Thank you.
They lived happily ever after, and that's the story of Sleeping Beauty.
Good night.
Sleeping Beauty is the story of a baby princess named Aurora.
The king and queen decide to hold a party for her christening and invite everyone in the kingdom, including all the fairies.
But they forget to invite one fairy called Karabos.
Karabos is very angry and casts a spell on the little princess, that although one day she will grow up to be very beautiful and very graceful, she will prick her finger and die.
The lilac fairy can't remove the spell, but she can change it. So she changes the spell so that the princess won't die when she pricks her finger, but will only fall asleep until a handsome prince wakes her with a kiss.
Which is just what happens.
Have you ever wanted to be a ballerina?
We thought you might have. Well today we're going to show you how. I'm going to teach you a children's version of the beginning of a very famous ballet called Sleeping Beauty.
But before you do anything, please make sure that you've got plenty of room. And if this means you have to move anything, make sure that an adult is going to be there to help you.
All dancers have to warm their bodies up before they do any dancing at all. So before we learn any solos or we rehearse, we're going to do a small warm up.
Just a few easy exercises to warm up our head and our feet, our legs and our arms. Let's start with our head.
Sit with your legs crossed, sit very straight and your head up. We're going to start by looking down and straight, up and straight. Look to the side, to the front, the other side and the front.
Keeping your shoulders down, your head go all the way round, one way and look up and all the way round and the other way. Repeat the same thing again.
Back and up, back and up, side and front, other side, front, all the way round, to the front, all the way round, the other way. Look up and finish. Good.
Okay, now that we've done that, we're going to start with our feet. Can you put your legs out to the front, sit very straight up on your backs, hands by your sides, head up.
It's like somebody's pulling you with a string right through the top of your head. Put your feet down to the floor and keep your legs straight.
We're going to start with one foot, it goes up and point and the other foot, up and point. Both feet together, up and slowly down, point, hold and once more, up and point, up and point.
Two feet and slowly down. Now, be very clever and turn your legs out, still pointing your feet and turn them in and out, in and out.
While they're turning out, can you flex them up and point them down again. One more time, in and out, in and out.
Lift one off, just one inch off the floor, put it down and the other one and put it down. Relax and shake your legs. Good.
Alright, now to warm up our arms, we're going to sit cross-legged again. Put your hands on your knees and sit up very straight.
We're going to start by putting our wrists together. It's like pretending you've got chewing gum on the palms of your hands and you're going to stick them together.
Because it's very sticky, it's very hard to pull it apart. Use all your fingers and again, very sticky and it has to come back.
This time a really big circle, watch your fingers and it comes in. One more time and up.
Look at your hands because they should be very pretty. Use every finger, all the way around and bring them in.
And now we're going to use our arms and we're going to push and push and reach right to your fingernails.
And then do the same thing side, side and side, right to the very end of your fingers. One more time, front, front.
Really push and side and side and side and hold and finish.
Okay, shake your arms if they're tired. Very good. Now we're going to stand up and do a little knee bend exercise which we call plies.
Can you turn your legs out in first position? Perhaps put your hands on your hips to make it a little bit easier.
Your heels should be close together and your knees turned out and you must make sure that when you bend your knees, they're right over your toes.
Not this way, right over your toes. We're going to do three little bends, down and up.
And again, down and up. Once more, down and up and stretch and wait.
And again, down and up, down and up, down and up and finish nicely.
Good. From that, I think we'll do a skip around the room. Be very careful if you're at home not to bang into any furniture.
So make sure it's all out of the way. I'm sure you can all skip.
You've got a little skirt. Hold that and we're going to go skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. One more time.
Good. The last thing we're going to do is a little jump. Just as we did our plies, we're going to start with a bend and then we're going to push off from the floor.
We'll have our hands on our hips, up into the air and land down into the plie. Can we do eight of those?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Good. I think now we're ready to do our rehearsal.
OK, now we're going to learn one of the solos from Sleeping Beauty and we're going to learn The Enchanted Garden. Are you ready?
Yes? So we're going to start off in the corner. We're going to walk on beautifully and over there we have to pretend as the queen and the baby.
So can you walk on very, very nicely and do a little curtsy. Just nod your head. OK?
And then you're going to point your foot, put your arms in third position and stand up very beautifully. Can you look like a ballerina? Lovely.
And we're going to start by going hop, step, together, hop, step, together and then four gallops. One, two, three, four. You got it?
If you got that, brilliant. OK, we just do that again.
OK, one more time and hop, step, together, hop, step, together, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop.
Now, where you've stopped, you're going to use your left foot and turn that way, doing exactly the same step. Point your left foot. OK?
You got that at home as well? Great. Hop, step, together, hop, step, together, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop.
Everybody OK? Are you OK as well? OK. Other foot in front. Four gallops. Still going round in your circle.
Gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop. Do you think you can get behind me so you can see?
From here, you're going to point your foot which is behind and do a spring point and then change, change again and again.
Everybody OK? Are you OK as well? OK, now we're going to do some skips.
Skip, skip, skip, skip. Just four. Step, step, up and down on your knees and smile at the audience.
Can you do that? Have you got it? Brilliant. OK, we're going to do it once at speed with the music.
Are you ready in the studio? Are you ready at home? Right. And...
All right, now we're going to learn the Woodland Glade Fairy which is a nice, simple solo with lots of walking steps.
Are you ready to learn it? Are you ready at home? OK, we're going to start with two little walks just the same as the last solo
and our curtsy to the Queen and the Baby. And we go with our right foot. One, two, three.
Here, this leg is bent, this leg is pointed. Can you have your arm over your head and could you look underneath it?
And again. One, two, three. This time, can you pretend you're looking at the baby?
And again. One, two, three. Underneath, Lucy. That's it. One, two, three. Look at the baby, Lana. That's right.
And one, two, three, four. That's a little spring point and we're travelling backwards. All right?
And the other foot. One, two, three, four. This time, very clever, only two. One, two. The other foot. One, two.
Extra clever. One on each leg. One, two, three, four. Can you be really, really clever and try and use your head over the legs that are pointing?
Do you think you can? OK. And then we're going to go forward. Can you jump onto this leg that's pointed? Point it harder.
Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump. Now tiny, weeny steps. Step, step, step, step, up and down.
All right? Have you got that? Have you all got that? Should we try it one more time? Let's go right to the back.
From the back again, we've done our curtsy. Let's pretend we've done that. And we go one, two, three, point.
Make sure you've got the right arm. Are you OK at home? Are you looking under your arm?
And the other way. One, two, three, there. And again. Two, three, there. Just tiny, weeny steps. One, two, three, underneath.
Now we're doing our spring points. And don't forget to travel backwards. All right? One, two, three, four. Change legs.
One, two, three, four. Change legs. One, two. And again. One, two, one, two, three, four. Now we're jumping forwards.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Little, little, little, up. And curtsy. Look at the baby when you finish.
That's very good. Good girls. All right. Now we're going to do it with the music and at full speed. Are you OK at home?
Are you all ready in the studio? Yes. All right. And.
The next thing that we're going to learn is the songbird fairy.
So we're going to have to use our hands and have very fluttery arms like feathers and wings. Can we do that?
We practice your fingers. OK, we start exactly the same as the other solos. We have to walk on.
We have to be very polite about the queen and the baby. And then we're going to run. Just practice a little run.
On your toes. You must be on your toes. OK, this is perhaps the easiest solo for you at home that haven't perhaps done too much ballet before.
OK, are we ready? We're going to do little runs forward and we're going to put our hands by our mouths.
It's like we're singing. Yes. All right. So we go.
And then we put our hands still fluttering behind our back like a little tail feather and we go backwards.
On your toes, Jennifer, on your toes. OK, now we're going to go forward.
Can you use your hands like wings? Can you flutter? And we go.
And this time we're going to go that way. Just little tiny steps.
Put your hands to your mouth and we're going to sing to the baby. On your toes, Rebecca.
That's it. Are you all right at home? Can you do that too?
Sing to the baby. Put your hands behind your back and go backwards. On your toes, tiptoes.
Good. And now once more, forwards, fluttering. Not too far, not too far.
OK, and then up and finish on your knees. Good girls.
Everybody got that? Everybody at home? Yes. Let's try one more time.
Quickly, girls.
One more time. How do we start? With our hands here.
So run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
Over your heads. Little tail feathers. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
Now we have our wings.
Now we're going to where? Right. OK, off we go.
Then what do we do? Sing to the baby.
Then our hands go over our heads and we go where? Backwards. OK, back, back, back, back, back.
And very last time. Forward, forward, forward, forward.
Up and finish. Are we all on the same leg? Morgan, other leg.
Good. All right, are we ready to do it with music and up to speed?
Are you ready at home? Let's have a go then. Wait, wait.
We're going to do our little walk, our little curtsy. Get your hands ready. Off you go.
Now we're going to learn the lilac fairy solo, which is perhaps the hardest solo we're going to do today.
So don't be too upset if you can't do it straight away. Are you all ready? Are you ready at home?
All right, let's start with just our walk on and our curtsy to the queen and the baby.
Then we go forward, back, side, soft arms and pointed feet, side, jump, jump, jump and through.
Everybody OK? Yes. Everyone OK at home?
From that position, we're going to do exactly the same thing, but travelling that way with the other foot.
Forward, back, side, side, up and up. And this is just a little bit different now.
We're going to do a run round. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run and stop in the middle. Ready to go.
Hop, chasse, back, side, front. Little step, up and down. Same thing the other way.
Hop, chasse, back, side, front. Little step, up and down. Everybody OK? Yes.
All right, we finish here. Pull up, look at the audience. A very regal walk.
Little bow to the queen. Have to be polite. Walk, walk, walk.
When you get to the middle, stand on your toes. Little chasse forward. You lift your arms up.
Look at them as they go all the way round. And we're going to do a little turn.
Turn Lucy, turn this way. That's a good girl. Everybody got that? Everyone at home?
OK, then we're going to take our arms down and we're going to go backwards and we're going to do a little blessing.
Nice, soft arms that are waving. And the other way. Bless the baby. Same thing going the other way.
Little walk forward. Step, step, jump over, up on your toes. Turn and finish.
OK, let's do the Lilac Fairy up to speed with the music. Everybody ready?
Right, little walk on. Courtsy and...
Alright, now we've learnt the solos. We're going to learn a bit of dancing with some mime. Who knows what mime is?
Anybody? It's how you speak on stage without talking. You use your whole body and you use your arms.
OK, to start with we're going to have a wicked fairy who's going to come on, who's going to be very nasty to the baby.
And all the other fairies are going to stand round the cot and look after her.
Alright, so shall we start from the beginning? Take Lana back here. She's going to be the wicked fairy.
And she's going to run on, very angry, very angry. And she's going to step to the side, step to the side.
And do a little jump all the way round here. Side, side, jump, round.
And then she jumps up and back, up and in, jump out and in, out and in.
And then she runs over to the cot and they're all looking very scared of you, aren't they?
And you say to them, you. You step back and you say, you point to your ears and you say, listen.
Then you go, to me. And then you say, speak.
And then you go back to the cot and you point to the baby and you go, she will grow.
And you go from little, bit bigger, bit bigger. And then she's going to prick her finger and die.
Which is horrible, but you think it's funny, so you laugh, ha ha ha.
So if you're at home being the wicked fairy, you've got to look wicked as well.
Okay, then the good fairy is going to come on and she's going to say, stop.
And the wicked fairy goes back and looks scared. Oh.
And then she goes forward and she bows. She's very polite, very polite.
Little steps forward and another bow.
And then she goes, I love, that's on your heart, the baby.
You want to kill, why? And Lana's getting very angry in the background.
And she goes, you, and that's to everybody. Listen, same thing as the bad fairy did.
To me, speak, that comes from your mouth.
Alright, and you go to the baby. She will prick her finger and die.
No.
And then you go back again and you say, she will prick her finger and she's going to go to sleep.
Then you go up to the corner and you say, from over here, we'll come.
Stand in the middle and you say, one, use one finger, one, handsome prince.
And that's your beard, so don't make it too long, it's like a little beard.
Who is going to kiss her and wake her up.
The bad fairy comes and she battles with the good fairy.
That's right, and then the good fairy says, go away.
And off she goes, all the way round.
And then the other fairies chase her off. Off you go.
That's it. And the good fairy joins in with them.
Good girls. Have you chosen the character you'd like to be?
Alright, now we're ready to do the whole thing with music.
Do you think you're ready? Are you ready Lana?
Okay, have you chosen which character you want to be?
Make sure you follow the character you think you want to be.
Ready? Let's go to the back here.
We'll do our run on.
While we're dancing I'm going to talk you through the moves one more time.
All of you, listen to me speak.
Ready? We'll prick her finger and die.
I love the baby.
You want to kill, but why?
All of you, listen to me speak.
The princess will prick her finger and die, no.
She will prick her finger and sleep.
And one day they will come one handsome prince who will kiss her and wake her up.
Now go.
Well done. You did really well at the rehearsals.
Now it's time for the stage.
So go and get into your costume if you haven't already got it on.
It's time for your big performance.
Where's the eyeliner?
Five minutes.
Where's the hairspray?
Oh no.
Where's the hairspray?
Thank you.