BWW Dance Review: Ballez's SLEEPING BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at La MaMa Moves!

Another Sleeping Beauty?

By my count, I've seen at least 250 productions in my lifetime, the last one in Australia. This, however, did not prepare me for Ballez's "Sleeping Beauty & The Beast," presented on Sunday, May 1st 2016, as part of the La Mama Moves! Festival. While this was meant to put a new spin on an old tale by gender bending mythical roles in the ballet canon, I have to admit that by the end I was neither surprised nor shocked into that feeling of astonishment when you witness something completely out of the ordinary.

The production-conceived, produced and directed by Katy Pyle; choreographed by Katy Pyle, with Jules Skloot and the Ballez Company (Where's Marius Petipa?) takes the old chestnut and reimagines it in 21st century queer culture terms. I would prefer to say gay, but that's what the program says, so who am I to argue?

The prologue is now set in 1877 on the Lower East Side for the christening (I think they should have made it a synagogue or a tenement) of the new baby, Aurora, who is blessed by three male fairies and then cursed by Carabosse, who tells the invited guests that Aurora will "realize she's a dyke on her 16th birthday." And so it comes to be, but not before the Queer Urban Orchestra has all but destroyed the Tchaikovsky arrangement, with a piano so squeaky that it made me cringe each time I heard it. And I should know because I was sitting right next to it.

Once Aurora has pricked her finger (I thought more would be made of this, but mercifully not), it was intermission time, so off we went to a different theatre downstairs for Act Two, which takes place in a 1993 lesbian bar. There Aurora encounters the beast, the fairy tale characters we all love in Act Three of "Sleeping Beauty,"--at least that's what the program says, because I never would have figured out Puss-in-Boots and Red Riding Hood--as well as various dying swans, invoking the ravages of AIDS and the countless men whose lives were taken, danced to the repeated strains of the Saint-Saëns "Dying Swan." That's when the rock music wasn't blasting.

It's this very reason that makes this "Sleeping Beauty & The Beast" so insipid. Yes, there's a beast in Act Two, but I had trouble following the story. (I think you would have had the same problem, even with the program notes, which are hilarious to read, if not always to understand). For parody to be effective, you have to know and understand not only the steps, but the culture that inspired them, not only in your head, but your feet as well. "Sleeping Beauty" holds a sacred place in almost all balletgoers' hearts as the perfect fusion of music, mime, dance, and décor. If you're going to really lambast it, get dancers who can do it justice. Take for example the finger variation, which always explodes with the twists and hand pointing of a ballerina. Performed by a man with no technique to speak of, hands flailing, it is not only outlandish, but stupid as well.

There are some ballets that could benefit from pokes and swipes. I'm sure the creators of this production saw it as a perfect choice for a good ribbing, while exploring its mythology from the 19th century to the present, in light of what gay culture has achieved in 2016. But "Sleeping Beauty," minus the technique, poise and charisma of star dancers, does not hold up in this context, at least for me. And I love queer/gay culture but in the proper framework. This was not one of them.

I would like to see the company again in a more satisfying, lampooning production. There is much to be mined in the dance world as we move ahead with new choreographers, new partnering, and a total overhaul of our thinking as to where men and women belong in our 21st century mindset. Matthew Bourne was able to interject an original retake of the tale, but he had more accomplished dancers as well as a fertile brain at his disposal.

If you presented this in your basement or living room we would all laugh. In the theatre, it's not a joking matter.

Photograph: Theo Cote

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