Carolina Ballet opens The Little Mermaid this week

The ballet opens 8 p.m. Thursday and runs over three weekends through April 1 at the A.J. Fletcher Theater of the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.

Principal guest choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett, who has created more than a dozen ballets for Carolina Ballet including The Ugly Duckling, also created this one. I saw The Ugly Duckling last season and it was absolutely magical. My older daughter literally sat on the edge of her seat throughout the entire piece.

Artistic director Robert Weiss said in a press release that this new production of The Little Mermaid will combine the charm of The Ugly Duckling with the theatricality of Dracula, another popular work by Taylor-Corbett.

“My goal is to provide Broadway-style production values using traditional ballet conventions,” Taylor-Corbett said in the release. “Mermaid will be a show for adults and children alike with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor, cutting edge eye candy and timeless pathos.”

The Little Mermaid is part of Carolina Ballet’s family subscription package for the spring season that includes Beauty and the Beast in May. The performance also includes other more traditional ballet works.

Ticket prices range from $25 to $65. There is a special 11 a.m. performance on March 24, which only includes The Little Mermaid (and which I would highly recommend for younger children or those who might get squirmy during the other pieces).