National Ballet's 'Sleeping Beauty' to awaken in new home

For the inaugural season in its new home, the National Ballet of Canada will return to the production that helped make its name on the international dance stage.

Artistic director Karen Kain announced Monday morning that a refurbished production of Rudolf Nureyev's The Sleeping Beauty will officially open the upcoming "milestone" season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts this fall.

"The ballet was a turning point for the company when it premiered in 1972 and I am happy to be able to celebrate this landmark work as we open in our new home," Kain said in a statement announcing the 2006-07 season.

The production will undergo a $700,000 restoration of its costumes and scenery, Kain said, a freshening-up that will "mark a new era for the company" when it is staged in November.

After defecting from his native Russiain 1961, the famed Nureyev helped bolster the young Canadian troupe's growing international reputation when, in 1972, he staged his spectacular new versionof TheSleeping Beauty with the Toronto-basedcompany. Nureyev also helped promote the careers of former principal dancers Veronica Tennant, Frank Augustyn and Kain herself.

Aside from The Sleeping Beauty, the fall season will also include a mixed program featuring George Balanchine's Symphony in C and Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth, with acclaimed tenor Richard Margison and mezzo-soprano Susan Platts singing the Mahler composition.

To kick off its winter session, the company will host the International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize on March 3.

The competition, which the Danish-born Bruhn had intended as a way to encourage and recognize young dancers, features a pair of dancers from companies with which he was closely associated, including the Royal Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.

March 2007 will also see the return of John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew and a mixed program featuring Eliot Feld's A Footstep of Air, Glen Tetley's Voluntaries and Jerome Robbins's Opus 19/The Dreamer, which willbe accompanied by Canadian violinist James Ehnes.

The much-awaited Canadian performance of Don Quixote, as restaged by Balanchine's former muse Suzanne Farrell, will set off the spring season in June.

It will be followed by a mixed program of resident choreographer James Kudelka's beloved The Four Seasons, Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon and a new work from Matjash Mrozewski that will feature an original score by Canadian composer Alexina Louie.

The company's popularproduction of The Nutcracker will also return during the December 2006 holiday season, Kain said.

The Four Season Centre, also home to the Canadian Opera Company, officially opens its doors in June 2006. Members of the ballet will perform at a gala opening celebration on June 22.