Portland Ballet presents the quintessential classical story ballet – The Sleeping Beauty. This time-honored fairytale favorite will delight audiences young and old as they witness the enchanting Lilac Fairy save Princess Aurora and her kingdom from the wicked Carabosse. Based on Petipa’s enduring masterpiece, The Sleeping Beauty, restaged for two acts, will be a glorious culmination to Portland Ballet’s 44th season!
Portland Ballet presents the quintessential classical story ballet – The Sleeping Beauty. This time-honored fairytale favorite will delight audiences young and old as they witness the enchanting Lilac Fairy save Princess Aurora and her kingdom from the wicked Carabosse. Based on Petipa’s enduring masterpiece, The Sleeping Beauty, restaged for two acts, will be a glorious culmination to Portland Ballet’s 44th season!
A Victorian Nutcracker is a retelling of the classic story of a young girl’s Christmas Eve dream, brought on by a curious gift of a nutcracker, in which she travels to the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Land of the Sweets. This version is unique to Portland and its history, as the first act takes place in the Victoria Mansion with characters pulled directly from Portland’s past.
*When purchasing tickets please make sure you are selecting the venue as Westbrook Performing Arts Center*
A Victorian Nutcracker is a retelling of the classic story of a young girl’s Christmas Eve dream, brought on by a curious gift of a nutcracker, in which she travels to the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Land of the Sweets. This version is unique to Portland and its history, as the first act takes place in the Victoria Mansion with characters pulled directly from Portland’s past.
*When purchasing tickets please make sure you are selecting the venue as Westbrook Performing Arts Center*
A Victorian Nutcracker is a retelling of the classic story of a young girl’s Christmas Eve dream, brought on by a curious gift of a nutcracker, in which she travels to the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Land of the Sweets. This version is unique to Portland and its history, as the first act takes place in the Victoria Mansion with characters pulled directly from Portland’s past.
*When purchasing tickets please make sure you are selecting the venue as Westbrook Performing Arts Center*
Following the story of the classic fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty tells the chronicle of Princess Aurora and the unfortunate curse placed upon her by the evil Carabosse – in which pricking her finger on a spindle causes Aurora to fall into a hundred year’s sleep. With the help of good fairies and Prince Florimund, Aurora is awakened and her wedding to the young Prince is celebrated by all. This innovative program mixes dance performance, lecture, and demonstration to educate children and adults alike about everything that goes into a performing arts production. Presented by Artistic Director Nell Shipman and the dancers of the Portland School of Ballet, Building Ballets will walk the audience through the process of creating and performing a ballet. This show will feature an abridged version of The Sleeping Beauty and include a behind the scenes look at choreography, set design, lighting, and more!
RUN TIME: 60 minutes (no intermission)
This March, we will be bringing our audiences Portland School of Ballet’s version of the first act of the comedic story ballet Coppélia. This ballet tells the tale of the young couple Swanhilda and Franz and their trouble with the town’s eccentric toy maker, Dr. Coppélius, and is set to beautiful music by Leo Delibes. It gives us great joy to be able to not only share this ballet with our students, but also introduce them to the feeling of being a part of such an important and beautiful part of ballet and its history.
This innovative program mixes dance performance, lecture, and demonstration to educate children and adults alike about everything that goes into a performing arts production. Presented by Artistic Director Nell Shipman and the dancers of the Portland School of Ballet, Building Ballets will walk the audience through the process of creating and performing a ballet. This will include choreography, set design, lighting, and more!
La Esmerelda is based on the story more commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and is set to beautiful music by Cesare Pugni. It gives us great joy to not only share this ballet with our students, but also introduce our audience to all that it takes to bring a performance of live ballet to life.
This innovative program mixes dance performance, lecture, and demonstration to educate children and adults alike about everything that goes into a performing arts production. Presented by Artistic Director Nell Shipman and the dancers of the Portland School of Ballet, Building Ballets will walk the audience through the process of creating and performing a ballet. This will include choreography, set design, lighting, and more!
Portland Ballet opens its season on a haunting note with Tales by Poe, inspired by the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Previously created for the company in 2015, the production will be revived at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center.
Artistic Director Nell Shipman has transformed Poe’s Berenice, Tell Tale Heart, and Masque of the Red Death into ballets — Whether you know the original stories or not, this production will put you in the mood for the most haunting time of the year!
Highlights from Ballet’s Best! This spectacular end-of-season production will feature our favorite sections from Napoli, a vibrant ballet depicting Neapolitan street life, choreographed by Danish ballet master August Bournonville; the famous love story Romeo and Juliet; and Don Quixote, a ballet based on Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel, full of Spanish flavor and flair.