PRESS COVERAGE

'Beauty' and the Barre
By Karen Lindell

     They're sleeping beautifully. But the tutus, a delicate flurry of tulle and organza in suspended animation on hangers, won't rise for the occasion until the prince says so.
     The occasion is the Ventura County Ballet Company's production of "Sleeping Beauty" this weekend at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center.
     The tutus, hanging in Ballet Academy Ventura's costume room, will be worn by 100 students from the dance school.
     And the prince is Bretislav "Brett" Weidlich, the company's artistic director, who is both directing the show and dancing the royal role in "Sleeping Beauty."
     During an interview, he hardly looked the part of a prince, wearing white socks, a T-shirt and sweat pants while sitting cross-legged on a chair in the costume room.
     But clothes, the saying goes, don't make the man -- and costumes, Weidlich believes, don't make the ballet dancer.
     "Parents sometimes just want to see their children on stage in a tutu and crown," he said. "But the costume is a shell, like a makeover at the mall. Beauty is within. In dance, you have to find the drive within and understand what the dance is
about."
     So the costumes wait for their night in the spotlight. Meanwhile, behind the scenes under fluorescent lights in an upstairs practice room, a ballet class of girls and boys learn from Weidlich what dancing is all about: "Preparation," he said before
each exercise, a cue for the students to get into position.

Practice makes perfect

     And it's the students' hard work and preparation that make the beautiful costumes worthy of all their sequined glory.
     Clad in plain white tights and leotards, the students patiently went again and again through exercises as Weidlich, 32, danced around the room, gently admonishing students to straighten their backs and tilt their chins, often stopping to help position a wobbly leg or sagging arm.

     Weidlich, said Kathy Noblin, VCBC's executive director, "is incredibly patient and has the ability to get down to the
children's level without demeaning them. He challenges and pushes them without being cruel."
     Student Kristin Rice, 15, who dances several roles in "Sleeping Beauty," agreed. "Brett makes it a lot of hard work, but fun
at the same time," she said.
     Weidlich's own training was more intense than what students at most U.S. ballet schools are exposed do.

               

Born in the Czech Republic, he started dancing at age 9 and lived away from his family while attending the National Ballet
School.
     After graduating, he won a five-year scholarship to attend the Conservatoire of Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia, graduating with
master's degrees in education and choreography.
     After stints with the National Ballet Theatres of Prague and Mexico City, Weidlich moved to the United States to teach at the
Ballet Arts School of Dance in Westlake Village and Ballet Academy Ventura.
     "I am a person of challenge," said Weidlich, explaining his decision to stage the ambitious "Sleeping Beauty" for VCBC's
spring production.
     "'Sleeping Beauty' is one of the most challenging ballets," he said. "My mission is to keep it as close as possible to the
original."
     Noblin said "Sleeping Beauty" will be the largest production the company has ever done.
     "It's even more lavish than 'The Nutcracker,'" she said.

               

      The cast of 100 features Ballet Academy Ventura students as young as 6, including about 10 boys. Guest artists are Helena
Pokornoy, a former principal dancer with the Prague National Ballet Theater and a teacher at the school; Sergei Domrachev of
the Moscow Classical Ballet; and Micah Kurtzberg of Santa Barbara's State Street Ballet.
     Ballet companies often do a shortened version or excerpts from

"Sleeping Beauty," but the VCBC production is a full-length
version of the classic ballet.
     A rehearsal schedule for various scenes, posted on the walls of the academy, indicates the scope of the production.
     In one scene alone, the characters on stage will include pages, flower girls, a king and queen, court ladies, lilac fairies, gem fairies, cats and kittens, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, bunnies, the princess, a blue bird and Tom Thumb AND his friends.

A challenge for dancers

     The original ballet, adapted from Charles Perrault's classic version of the fairy tale, was choreographed by Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of Russia, with a score by Tchaikovsky. It was first performed in 1890 in St. Petersburg.
          Russian ballets at the time were lavish productions with much pageantry, but few companies have the resources today to re-create the Petipa version completely.     
     The choreography is challenging for the principals and soloists as well as the other dancers, said Weidlich, who tried to keep about 90 percent of the original choreography for the upcoming production.
     The ballet includes a prologue and three acts, starting with baby Aurora's christening, and the visit from a nasty fairy who says the princess will prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday. Aurora then has an unfortunate encounter with a needle, awakening from a long snooze 100 years later when Prince Florimund breaks the spell. The ballet ends, happily ever after, with a wedding.
     "When people think about 'Sleeping Beauty,' they think of Disney," Weidlich said. "Disney made a simple movie for children.
     The real philosophy and meaning of the story are in the ballet choreography and music."
     Kids raised on Disney and "Cinderella" stories might not get too philosophical about the tale, especially ballet dancers with
dreams of organza and satin fairy wings.
When Weidlich's ballet class took a break, a few girls went over to read a list of what color leotards or other garments
they'd need to wear with their "Sleeping Beauty" costumes. But most practiced twirling or leaned on the barre to rest.
     They then went back to work.
     "Preparation," Weidlich said. And the dancers awoke.

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