News Release
Sleeping Beauty in March
02/15/2010
The Walla Walla Symphony
Announces Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet with The Eugene Ballet Company
Walla Walla, WA - (February 15, 2010) Two magical productions of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet will be performed by The Walla Walla Symphony, directed by Yaacov Bergman, The Eugene Ballet Company, Toni Pimble, Artistic Director, and students of Idalee Hutson-Fish on Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 28 at 3:00 pm at Cordiner Hall in Walla Walla, Washington. All seats are reserved, and tickets are available now. Gift certificates are available by request. Tickets can be purchased online at www.wwsymphony.org or by calling the Symphony office at 509-529-8020 or at the office at 13-1/2 E. Main, Suite 201. Saturday’s performance is sponsored by Banner Bank with General Hospital Sleep Center as Guest Artist Sponsor. Sunday’s performance is co-sponsored by Wheatland Village and the Walla Walla Symphony Second Century Club.
Ticket prices are as follows: Gold Section: Adults $35, Youth under 18 $25; White Section: Adults $25, Youth under 18 $20; Blue Section: Adults $15, Youth under 18 $12.
The premiere performance of The Sleeping Beauty took place in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1890. The work is widely regarded as Tchaikovsky's finest ballet score, and has become one of the classical repertoire's most famous ballets. By 1903, The Sleeping Beauty was the second most popular ballet in the repertory of Russia’s Imperial Ballet, having been performed 200 times in only 10 years. As the ballet begins, baby Princess Aurora is being christened. The evil Carbosse storms in and curses the baby, as her invitation to the event had been overlooked. The curse states that on her 18th birthday, the princess will prick her finger and die. However, the Lilac Fairy weakens the curse. She proclaims that instead of dying, Princess Aurora will fall into a deep sleep for 100 years. She will then be awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince. During Aurora's 16th birthday party, a mysterious guest (the evil Carbosse) offers her a gift...a lovely spindle. Aurora pricks her finger and the whole court falls into a deep sleep. Several years later, the Lilac Fairy produces a vision of Aurora which Prince Desire notices while hunting. The Prince is led to the castle, where he battles the evil Carbosse. After the battle, he kisses the sleeping princess, upon which everyone wakes up. A beautiful and joyous wedding ceremony follows.
Founded in 1978 by Toni Pimble and Riley Grannan, the Eugene Ballet Company has grown from a community-based dance group to become one the West’s busiest and most versatile professional dance companies. The Company has performed in over 100 cities in 32 U.S. States and internationally to Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia and Taiwan. Over the years, the EBC has grown to become a 21-member fully professional ballet company that performs a wide range of classical and contemporary works with four-production resident seasons at the 2,500-seat Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene as well as annually touring throughout the region. Over the past two decades, the EBC has been continuously recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with Dance Company Grant awards and, in 1996, was the first Oregon dance company to be a recipient of the Governor’s Arts Award.
The EBC has presented over 100 different ballets, created and staged by award winning Artistic Director Toni Pimble and many of the country’s finest choreographers including Anna Marie Holmes, Bruce Marks, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Paul Vasterling, Robert Battle, Charles Bennett, Daniel Pelzig, Jill Eathorne Bahr, Dennis Spaight, Paul Vasterling, Eloy Barragan among others. From full length classical ballets (Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Cinderella) to contemporary works like Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s In A Word, Robert Battle’s Circle, Line Square and Jill Eathorne Bahr’s Captured Angel and family programs that include Bruce Steivel’s Peter Pan, Ken Kesey’s Little Tricker The Squirrel Meets Big Double The Bear and Daniel Pelzig’s Princess & The Pea, the Company has always sought to present a wide variety of programming for its audiences.
The Walla Walla Symphony, the oldest continuously operating symphony west of the Mississippi, has been under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Yaacov Bergman since 1987, and has performed in Cordiner Hall on the Whitman College campus since 1967. The Symphony is recognized for its adventurous programming, school programs, and tradition of performing original compositions. From October through June, the Walla Walla Symphony plays or sponsors concerts in a schedule that includes a mix of symphony concerts, chamber concerts, special concerts and a Discovery series exploring music traditions from around the world. For more information, visit the Symphony’s website at www.wwsymphony.org or call the symphony office at 509-529-8020.
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