This site has limited support for your browser. We recommend switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.

When Beauty Awoke

How many ways to think about “Sleeping Beauty”? In the first written Italian and French versions, the plots outline the fate of a young girl as the object of family jealousy, trickery and, after being drugged asleep, ravishment. By the mid-19th century, the Brothers Grimm toned down the storyline, romanticized and adapted it as a story fit for children. Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Tchaikovsky, and Marius Petipa’s 1890 landmark ballet further refashioned it. But another few generations of scholarly research recognized the darker undertones and representations of girls in the fairy tale tradition. Apart from handsome swains or huntsmen who save damsels like Beauty or Red Riding Hood from stepmothers or disfigured crones, the producers of even the most treasured classics should take some measure of the plight of characters, even if fantasy.

subscribe to continue reading


Starting at $49.99/year

Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.

Already a paid subscriber? Login

MARINA HARSS


comments

Blog posts

Motivation for Moving
INTERVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Motivation for Moving

Petite in stature, with beautiful, delicate features, Scottish dance artist Suzi Cunningham is nonetheless a powerhouse performer: an endless shape shifter whose work ranges from eerie to strange, to poignant, or just absolutely hilarious.

Continue Reading
Aim True
REVIEWS | Victoria Looseleaf

Aim True

With his peerless vocabulary of postmodern abstract moves—or, as he’s called it, “gumbo style,” which blends Black dance with classical ballet techniques—Kyle Abraham, a 2013 MacArthur Genius grant awardee, has been making thought-provoking works for decades.

Continue Reading
In Good Company
FEATURES | Eoin Fenton

In Good Company

At this year’s Resolution Festival in London, one of the city’s major events of the dance calendar, I found myself in a conversation about the state of affairs of dance internationally.

Continue Reading
Good Subscription Agency