We enjoyed a lovely performance of the Sleeping Beauty today at the California Theatre in San Jose by The New Ballet School. Having only taken my girls to the “My First ….” versions of previous performances by this ballet school, I was impressed that my girls were able to sit through a full-length performance this time. We all thoroughly enjoyed the performance, for it’s beautiful choreography, costumes, set, music and dance.
I did notice that the story was mostly completed within the first hour and the last hour seemed more of individual/couple dance performances. This leads me to believe that this full length performance is really just the My First version + extra dances as a full length production. This means that if you simply just go and see the My First version, you would not be missing out much of the story. So if you have young children, the My First versions of the performance should be more than pleasing enough for them and there’s no rush to push them to watch the full length performances until they demonstrate that they really wish to.
In the end, whichever version you do watch, I highly recommend the performances by the New Ballet School SJ. We have watched their Nutracker, Swan Lake and now Sleeping Beauty performances and have enjoyed them all.
We will be looking forward to the, recently announced, May 2019 Cinderella performance.
Tip: One nice thing about the California Theatre was they offered plastic boosters that fit on the theatre seats to help boost your child higher so they can see the stage. The black plastic boosters are found stacked right outside the doors that lead into the performance hall. Keep an eye out for those if you need.