PORT ANGELES — With guest performers from New York City’s American Ballet Theatre and local dancers soon to take flight, the Ballet Workshop will stage “The Sleeping Beauty” twice this weekend: at 7 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts is presenting this condensed 90-minute production, in which the cast dances to Tchaikovsky’s 133-year-old score at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
“Sleeping Beauty is a classic fairy tale that everyone knows and is a great first ballet to introduce children of all ages,” said Ballet Workshop director Kate Robbins.
This is also a rare chance, she said, to see dancers from American Ballet Theatre, whose home is the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. These are performers from America’s leading ballet company, Robbins said, appearing for the first time on the Olympic Peninsula.
They will share the stage with the Ballet Workshop’s senior dancers — shortly before they launch their professional careers.
This will be the final full-length show for 18-year-old Isabella Knott of Port Angeles, who has signed a contract as a company trainee with Ballet Idaho for the 2022-2023 season, and Ryan Andrews, 17, who plans to move from Sequim to Denver to accept a scholarship to Colorado Ballet.
Knott dances two roles: Princess Florine and the Lilac Fairy. Andrews will appear as the comedic Catalabutte in Act 1 and dance the challenging technical role of the Diamond Male, one of the Precious Stones in Act III’s wedding scene.
Robbins herself will step into the character role of Carabosse, the ballet equivalent of Disney’s Maleficent, while Ballet Workshop alumna Flora Sullivan will return to play the role of Glenda, the good fairy. Oregon Ballet Theatre apprentice Isaac Lee will appear as the Bluebird in his first performance with Ballet Workshop.
Joining them all on stage: Jarod Curley and Léa Fleytoux, who are partners in life as well as in the American Ballet Theatre corps de ballet stage. Curley is from Bethesda, Md., while Fleytoux is from Paris, where she trained at the Paris Opera Ballet. “The Sleeping Beauty” in Port Angeles marks the pair’s first time performing in Washington state.
This is the third time in its 52-year history that Ballet Workshop has staged “The Sleeping Beauty.” The first was in the 1990s with founder Sylvia Wanner; then Robbins revived the production in 2017.
This weekend’s performances reflect the growth of the studio’s maturing artists, Robbins noted. The junior dancers of five years ago have stepped into “Beauty’s” lead roles.
Tickets, available at JFFA.org and at Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., range from $10 to $38 when purchased in advance. At the door, they will be $5 more.
For information, phone the JFFA office at 360-457-5411.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz @peninsuladailynews.com.
Jarod Curley and Léa Fleytoux of American Ballet Theatre will dance in the Port Angeles Ballet Workshop production of “The Sleeping Beauty” this weekend. (Steven Vandervelden)
