December 17, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB dance professor Frank W.D. Ries delivers lecture, “Awakening the Princess: The History of The Sleeping Beauty”
Summary Facts:
- Frank W.D. Ries
- Professor of Dance and Dramatic Art
- “Awakening the Princess: The History of The Sleeping Beauty”
- Slide and video lecture/demonstration
- An entertaining preparation for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s performance of Petipa’s masterwork The Sleeping Beauty
- Explains why this work is considered the crown jewel of Russian ballet
- Saturday, January 25
- 3 pm / Mary Craig Auditorium, SB Museum of Art, 1130 State Street
- Free event
- For information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
UCSB faculty member and dance historian Frank W.D. Ries prepares us for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s performance of The Sleeping Beauty with an entertaining and informative lecture on Saturday, January 25 at 3 pm at the SB Museum of Art, 1130 State Street, Santa Barbara. This free event (suitable for adults to 12 year-olds), featuring slides, video and a rare presentation of mime scenes that have not been performed as part of The Sleeping Beauty since 1890, will establish why this work is considered the crown jewel of Russian ballet. Many dancers have a strong affinity for The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa to music by Tchaikovsky: it was the first ballet that Anna Pavlova saw and George Ballanchine made his first stage appearance in The Sleeping Beauty as a child performer in the role of Cupid.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, an ArtAbounds performance co-presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero in association with the State Street Ballet, will be on Wednesday, February 5 at 7 pm in the Arlington Theatre. The Vancouver Sun has hailed Royal Winnipeg’s performance as “a jewel box of sumptuous dancing.” Tickets are $45, 35 for the general public and $25 for UCSB students, in limited availability. $100 patron seating includes a private post-concert reception with the artists. Tickets for the ballet are available at UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and the Arlington Ticket Agency and may be ordered by calling (805) 893-3535 or (805) 963-4408.
The Saturday, January 25 talk, “Awakening the Princess: The History of The Sleeping Beauty,” will focus on the full history of the ballet, including its predecessor works and the Charles Perrault fairy tale source material. Ries will explain how The Sleeping Beauty inspired many of the collaborators of the great impresario Serge Diaghilev to create a new and exciting age of ballet ushered in by the Ballets Russes. This fascinating lecture will feature costume changes and rare dance memorabilia from Frank Ries’s private collection.
Frank Ries has served as Chair of the Department of Dramatic Art and Director of the Dance Division at UCSB. His course “History and Appreciation of Dance” is one of the most popular and well-attended classes at UCSB. Ries studied dance under Marina Svetlova, Sir Anton Dolin, John Kriza and Maryon Lane of the Royal Ballet. He has performed in the U.S. and Europe and has choreographed musicals, revues, and operas. His degrees include B.A. and M.A. Honours degrees from Cambridge University, England and a M.S. in ballet and Ph.D. in theatre from Indiana University.
Ries has published in Dance Magazine, Dance Scope, Ballet Review and Dance Chronicle. His book, The Dance Theatre of Jean Cocteau, was published by UMI Press. His reconstruction of the Costeau/Nijinska ballet Le Train Bleu for the Oakland Ballet made the front cover of Dance Magazine, was praised by The New York Times for “shrewd sophistication,” and was named “The Best Ballet of 1989” by The San Francisco Chronicle. He serves as a member of the faculty of the UC Intercampus M.A. in Dance History.
“Awakening the Princess” is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the SB Museum of Art.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.