The Sleeping Beauty

It was my first full-length ballet and it's so hard that I thought, if I'm not good, I've ruined the whole evening. It's a lot of pressure, this one. It's just, it's all about Aurora. I think whenever you find out that you're doing a role like Aurora, it's kind of bittersweet, like you're very excited, but you know how challenging the role is, so you know how much work is up before you're going to perform it. Of course, you see someone do it before we ever started learning it, and you're like, oh wow, that would be so much fun, and then you actually start rehearsing it, and it's so much harder than it looks. Well, I think with full-lengths, you typically rehearse every day. You don't have to do the whole ballet every day, but if you want to work on the pas de deux every day with your partner or go through a variation or something, but at least do something from the ballet every day, just to kind of prepare yourself. You want to feel prepared when you get out on stage. Sometimes you need to figure out things with your partner that somebody else, you know, they can see, but you can't really tell them how it feels, you know, and that's why it's a little easier sometimes if it's just you guys trying to figure it out together. We enjoy rehearsing together, and it's a good experience. Sean Lavery, who's teaching us the ballet, he gives us our artistic freedom. He tells us, you know, what the step is, and some people chose to do an arm this way, and some people chose to do it another way, but, you know, he said, we'll work on it, and we'll figure out what works for you. Even in the same rehearsal with the two of us, he'll say, well, why don't Katie, you do this, and Tyler, that might look better on you. So it's definitely an individual thing, even though we're learning all the same steps. The first act variation, which is very long, at the end you do 15 coupes jetés in a circle, and then some more turns, piqués turns, soutenus, and then fast chaînés turns, and by the time you get finished with that, you can't see. So it's more of a... And you have to end with a double step-up, so that's a very tricky moment. That's a tricky moment. You're pretty dizzy, and I guess the end of any variation is very important, so that's not something you want to mess up. Yeah, exactly. There's the famous balances. You're pretty much on the same leg for a lot of the ballet. You know, you do the balances and attitude on the right leg in the Rosadagio, and then you do the same thing in the Wedding Pas de Deux. In the Wedding Pas de Deux, you're on the same leg. So after rehearsing it for a while, that leg gets either really strong or really tired. The second performance felt comfortable. I felt like I could be Aurora after that first one was under my belt, that I could actually be the character and not, you know, be silently freaking out in my head. I think now the older I get, I start to identify more with the character as she gets older. I didn't identify at all with the third act when I first did it. I was totally 16-year-old first act Aurora. It feels harder for me this time to be that young again. It's interesting to also see the 6 different people doing it, so many different interpretations. I was going to say, they're all very different. Wendy has a much different approach to it as Ashley does, and neither one is right or wrong. It's just how they personally danced it. I think that's something you have to do on your own. He can't tell you, you're supposed to act this way. I think it's kind of something you have to figure out. The music's great. The choreography is great. You know, the costumes. Three of the most beautiful tutus ever. Yeah, but it is very technically demanding. You start doubting yourself a little bit. Am I going to be able to do this? It's a lot of fun when you're out there. It's just you have to get over that hump of how hard it is and how much. I think for them, I would tell them to just try to take it easy, breathe, and have fun with the steps. I'm very excited to do it. We're both very excited. I think we'll be nervous really close to the time we do it, but then once we get on stage, I think all the nerves will go away. I think I'll definitely be nervous, but I'm very excited at the same time. Total dream come true.