American classics. Contemporary takes on 19th-century thrillers. Premieres tinged with hip-hop, salsa and modern dance.
All these have been part of the Colorado Ballet’s offerings in recent years, as the company has tried to challenge its dancers and find new audiences at the same time.
But no matter how adventuresome the company might become, said artistic director Martin Fredmann, its heart and soul will always lie with classical ballet.
“It is ultimate,” he said. “It is paramount. Well- trained classical dancers have to apply their craft. These are dancers who are trained in the real classical tradition. Many of them are from abroad, many of them from the former Soviet Union.
“You can’t build a company without its basis. You can’t become a Picasso without really drawing like da Vinci.”
With that in mind, the Colorado Ballet will make its debut tonight in the $92 million Ellie Caulkins Opera House with what is generally considered the greatest of all classical ballets – “The Sleeping Beauty.”
Fredmann said this version, which opens the ballet’s 45th season, will be the most lavish the company has mounted, with about 75 dancers, including 40 or so students, and live orchestral accompaniment.
The production will feature lavish period sets and costumes rented from the Boston Ballet. They were originally created by designer David Walker for the Royal Ballet in London.
“I knew three or four years ago that we had to open in a grand, special way,” Fredmann said. “I wanted to make sure we had this particular production, so we looked outrageously grand and glorious.”
Like the extended runs it does for all its major productions, the company will present 21 performances of “The Sleeping Beauty,” with three different casts, a feat that Fredmann says few if any other regional companies could pull off.
“You can’t develop dancers with three performances over one weekend,” Fredmann said. “And you also cannot develop audiences and you also cannot develop sponsorships. Why would someone want to pay to be a sponsor of a production that is over in one weekend?”
Colorado Ballet is not performing any one choreographer’s adaptation of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale, “The Sleeping Beauty” but has put together a kind of composite.
Ballet master Meelis Pakri, a former principal dancer with the Estonian National Ballet, drew on the best elements from at least 10 productions, including previous ones presented by the Colorado Ballet.
“It’s really a composite of history, because it’s not a new choreographer coming in and saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got these great ideas of how “Sleeping Beauty” should be,”‘ said Jocelyn Labsan, associate artistic director. She staged the production along with Pakri and principal repetiteur, or rehearsal supervisor, Andrew Thompson.
“It’s an idea of the best of what has been, not something new, not something modern.”
The original balletic setting of “The Sleeping Beauty” was created by the celebrated choreographer, Marius Petipa, using a now-famous score by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. The Mariinsky Ballet (later known as the Kirov Ballet) in St. Petersburg, Russia, premiered it in 1890.
“The fairy tale, replete with a king and queen, fairies both good and evil, a beautiful princess and dream prince, magical stage effects, and courtly splendor, lent itself perfectly to the full-evening ballet that was Petipa’s pride,” wrote Nancy Reynolds and Susan Reimer-Torn in “Dance Classics.”
The choreographer paid tribute to 17th and 18th century French ballet with his use of
period dances and processionals, but he also included his own distinctive fusion of then-contemporary Italian, French and Russian styles.
Since, many other famous choreographers have sculpted their versions of the work based on Petipa’s original, including Yuri Grigorovich, Kenneth MacMillan, Peter Martins, Rudolf Nureyev and Ninette de Valois.
Unlike traditional productions, which have three acts and can run more than three hours, this version has been trimmed to two hours to conform with modern audience demands.
“I wanted to do it in the best possible way with great integrity – get rid of the bits where the audience sits through and yawns and keep it moving but not Reader’s Digest,” Fredmann said.
Along with two of the company’s veteran principal dancers – Maria Mosina and Sharon Wehner – the production will showcase emerging company dancer Maya Makhateli in one of the most sought after of all balletic roles, Princess Aurora, the sleeping beauty.
The 19-year-old native of the Republic of Georgia joined the company in November 2002. Her previous appearances have been supporting roles such as Amour in “Don Quixote” and Wendy in “Peter Pan.”
“I know she has been champing at the bit,” Fredmann said. “She has really been wanting to do something major, and she deserves it. Everyone knows that Maya has the equipment to be a major classical dancer.
“She’s very young and there is a lot she has to learn from the inside. Aurora is a perfect role for her, because she is just about the same age.”
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“The Sleeping Beauty”
BALLET|Colorado Ballet’s 2005-06 debut production, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets; 8 tonight, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; 21 performances in all, running through Oct. 16|$18-$86|303-837-8888, ext. 2, or coloradoballet.org.
