Carolina Ballet completes historic season with one of ballet's finest masterpieces

Carolina Ballet will put an exclamation point on its historic 25th anniversary season with its production of Sleeping Beauty. The production, at The Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium for one weekend only, May 18-21, will feature the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky score performed live by the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.

This enchanting ballet is considered one of the most important ballets in history, alongside Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. What these three well-known ballets have in common is they are all set to brilliant Tchaikovsky scores and they were each originally choreographed under the direction of the legendary ballet master, Marius Petipa.

Sleeping Beauty is considered Petipa’s masterpiece and ballet companies around the world routinely stage this classic tale of good vs. evil in the manner that Petipa created.

Artistic Director and CEO Zalman Raffael says the company chose Sleeping Beauty for its final show of the anniversary season for many reasons. “First, we have the opportunity to accompany it with live music in Memorial Auditorium. Second, it’s a beautiful way to celebrate the end of a season, to honor the past and get ready to step into the future. Third, Sleeping Beauty has the most epic music. The music washes over you and gives you a sense of courage and peace and serenity just listening to it.”

But the biggest reason of all speaks to the mission of today’s Carolina Ballet, to introduce ballet to a wider, more diverse audience.

Raffael said, “People recognize [the story] and think, ‘I know that, I have heard of it my whole life. I can bring my daughter, my son, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my grandmother or my grandfather.’”

And Carolina Ballet has made a mission to ensure that money is never an obstacle. Carolina Ballet will hold a ‘Community Show,’ of Sleeping Beauty at 2pm on Friday May 19. This show is free for anyone who wants to attend. In addition, Carolina Ballet offers $10 tickets to essential workers.Tickets for all of Carolina Ballet’s performances start at $25.

“We want people to get to experience the ballet even if they don’t have money,” said Raffael. And if you are new to ballet, Carolina Ballet’s production of Sleeping Beauty is an incredible place to start.

Carolina Ballet first staged its interpretation of Sleeping Beauty in 2008, under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Robert Weiss. While he honored the original Petipa choreography that is still known, he made headlines with some fantastical additions.

For example, he was the first artistic director in the United States to expand the role of Carabosse, the evil fairy, into a full dancing role. (The character Carabosse is more commonly known to modern-day movie lovers as Maleficent.)

In the original Petipa choreography, Carabosse was primarily a ‘character part’ that conveyed her evil intentions through mime and exaggerated body language. Wanting to create a more dynamic battle between good and evil, Weiss choreographed Carabosse to be en pointe with dramatic and aggressive expressions of dance.

Melissa Podcasy, a founding principal dancer for Carolina Ballet, and Weiss collaborated to create a role that would bring Carabosse menacingly to life. "The role we created with Carabosse tells the story very, very clearly. It became a significant role and it was just fantastic. The audience loves every minute of it because it’s someone they could ‘boo.’ They don’t want her to succeed in her evil quest," said Podcasy.

In addition to expanding that role, Weiss commissioned Paperhand Puppet Intervention to create a monumental dragon puppet that the evil fairy, ‘transforms into,’ when the prince is trying to save his princess. "Carabosse turns into that dragon and manipulates it above her head. It grows to 20 feet tall. The audience gasps when the dragon reaches its full height," said Weiss.

While the fantastical and familiar elements will certainly delight audiences of all ages, what makes this production of Sleeping Beauty so remarkable is that it represents the cultural growth that the Triangle continues to celebrate.

“We have three full casts of principal dancers and five dancers for the part of Aurora. They are all so good. And that is a credit to what [Weiss] has put in place and built here,” said Raffael.

Three principal dancers will perform as Aurora for the first time, while two are veterans of the role. The youngest Aurora is 27 years old and the most experienced Aurora, Margaret Severin-Hansen, will be performing the role of Aurora for the fifth time for the Carolina Ballet.

While Raffael notes that Severin-Hansen looks precisely the same as when he joined the company years ago, her choices in playing Aurora show a mature sensibility and expertise. Her legacy of playing the principal role in a monumental ballet over the course of 15 years is a rare feat and it demonstrates both the continued training that dancers receive at the Ballet and the respect that the company has for its members. Rafael said, “It’s something I’m proud of and it sets a precedent for all dancers.”

He added it also adds an extra element of fun for audiences. He said, “If you were so smitten with the show, you could see a different cast at each performance!”

The fact that there is such an incredible wealth of dancers speaks to the cultural growth of the Triangle. Professionally trained, sought-after dancers continue to move to Raleigh to be part of Carolina Ballet and the reputation of the company continues to grow.

As the company grows, their goal is to contribute to the vibrancy of the community. “We want to create a place where people feel part of something. There are so many people in the world who would like to have a place to go … that allows them to feel something, or to escape, or even to assess critically. It’s what makes a city a great place to live,” said Raffael.