Creating Thumbelina
Creating a ballet is no small task. Thumbelina is the third ballet that I have built from nothing into something magical. I wanted to give you a little glimpse into what is involved in creating a ballet!
Step One: Choosing the Story
The number one thing I look for when choosing a story is the number of roles available. I like to give all of our dancers opportunities to shine, so I choose stories with large ensemble casts of characters. The second thing I look at is how recognizable the story is. Ballet is a performing art, and we need people to perform for! Audience are much more drawn to stories they already know and love.
Step Two: Break the Story Down
The next thing I do is read the source material. I base all of our ballets off of the short stories or books vs. the movies or shows. I’ll read through and choose which aspects and characters I want to include, and sometimes I even add my own. This step is very important because it’s when I create the scenes that will dictate how much music I’ll need.
Step Three: Find the Music
Some ballets come with music. And some do not. Thumbelina certainly did not. This step is both my favorite and my least favorite. There are a lot of rules around music use. So this step isn’t as simple as finding my favorite tunes. For Thumbelina it became even trickier because we needed to be able to broadcast this music as well. So after wading through all the rules and restrictions I found some wonderful music that is just perfect. There is a moment in the toad scene where the Fairy Prince dances and the music is just perfect. Which makes me happy after spending hours of listening to music, after finally finding music we could use!
Step Four: Choreography
My favorite part! It’s time to choreograph. I try really hard to get all choreography done ahead of time, because it can take a while. Sometimes the steps flow out of me pretty quickly, and sometimes they get stuck. I think of it like writing, but it has to be to the music. I’ve been choreographing for pretty much as long as I can remember, so this step is usually the easiest.
Step Five: Rehearsals
We usually spend 5-7 weeks working on our ballets. For Thumbelina we’ll have spent 7 weeks rehearsing and putting everything together. Everyone usually knows all the choreography within the first two weeks and the rest of the time we clean it up, perfect it, and put all the pieces together. Students ages range from 3 to 18. In Thumbelina our youngest dancers are little frogs!
Step Six: Costumes and Sets
A couple weeks into rehearsals I’ll start putting all the costumes together. One of my favorite things is unboxing new costumes. ( I get to do that this week!) All the dancers are measured and then we either order new costumes or borrow from our vast library of costumes. I really love acquiring new costumes to add to the library! Sets are something I think about during step one. For Thumbelina, due to performing during covid times, the set is very small and simple. For most productions we rent beautiful backdrops, but for Thumbelina our performance venue does not support a lavish set. Instead we have some extremely handy pipe and drape that is easy to transport and set up. The pipe and drape completely transforms our outdoor venue! We will also be performing Thumbelina at the Hylton Performing Arts Center (for broadcast) and while there we’ll rely on the amazing lighting design from Mr Ordway to help us tell the story.
Step Seven: Getting Everyone There
The final step is really the most consistent. Everything falls apart without proper planning and execution. Throughout the whole process it’s important to keep to a schedule. On the schedule is communicating with the cast through weekly emails and parent meetings, ordering costumes/sets/lights/etc, and marketing the show to the public. Among many other small and big tasks that make the show happen. Like organizing the crew and setting up videography/photography. There is definitely a lot to organize!
I hope you enjoyed this little peak into what it takes to create a ballet like Thumbelina. This ballet required even more planning than normal because of the current covid restrictions. The restrictions on class sizes meant that I had to create a few new characters. The performance will be outdoors at a beautiful amphitheater tucked into the forest. Everyone involved has been working hard and we would love to see you there!
Tickets are on sale now for Thumbelina! May 1st at Locust Shade Amphitheater. Tickets are $10.