The Red Shoes and Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suites – CD

Description

Red Shoes and Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suites – music by Craig Harris. These ballet suites were originally composed for dance theater productions by Minneapolis-based company Ballet of the Dolls. The Red Shoes Ballet was first performed in September 2001 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Ballet was later revised and performed at Theatre de la Jeune Lune in 2002.  The Sleeping Beauty Ballet was first performed in May 2003.

The Red Shoes Ballet Suite

Track Title

• 1         Ballet Performance & Party
• 2         Irina’s Swan Song
• 3         Vicky’s Matinee
• 4         Julian and Vicky pas de deux
• 5         Red Shoes Fairy Tale
• 6         Trio Triage
• 7         Vicky Dies
• 8          Fairy Tale returns

Composer:                   Craig Harris
Sound Design:             Craig Harris
Piano:                          Tom Linker
Violin:                          Gary Schulte
Voices:                         Bradley Greenwald,  Julie Tehven

This Ballet is based on “The Red Shoes,” a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, which was incorporated into a movie in 1948. The fairy tale is based on a young girl’s love of dance, and her coming upon a magic pair of dance shoes, which take control over her. She continues to dance until exhaustion, and can only stop when her feet are chopped off.

The Red Shoes movie incorporated the fairy tale as a story within a story. An authoritarian ballet impresario, Boris Lermontov, rules over his protégés, demanding complete submission to his demands, which include not allowing personal relationships to interfere with their art. He brings a new dancer, Victoria Paige, into the company to play the leading role in their new ballet, The Red Shoes, composed by the company’s resident composer, Julian Craster. Victoria falls in love with Julian, creating a conflict of tragic proportions with Lermontov. Victoria’s internal conflict between her passion for dance and her love for Julian lead her to commit suicide.

The “Red Shoes Ballet Suite” was composed and produced for Ballet of the Dolls’ production “The Red Shoes” in 2001 and 2002.

Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suite

Track Title

• 1         The Museum
• 2         Beauty Awakens
• 3         Wall Street
• 4         Makeover
• 5         Only in my Dreams
• 6         Lookalike
• 7         Gabriverdi – The Royal Family Welcomes the Birth of Beauty
• 8         Beauty Is…
• 9         Deep Sleep
• 10       Sleeping Beauty Fairy Tale

Concept and Scenario by Craig Harris and Myron Johnson
Composer:   Craig Harris
Piano and Sound Design:  Craig Harris
Voices:   Lisa Conlin, Zhauna Franks, Candy Kuehn, Maya Harris, Lea Harris, Craig Harris, Grant Whittaker, Robert Skafte, Steve Carlino, Stephanie Fellner

The scenario for this version of Sleeping Beauty picks up the story after Sleeping Beauty awakens after 100 years in hibernation. She finds herself in our current era, faced with confusing notions about “beauty” and meaning in life. Her story unfolds, and Sleeping Beauty returns to the moment of her demise, when she pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and fell into a deep sleep.

The “Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suite” was composed and produced for Ballet of the Dolls’ production “Sleeping Beauty”” in 2005.

Copyright 2005 Interference Arts

All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Unauthorized copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this record prohibited.