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2 Texas Ballet Theater (TBT) is delighted to offer Fort Worth ISD students the opportunity to watch professional ballet dancers in the unique setting of TBT s own West Fort Worth rehearsal studio. Each performance will run approximately 45 minutes. The dancers will appear in full costume and the students will be seated no more than 15 feet from the dancers This, truly, is an up-close experience. The performance will conclude with a brief Q&A session for the students to ask our dancers about their lives and training.

3 The Story of The Sleeping Beauty Ballet: The court of King Florestan is celebrating the christening of Princess Aurora. The king and queen enter, followed by six fairies and their cavaliers. Each fairy dances, offering a special gift to the infant princess. Suddenly, before the Lilac Fairy can present her gift, the wicked fairy Carabosse interrupts the ceremony. Angry because she has not been invited, Carabosse delivers a curse upon the tiny princess: she will grow up to be beautiful, but one day, will prick her finger and die. The Lilac Fairy intervenes, promising that the princess will sleep until wakened by a prince s kiss. At her 16 th birthday party, Carabosse is in disguise and hands Aurora a bouquet in which a spindle is concealed.

4 The Story of The Sleeping Beauty Ballet: Aurora pricks her finger, and as she falls asleep, the Lilac Fairy appears and casts her spell, putting the entire court to sleep. One hundred years have passed. Prince Florimund and his hunting party stop beside a lake. The Lilac Fairy appears and conjures a vision of Princess Aurora. Enchanted by the vision, Prince Florimund begs the Lilac Fairy to lead him to Aurora. A boat takes them to a castle, where they are confronted by Carabosse, who turns herself into a monster. With help from the Lilac Fairy, the prince overpowers Carabosse. Once inside the castle, Prince Florimund discovers the sleeping Aurora and awakens her with a kiss.

5 The Story of The Sleeping Beauty: ACT III - The act that students will see during their trip to TBT The court is celebrating the wedding of Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund. Characters from other fairy tales have joined the celebration. After Aurora and Florimund s grand pas de dux (dance), the occasion ends as the entire court joins in the finale.

6 The Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 and died in He was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber music, and a choral setting of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote many works that are popular with the classical music public, including his Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture, his three ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty) and Marche Slave. These, along with his First Piano Concerto and his Violin Concerto, the last three of his six numbered symphonies and his operas The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, are among his most familiar works. Listen to his music here:

7 The Choreography: Marius Petipa Choreography is a set of dance movements combined together to create a dance. The original choreography of The Sleeping Beauty was created by Marius Petipa. Petipa was born in France in 1822 he died in Russia in Petipa s father Jean Antoine Petipa was a dancer, choreographer and teacher who brought up both Marius and his elder brother, Lucien, to follow the same profession. Lucien made a better name for himself as a dancer but it was Marius who excelled at choreography. By the time of his retirement after 56 years with the same company in Russia he had choreographed approximately 50 ballets including: Don Quixote, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

8 The Ballet: Imagine what it would be like to watch a football game for the first time if you did not know a single thing about the game. Not only would you be confused, you probably would not enjoy it very much. The same is true of watching ballet. Ballet is a way of telling a story using music and movement instead of words. The language of ballet consists of patterns of movement that have developed over centuries. Ballet began as ballroom dancing in the courts of Italy and France about 450 years ago. It is based on a response that is natural to all human beings the desire to move our bodies when we hear music.

9 The Ballet: Like all sports and forms of dance, ballet includes movements we are familiar with - running, jumping, balancing and lifting - and uses them in a very particular and formalized way. Although there are hundreds of steps and positions in any single ballet performance, each of them begins and ends with one of the five basic positions of the feet. The five basic ballet positions are shown below: Practice the five basic ballet positions: om/watch?v=b3bawte PLtA

10 The Ballet: A technique characteristic of ballet is dancing en pointe. Dancing en pointe means dancing on the tips of the toes. The first ballerina to do this was the famous dancer Marie Taglioni in To dance en pointe, dancers wear special shoes made of fabric stiffened with glue. Most girls are about 12 years old before they have enough strength and training to begin dancing en pointe. Dancers who perform ballet on stage are highly trained. They often begin studying dance at the age of eight or nine, or even younger. While girls learn to dance en pointe, boys who study dance must be very strong in order to perform high jumps and turns and to lift their partner in the air. The training of male dancers includes weight lifting and other exercises to build upper body strength.

11 The Ballet: To pursue ballet as a career, a person must be talented and athletic, very hardworking and dedicated to the art. Like the many people who aren t professionals but playing football and other sports for fun, many people, children and adult, study ballet just for enjoyment. Taking ballet classes is an excellent way to gain physical fitness while developing grace, poise, and agility. Many football players and other pro athletes take ballet classes to improve their balance, rhythm, coordination and flexibility. Lynn Swann was a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers whose ballet training was well known throughout the league. His ballet training enabled him to defy gravity. Swann played in 4 Superbowls and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

12 Watching a Ballet Performance Please turn off all electronic devices. Photography and recording is not allowed. Please remain in your seat for the entire performance. If you need to leave you must be escorted by your chaperone. Food and beverages are not allowed in the studio. Normally when watching a ballet, audience members are encouraged to be very quiet. While we appreciate this, our dancers truly enjoy oohs & aahs and lots of clapping and cheering from students if they are seeing things that catch their attention. Texas Ballet Theater prides itself on training and educating the future generation. We are delighted students will be introduced to ballet and that they will get to see professional dancers in a close setting.

13 Academics & Ballet SCIENCE learning the parts of the body gravity/jumping physics of movement MATH counting steps counting music rhythms applying division and multiplication HISTORY background of ballet background of the Composer and the music

14 Academics & Ballet FOREIGN LANGUAGE French terminology of ballet ART Costumes Scenery Use of imagination MUSIC identifying different genres of music hearing diverse scores of music learning how to count music PHYSICAL EDUCATION physical ability/agility jumps, stretching strength training exercises

15 Where do Fairy Tales come from? We know that people have told stories for as long as they've had the voices to tell them. Fairy tales were originally part of the vast oral tradition of storytelling, which also encompasses myth, legend, and folklore. As such their history is difficult to pin down until they were captured on paper. Once a fairy tale is in print it becomes known as a literary fairy tale. Several of today s most popular fairy tales first came into print in Charles Perrault's Stories from Times Past, with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose in 1697, these stories included: 'Cinderella', 'The Sleeping Beauty' and 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

16 Fairy Tale Discussions: Fairy tales are focused around a problem that needs to be solved. Discuss what problem that needs to be solved in a fairy tale like The Sleeping Beauty? Why do fairy tales start with once upon a time and end with happily ever after? Stories have begun with the phrase once upon a time since at least 1380, this phrase has been consistently used since What makes this phrase and it s ending counterpart happily ever after so timeless?

17 Fairy Tale Project: As the class reads or invents a fairy tale break down the elements in a fairy tale. The elements below help weave the story in to life! Fairy Tale Elements: Characters: (i.e. red ridding hood, wolf, grandma) Setting: (i.e. the woods, grandma s house) Problem: (i.e. knowing who to trust, being alone) Solution: Words/Phrases: What We Learned:

18 Acting & Sleeping Beauty: Students and teachers can read aloud the script of Sleeping Beauty linked below. While the scrip is being read students can role play and act out the scenes. This is a great way to really get to know the story. Link to example: Adaptation Suggestion: There are so many versions of 'Cinderella' from different cultures. In the project Around the World With Cinderella,' students make passports and read versions of 'Cinderella' from several continents. They compare and contrast stories and then they can write their own. Try this with Sleeping Beauty!

19 The Sleeping Pig Adaptations: This first grade Performing Arts and Reading integration lesson was designed using the The Sleeping Pig. This culminating activity allows the students to perform a play based on the story. In performing the roles of the characters in the story, the students will become familiar with the characters, the plot and the setting. Link to full lesson: Use story props for The Sleeping Pig. Have the characters colored, laminated, and glued to craft sticks. You can even made a quick watermelon patch background. The class can then complete a story structure tree map and discuss the difference between a summary and retelling. Pick a narrator to retell the story while a few students re-enact the action. Link to the full lesson:

20 Bilingual Classroom Book: Sleeping Beauty/La Bella Durmiente Retold by: Carol Ottolenghi Illustrated by: Joshua James Beautifully illustrated, this classic tale retold in English and Spanish will capture children s interest and spark their imaginations. Reading the story in both English and Spanish will encourage vocabulary development and will foster a love of reading in any language that is vital to success in school and in life. Each classroom attending TBT s The Sleeping Beauty will receive a copy of this bilingual book!

21 $25,000+ $10,000-$24,999 Sid W. Richardson Foundation Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County Rosenthal Foundation Community Foundation of North Texas William E. Scott Foundation Ellison & Edward Lasater Trust Texas Commission for the Arts Texas Education Agency $500 - $9,999 Armstrong Foundation Arts Council of Northeast Tarrant County Bates Container BBVA Compass Foundation Jill Black Colonial Country Club Charity Communities Foundation of Texas Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau Frost Bank Mary Potishman Lard Trust Jack Larson Mollie & Garland Lasater Trust Rozell Sprayer Manufacturing Ryan Foundation Sertoma Club of Downtown Fort Worth Joe P. Strain Target Foundation Texas Association of Parents & Educators of the Deaf Virginia Street Smith Trust Wells Fargo Foundation

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