Sleeping Beauty in Beijing (Photo : Matthew Bourne)
When Beijing residents watch Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty” when it premieres in September in the capital city, they will see more than just the usual characters found in fairy tales. The performance would be at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.
He is presenting it as a gothic fairy tale and will introduce a vampire, reported China Entertainment. Bourne, who recently visited China to promote the ballet, created it for the 25th anniversary of his New Adventures dance company. It would also have time travel, according to CRI.
It completes three of re-imagined ballet masterpieces of Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tschaikovsky with “The Nutcracker” in 1992 and “Swan Lake” in 1995. For “Swan Lake,” Bourne, best known for adding new elements to classics, had all male ballet dancers portray swans and cygnets, while he choreographed them emphasizing the aggressive movements of swans rather than use graceful movements.
The famous British choreographer picked Tchaikovsky’s work for his presentations because the composer’s work makes him want to dance and tell a story. He shared, “The thing really excites me about them, all three, is I feel they’ve become very well-known pieces and always performed in a same kind of way with same kind of images. If you start to change the images, you start to see and hear in a different way, so I think it would make people listen to the music again to rediscover the music.”
Tschaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa turned “Sleeping Beauty” into a ballet in 1890. Bourne would use a puppet to portray Princess Little Briar Rose – cursed to sleep for a century – as a baby. As a young child, the princess would be unruly, cries a lot, runs away and does other mischievous things.
After knowing better the princess, the audience would meet her adult version, said Bourne, recipient of the Tony Award and Laurence Oliver Award which are the highest excellence in theater awards given in the U.S. and U.K., respectively.
