When you perform the fairy section of "The Sleeping Beauty", what colours are your fairies? When I used to do the ballet at my old school, they were:

1. White
2. Dull yellow
3. White-pink (thats a VERY light pink, not white and pink)
4. Bright yellow
5. Orange
6. Purple
(That's in order of the variations)

The Australian ballet ones are:
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Orangey-browny
4. Yellow
5. Pink
6. Purple

I think they should be:
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Pink
4. Yellow
5. Red
6. Purple

If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

Also, in Act III there is a dance. It is sometimes a Pas de Quatre for four fairies (Gold, Silver, Diamond, Sapphire) and sometimes it is a Pas de Trois for Prince Florestan and his sisters (leaving out the music for the first variation). Which one do you usually do because I can't decide which one's better?

The Fairies of the Precious Stones and Metals pas de quatre is original. The Florestan pas de trois is an English invention (from the 1940's?).

Never made sense to me that Aurora's sisters and brother should be absent from her birthday festivities but present at her nuptials. I like the symbolism of the precious stones -- a rich future and/or the clarity of the Enlightenment. Of course, if you're staging SB in a different time frame, the Enlightenment allusion doesn't work. But then, there are so many suggestions of Enlightenment throughout the ballet that I think any choreographer who changes the time frame has no idea what s/he's doing.

Actually, the Florestan pas de trois is a Diaghilev production concoction by Bronislava Nijinska. Diaghilev didn't have a Swan Lake, so the initial similarities between the entree of the Florestan and the Act I Swan pas de trois wouldn't have seemed so jarringly similar.

I think Aurora is the first born and that's why she's so important and then her brother and sisters are younger than herself. Also, with the four fairies thing, are they all female fairies or are there two guys? If there aren't males then I don't like the similarity of that Pas de Quatre and the Pas de Six from the start.

The fairies are all female...I think the point is that they are supposed to be similar, but that they represent different ideas (material wealth as opposed to personality traits). There was harmony in the kingdom during the Prologue pas de six, and the reappearance of fairies in Act III signals that harmony has been restored.

1. Fairy of the Crystal Fountain should be a light blue.
2. Fairy of the Enchanted Garden should a vibrant green or a soft mixture of white and pink.
3. The Breadcrumb Fairy should be a light pink
4. Song Bird Fairy should be a bright yellow
5. Fairy of the Golden Vine should be, well, gold.
6. Lilac Fairy of course would be lilac.

Here's what's on in Paris Opera Ballet:

1. Green
2. Light pink
3. White
4. Bright yellow
5. Red
6. Blue

Very interesting what you said Carbro!

Ok i was researching sleeping beauty ans was curious if the fairies from the variations in act 1 correspond with the fairies in act 3, because when i saw it at the kennedy center abt listed them as the
lilac fairy
fairy of sincerity
fairy of fervor
fairy of charity
fairy of joy
fairy of valor

Katie

Actually, every dance company puts their own names and colors to their fairies.
My personal favorite would be the Sleeping Beauty Fairies by the Paris Opera Ballet...
Their fairie colors are :

*Pale Yellow
*Red
*Light Pink (there are two of these!)
*Pale Blue
*Pale Green
*White