ORDER OF PROGRAMME

The Sleeping Beauty

Music                                       P.I. Tchaikovsky

Choreography                          Marius Petipa

 Grand Pas de Deux

The pas de deux for Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund is the crowning moment of this great ballet and one of the supreme statements of ballet at its most sumptuous and classical.

CAST: Anya Carstens & Christian Tatchev

 Fairy of the Golden Vine

In the Prologue of this fairytale ballet the fairies have brought gifts to bestow upon the infant Princess Aurora at her Christening, among them the Fairy of the Songbirds and the Fairy of the Golden Vine.

CAST: Lauryn Summerley

 Fairy of the Songbirds

In the Prologue of this fairytale ballet the fairies have brought gifts to bestow upon the infant Princess Aurora at her Christening, among them the Fairy of the Songbirds and the Fairy of the Golden Vine.

CAST: Penelope Molfessis

 Gypsy Pas de Deux

La Traviata

Music                                       Giuseppe Verdi

Arranged by                             Allan Stephenson

Choreography                          Veronica Paeper

The tension of the drama in Act III is briefly broken by this Spanish flavoured pas de deux which is presented as an entertainment for the clientele of Madame Flora’s salon.

CAST: Karen Beukes & Iain MacDonald

 Cavalleria Rusticana Pas de Deux

Music                                       Pietro Mascagni

Choreography                          Fiona Budd

 The soaring melody of the intermezzo from Mascagni’s powerful opera provides the musical setting for this brief romantic pas de deux.

CAST: Anya Carstens & Admill Kuyler

Schläger (First Movement)

Music                                       DAF Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft

Choreography                          Ed Wubbe

 Schlager means to “hit out” and deals with a group of people who are anti-establishment but become “elitist” in their own way because of their fanaticism and exclusion of others from their closed-in group.  A central character – a doll – tries to be both individual and accepted, only to be rejected.  Ed Wubbe is a leading Dutch choreographer and director of the company Scapino Rotterdam

CAST: Lauryn Summerley, Angela Malan, Iain MacDonald, Monde Mashiqa

                                                            I N T E R V A L

Lakmé Pas de Deux

Music                                       Leo Delibes

Choreography                          Fiona Budd

 An exquisite duet from Delibes’ exotic opera, Lakmé, inspired this pas de deux.

CAST: Lauryn Summerley & Monde Mashiqa

La Traviata

Music                                       Giuseppe Verdi

Arranged by                             Allan Stephenson

Choreography                          Veronica Paeper

Act I pas de deux

Based on Dumas’s story of the lady of the camellias, later adapted by Verdi for his opera La Traviata, this ballet tells the story of a Parisian courtesan who in the midst of a frivolous life finds herself unexpectedly loved and in love.  But it is a love destined soon to shatter on the shoals of family honour and mortal illness.  In her ballet Veronica Paeper traces the course of the love between Camille and Armand through a series of pas de deux, from its awakening to Camille’s dying moments.

CAST: Angela Malan & Admill Kuyler; Karen Beukes & Iain MacDonald

La Traviata

Music                                       Giuseppe Verdi

Arranged by                             Allan Stephenson

Choreography                          Veronica Paeper

Act III pas de deux

Based on Dumas’s story of the lady of the camellias, later adapted by Verdi for his opera La Traviata, this ballet tells the story of a Parisian courtesan who in the midst of a frivolous life finds herself unexpectedly loved and in love.  But it is a love destined soon to shatter on the shoals of family honour and mortal illness.  In her ballet Veronica Paeper traces the course of the love between Camille and Armand through a series of pas de deux, from its awakening to Camille’s dying moments.

CAST: Angela Malan & Admill Kuyler; Karen Beukes & Iain MacDonald

Blue Bird & Princess Florine Pas de deux

Music                                       P.I. Tchaikovsky

Choreography                          Marius Petipa

Avian inspiration in ballet has produced flocks of dancing birds.  None are more spectacular than the Bluebirds in The Sleeping Beauty in a pas de deux that demands technical brilliance and fluency above all else.  The male character in particular has attracted many of the world’s leading dancers for over a century in a role that showcases so much that is breathtaking about ballet at its most dazzling.

CAST: Penelope Molfessis & Andries Weidemann

Total Eclipse of the Heart (from Rock-a-TuTu)

Music                                       Bonnie Tyler

Choreography                          Andries Weidemann

In a pas de deux from this deliciously tongue-in-cheek ballet – an entertaining blend of familiar fairytales and familiar pop songs – Shaggy the Wolf wins back the heart of his beloved Princess Rose.

CAST: Angela Malan & Christian Tatchev

Finale
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