Behind the scenes with the cast of the National Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty

Behind the scenes with the cast of the National Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty

(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)

In 1972, the sneering, stately Russian dance icon Rudolf Nureyev joined the National Ballet of Canada to stage a sumptuous new production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. For the title character—a deceptively strenuous role whose player usually wears through five pairs of slippers per night—he chose a gawky young ballerina: Karen Kain, who later became Canada’s most beloved ballet superstar and the company’s artistic director. Nearly half a century later, Kain has created a new generation of ballet superstars: she recently promoted 17 dancers to soloist and principal positions, and many of them are performing in a remount of Nureyev’s grand opus this week. Here, a look at the glittering new brigade of ballet talent, behind the scenes at a recent performance of The Sleeping Beauty.