STAGE TUBE: Matthew Bourne Talks Re-Imagining SLEEPING BEAUTY, Now Playing the Ahmanson

Tony Award-winning choreographer/director Matthew Bourne, along with his company New Adventures, returns to the Ahmanson Theatre with a timeless tale for all ages, "Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty," A Gothic Romance. Presented by Center Theatre Group and Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, "Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty" opened on November 21, 2013, and will run for two weeks only through December 1. In the video, Bourne talks about re-imaging the classic fairytale. watch!

In "Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty," the traditional tale of good vs. evil, and of rebirth, is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story across the decades. Perrault's fairy tale about a young girl cursed to sleep for 100 years was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa in 1890. Bourne takes this date as his starting point, setting the christening of Aurora, the story's heroine, in the year of the ballet's first performance at the height of the fin de siècle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. Aurora grows into a young woman in the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era, a mythicAl Golden age of long summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day, a world more mysterious and wonderful than any fairy story.

"Sleeping Beauty" is recommended for ages 10 and up, and tickets are available by calling (213) 972-4400, visiting online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, or in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Ahmanson Theatre. Tickets range from $20 - $110 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Ahmanson Theatre is located at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012.

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