box is in no way a criticism.  I very much enjoyed the sparkling relaxed feel, and while I've seen better faerie solos, the loveliness of the ensemble and commitment to hitting the phrases and highlights of the music made the prologue completely a joy and a delight.  Carabosse contributed with her own sparkles, minions with grand jetés to envy, (I love a ballerina with a good grand jeté, and an unexpected benefit of a theatre this tiny is that even in the balcony I could hear the clunks of the toe shoes and get a sense of exactly how much force the dancers are traveling with) and exits to flash bombs.

The prologue was followed by an equally delightful Act 1, in which villagers danced with garlands, and the children's corps danced with little garlands.  I cannot stress enough how good the ensemble work is here.  I was disappointed with the princes.  While the Prima is very traditionally in her gold and white sparkling gown all her princes were in shades of brown rather than being colorfully color-coded. Also, they didn't have a dance off, and only supported the princess and offered her three rounds of roses (which I think is a little excessive, but whatever.)  I realize this is a reasonable artistic choice; this ballet, like all of Tchaikovsky's ballets, is about the women, and if the princess decides to mostly ignore her princes and dancer herself, I deeply respect this choice. But I wanted to see color-coded princes in pastel-colored tights tour jeté their way across the stage in order to demonstrate their passion and worthiness. Is that so much to ask?

Oh well.  Act 2 was incredibly confusing.  I liked the introduction of the prince and his party, since they were costumed in a style I mentally tag as 1700's but I am not knowledgeable enough about fashion to say for sure.  At any rate, it was noticeably different from the more Renaissance look of the villagers in the preceding act so that we know time has passed.  All is well until the prince enters the magical enchanted forest.  There were beautiful enchanting wood faeries forming enchanting patterns as the prince wandered about in a confused fashion, but then he ran into a vision of Aurora and made a huge flaming deal out of dancing with her.  Umm, weird.  Especially since this happened at the expense of making a flaming deal out of awakening her and dancing with her then.  The final battle with Carabosse was similarly disappointing.  Quick, simple, and then he has vanquished evil without more than a lift or two of her evil minions.  Excuse me, but I expect to see evil defeated with grandiose balletics here, followed by a grandiose pas de deux with the princess, the actual one, not the forest hallucination.

The final act was a little unbalanced. While it was still pretty, and the faery tale characters took turns dancing, as they should, the amount of time they got was unbalanced.  Bluebird and companion got too much dance time, as did Gold, Silver, and their escort.  (Though I believe it was Gold who performed insanely impressive leaps taking of and landing en pointe.  I hope her feet don't suffer too much for it, because that was grand.) Puss in Boots and companion got just enough time, as did Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, while no other faery tale companions got individual dance time at all.  It was still pretty, and the glitter being dumped on the stage just reinforced the illusion of a toy theatre, but I'd like to see more than just a handful of the distinguished guests get party dance time.

Still, I was able to feel fabulous, in a glittering theatre watching shiny dancers present Sleeping Beauty, with wonderfully excessive care given to costuming and ensemble work.  Well done, Ballet West.