Ballet: Northern Ballet's "The Shoemaker & the Elves" Comes to Stirling (Scotland)

I honestly cannot remember seeing a 'real' ballet based on this fairy tale. Theater, yes, puppets, yes, some local ballet companies putting together a variety-type show for parents and sponsors, yes, but not a professional performance. So this is pretty cool.

 This ballet has been touring for about a year now and has gotten excellent reviews wherever they've gone. And now they're headed to Scotland.

Note: if you need to refresh your memory regarding the story, the always fantastic SurLaLune has an annotated version you can read HERE. Oh, and don't worry - there will be no naked elves in this production! (It appears they are leaf clad until they get their new outfits.)

Starting April 9th, Northern Ballet will bring a new ballet for children, "The Elves and the Shoemaker", based on the fairy tale of the same name, for a limited run to the macrobert arts centre in Stirling. Designed for children to be both 'real ballet', yet not needing any interpretation to  understand the story, the performance lasts about forty minutes and is the latest in an award winning children's arts series.

Choreographed by Ballet Master Daniel de Andrade, ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ is the latest in the award-winning series of Short Ballets for Small People which already includes the hugely popular ‘Ugly Duckling’ and ‘Three Little Pigs’. (source)

Here is a great little preview, including some behind-the-scenes. The music sounds delightful and the palette of what appears to be autumn colors is beautiful:

There is a delightful 'storybook' of the ballet, using photos (you can see an additional gallery HERE) from a special performance, that's worth taking a look at (I'm attempting to embed below) and there are additional resources for teachers and parents who want something to tie in to the ballet.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

If you're interested in going, here are the details:

‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ is at the macrobert arts centre on Thursday, April 9 at 12.15 p.m., 2 p.m. & 4 p.m. 

For tickets, priced £8.50, call the box office on 01786 466 666 or visit www.w.macrobert.org.

Note: All photos were taken by Brian Slater for Northern Ballet in a special performance.

Stories for the Season: The Elves & the Shoemaker

"The Elves and the Shoemaker"
Retold from The Brothers Grimm and Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

The story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" by the Grimm Brothers takes place around Christmas and used to be much more well known than it is now.

Here's the fairly straight retelling from Golden Books (plus an annoying cuckoo that kids seem to love), which includes at least some nods to the Christmas aspect:


I found a lovely trio of illustrations by Steve Morrison which succinctly tell the story in just three panels.You can see more of Mr. Morrison's lovely work HERE. (He's currently showing pen-and-ink style illustrations he's done of A Christmas Carol.)

Strangely, there don't seem to be a lot of similar tales across cultures but I wanted to point out that one of them "The Hand With the Knife" is now available to read online HERE. The similarity lies in the good hearted being helped by an elf but there's no thankfulness or Christmas in sight.

I also found a panel from an apparent book in progress and there's a familiar visitor to the Shoemaker's shop in this one...You can find more by artist Kasia Dudziuk (a.k.a. Kasiacreations on deviantArt) HERE. She's done illustrations for a number of other fairy tales too.

We also have The Muppets to thank for keeping fairy tales in the public consciousness. Muppet Classic Theater which is both out of print and has never been released on DVD (!) retells six fairy tales in true muppet style, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" being one of them. (The other five are: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas & the Golden Touch, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Three Little Pigs.)

The clip below starts from the beginning of this story rather than the beginning of the overall presentation so it appears as though you're starting in the middle of something, but you're not missing anything important from the tale.

Enjoy!

Kate Beaton's Comic Fairy Tale Endings

Here's some fresh fairy tale fracturing you may enjoy, newly created by popular comic artist Kate Beaton:Kate is a comic artist (and webcomic artist) from Nova Scotia who, using her Gaelic sense of humor, draws lots of historical cartoons and turns history "on its head" (read a great article about her work HERE). You can find out more about her at her Live Journal account HERE or at her website "Hark! A Vagrant" HERE.

Zelinsky's Rapunzel & Other Award Winning Fairy Tale Picture Books on DVD

In May this year, Scholastic released a lovely collection of beautifully illustrated fairy tales on DVD with a stellar cast of narrators to complement.

All of the books contained in the volume are illustrated by award winners.

Here are the descriptions from Amazon.com:

RAPUNZEL (Retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, narrated by TK) A unique retelling of the story of Rapunzel, the girl with the long, golden hair.THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER (Retold and illustrated by Jim LaMarche, narrated by Patrick Stewart) A pair of elves secretly create an amazing pair of shoes for a poor but kindly shoemaker.THE TALKING EGGS (Written by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, narrated by Danny Glover) When a young girl befriends a mysterious elderly woman, magical things happen.THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF (Retold by P. C. Asbjornsen and J. E. Moe, illustrated by Marcia Brown, narrated by TK) Follow the adventures of three billy goats named Gruff as they bravely hunt for fresh green grass to eat.LON PO PO: A RED RIDING HOOD STORY FROM CHINA (Written and illustrated by Ed Young, narrated by B. D. Wong) This Asian version of the classic fairytale brings lessons about strangers, trust and courage.PRINCESS FURBALL (Retold by Charlott Huck, illustrated by Anita Lobel, narrated by TK) A king falls in love with a princess after she hides her identity under a coat made of a thousand furs.This looks like a lovely collection. If anyone has seen the DVD please do let us know how the presentation comes across.

You can click HERE to see more details.