The tale of a Princess, a hundred year's sleep, and a kiss, has been an enduring favorite for more than century. Featuring music by Tchaikovsky and storyteller narration.

Background:
Sleeping Beauty, the tale of a Princess, a hundred years’ sleep, and a kiss, has been an enduring favorite with adults and children for more than a hundred years. New Jersey Ballet’s production is based on the 1890 Russian ballet, staged by former ABT principal Eleanor D’Antuono. The music is Tchaikovsky’s first successful ballet score.

Based on an old French fairy tale, the ballet is filled with familiar characters including Princess Aurora, the Handsome Prince, the King and Queen and their splendid Royal Court, and beings from the fairy realm; the Lilac Fairy, the wicked Carabosse, Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, the Blue Bird and the Enchanted Princess. They all come to life in a magical fairytale castle, with colorful costumes, elaborate pantomime and glorious dancing.

This production begins on the Princess’s sixteenth birthday.

The King and Queen are giving a ball. Since the King and Queen wish their daughter to wed, they have invited eligible Princes from other lands. The wicked fairy Carabosse, however, has not received an invitation. Furious, she slips into the party disguised as an old woman and gives Princess Aurora the one present she must not have -- a spindle – lest she prick her finger and send herself and the entire kingdom to sleep for a hundred years, not to be awakened except by a Prince’s kiss.

Sleeping Beauty includes many of the great moments in classical ballet, including the celebrated Rose Adagio, a challenge to the world’s most accomplished ballerinas, and the Garland Dance. When New Jersey Ballet took the production to Bermuda in 1992, the Royal Gazette raved “New Jersey Ballet put a refreshing and exhilarating spin on this work, which is widely held to be the epitome of classical dance.”

There’s no better way to introduce children to the magic of ballet than this enjoyable entertainment for the whole family. Fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty not only entertain, but also teach children recognize moral qualities like good and bad, loyalty, honesty, bravery and fairness. Like all New Jersey Ballet productions for Kids and FamiliesSM, Sleeping Beauty is accompanied by original “storyteller” narration so even the littlest theatergoer can keep up with ease.