The Moscow Festival Ballet brings a beloved ballet back to Texarkana with a performance of "The Sleeping Beauty" at the Perot Theatre on Saturday, April 21.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., the sounds of Tchaikovsky's famed score will fill the venerable downtown theater as dancers turn and leap to the elegant, delightful choreography of Marius Petipa with a story based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale in this three-act production.
This Moscow Festival Ballet is a return visit to town for the troupe, which performed the same ballet four years ago. They'll adhere to the traditional version for score and choreography. They've also performed "Cinderella" here.
The company brings ballet classics to destinations across the globe, including European and United Kingdom tours, as well as Japan. They've conducted several tours here in the U.S., forever showcasing their roots in classical Russian ballet.
"The Moscow Festival Ballet was created in 1989 by Sergey Radchenko, a former principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet. The idea was to keep traditional Russian ballet alive in its true form, and Radchenko, along with his wife and partner Elena, another Bolshoi dancer, knew just how to do that," said Alexander Daev, ballet master, director and a principal dancer for the Moscow Festival Ballet.
For the dance company, much is demanded of these dancers on stage.
"Just to be considered for the Moscow Festival Ballet you must have at least eight years of traditional Russian ballet training. Focus, work ethic and a pursuit of excellence are all requirements also," Daev said.
Perrault's fairy tale about a princess who will sleep until kissed by a prince is almost universally known and recognized. What we see on stage brings this classic to life.
"We use a variety of backdrops that help the scenery to transport you to the story, along with the music and dancing," Daev said. "The real story, though, is in the dancing and acting, along with the music and visuals."
And about that dancing, it includes spinning turns, leaps, extensions and steel point work. It's demanding. And the fact it's all done in a live theater setting makes it all the more thrilling.
"All the choreography is beautiful. The spins, leaps and turns keep you engaged with the difficult moves in ballet. The balance and precision will keep you wondering why we don't fall," Daev said. "And hopefully we will not. It is live theater."
In "The Sleeping Beauty," Daev and his ballerinas will perform a timeless classic, one he believes won't disappoint an audience.
"The very young know the story and the not-so-young have probably read and told the story. Everyone knows the beginning, middle and end. That makes the ballet easy to watch and understand and, most of all, enjoy," Daev said.
"The Sleeping Beauty" received its premiere more than 120 years ago in St. Petersburg on Jan. 16, 1890 at the Marinski Theatre. The founder of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, brought it to London for a 1921 performance and it later became a standard part of the repertoire in the U.K.
(Tickets: $46, $36, $27 and $16.50 with a student ID. Student prices available through the box office. For more information and tickets, call 903-792-4992 or call TRAHC.org.)