Review: Sleeping Beauty (Ballet Jörgen and Symphony Nova Scotia)

By pwalt | May 4, 2016 |

Ballet cast applaud Symphony Nova Scotia with Maestro Gueller

Canada’s Ballet Jörgen returned to the Cohn last month with a gorgeous production of Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Artistic Director Bengt Jörgen, and bringing a winter-weary Halifax the promise of spring beauty.

I’m lamenting the loss to our community of arts journalists Elissa Barnard and Andrea Nemetz, who are currently in the fourth month of a seemingly never-ending strike at the Chronicle Herald, but it seemed a great pity that there would be no mention made somewhere of these magical performances.

So, I’ll try to tell you what it was like.

Picture a full house, with many dressed up little girls excited for the ballet, eagerly anticipating the pride of Dartmouth, CBJ’s Hannah-Mae Cruddas, cast as the delicate (but feisty) Lilac Fairy. The orchestra pit was filled with a slightly amplified SNS, and the drama unfolded from the first moment of the curtain’s opening, with a fast moving court scene full of waltzes, processions and exquisite fairies. Large flower garlands bookmarked the stage, slightly resembling treble clefs.

Jörgen’s Sleeping Beauty is a bit of a mash up of the traditional La Belle au bois dormant and the Brothers Grimm’s Little Briar Rose, and was explained by the creator in the program as a “nature allegory…a tug-of-war between winter and summer, darkness and light.” Reading the program helped uncover this story, in which Aurora (danced by the always impeccable Saniya Abilmajineva) is compared to a budding flower. Curiously, Tchaikovky’s credit as the composer was omitted from same program (oops). It’s not possible though, to forget whose music you’re listening to when echoes of The Nutcracker, the Serenade for Strings and other familiar pieces by the composer pop in and out. The familiar Sleeping Beauty Waltz sounded lush and full with an augmented orchestra, and Concertmaster Renaud LaPierre’s accompaniment in Act 1 of Aurora’s solo was a true marriage of music and dance artistry from these two performers.

The court of flowers and fairies in pastel spring colours is darkly interrupted by the arrival of Carabosse, a black crow-like apparition with Edward Scissorhand fingers, danced to great effect by Adrian Ramirez Juarez. This ruler of the underworld is one scary looking guy, with Roots, Weeds and Thorns helping him spread havoc.

The ballet takes place both in the traditional court and also in a garden, and after much cutting away of brambles by Prince Florimund, the production closes with Sleeping Beauty raised in the air as if she is actually a rose, beautiful but still surrounded by thorns. Not sure if that was a happy ending or not, but it really didn’t matter.

Ballet Jörgen’s dancers are some of the hardest working in Canada. They rehearse, travel and train together for many months of the year, covering more provinces and big and small centres than any other Canadian ballet company. Although the Cohn audience responded to several “stars” in the production, the cast is all equal in their billing, and with the exception of a few lead roles, everyone dances more than one part. The result is that it feels that the company is much larger than it really is, and the addition of at least fifteen young local dancers also enhances this feeling, and provides a wonderful opportunity for our up and coming youth to imagine ballet life as Hannah-Mae now experiences it.

Hannah-Mae was a lovely Lilac Fairy, as always fully inhabiting her character. The Lilac Fairy is the Fairy Godmother of this production, altering the spell placed on Aurora by Carabosse, so that Sleeping Beauty can be awakened by a kiss of true love. The closing of Act 1 (when Aurora and everyone else is now under the sleeping spell) brought the curtains shut on the Lilac Fairy’s illumined face – truly a poignant moment.

Aurora and Florimund (Daniel Da Silva) were a wonderful match, and one can only imagine how inspiring it must be for them to dance to a live orchestra. (The SNS horns sounded very noble on the arrival of the Lilac Fairy in the second Act, and we heard a strong cello solo on the arrival of Aurora). The scene with Aurora covered with blue gauzy fabric representing a lake and surrounded with white Naiads was breathtaking, and the Blue Bird Pas de deux and the Dance of the Hummingbird and Canary were spectacular.

As A Chorus Line told us, “everything is beautiful at the ballet,” and so we’ll wait with anticipation for next season’s collaboration on Swan Lake to be once again wowed by Bengt Jörgen and Bernhard Gueller’s artistic leadership and collaboration.