Arkansas Festival Ballet artistic director Rebecca Miller Stalcup says she and her dancers are excited beyond measure to get back onto a stage for their first full-length production in two years.
"Princess and the Frog" is set to take the stage at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center at Maumelle High School.
"This is our first storybook ballet since 'Sleeping Beauty' in 2019," Stalcup says.
"This show is taking the stage," she adds firmly. "If we have to go to Plan B — well, Plan B is still formulating."
That could include recording a performance and making it available digitally. "It's not by any means the way we want to present this art form," she adds, but that's what the young Festival Ballet dancers did after a performance of portions of Peter Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" with the South Arkansas Symphony in El Dorado in 2020 were canceled a week before the concert because of the pandemic.
"It's all a challenge," she adds.
Keira Eady dances the lead role of Tiana in Arkansas Festival Ballet’s “Princess and the Frog.” (Special to the Democrat-Gazette) Stalcup has used music by Florence Price and William Grant Still to create the ballet, which she has based on the folktale "The Frog Prince," the novel "The Frog Princess" by E.D. Baker and the 2009 Disney animated film "The Princess and the Frog."
A hard-working New Orleans waitress finds her dreams of opening her own restaurant take a detour when, having reluctantly kissed an enchanted frog in attempt to make him human (and a prince) again, a sinister witch doctor's spell turns her into a frog herself.
Keira Eady dances the role of Tiana, with Brian Earles as Shadow Man, Anthony Bryant as Prince Naveen, Mark Hansen as Big Daddy, Anya Ratycz as Bo Peep and Voodoo Trois and Lizzie Clark as Grenouille de Quatre. The 40-person cast also includes guest performers, company dancers "and talents who were selected through the audition process," according to a news release.
Stalcup admits to hewing a little more closely to the animated film, including the names of the characters and the setting for the ballet, than she has with her past storybook ballets, even those based on other tales that Disney has transformed, such as "Pinocchio" and "Aladdin."
Among other things, it allowed her to put the ballet together in a very short period of time.
Sarah Tarawally dances the role of Mama Odie. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette) "I got a very late start," she says. "I've never pulled anything together so quickly."
Among her difficulties was finding a venue. The company had been putting on its spring performances at what was then the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, but that's still under reconstruction as the Arts Center transitions to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
The Maumelle center turned out to be a good fit, and had hosted ballets before — Ballet Arkansas, for example, staged two annual "Nutcrackers" there while Robinson Center was also being rebuilt.
Costumer Anthony McBride got a head start for "fast ideas" by referencing images from the movie, Stalcup says. "He could look at Big Daddy, for example, and build from that."
And going with the Disney storyline allowed Stalcup to better direct her creativity toward the choreography.
Lizzie Clark dances the role of Grenouille de Quatre. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette) "You bet," she says, "and the choreography was so fun to set to Price and Still's music!" She principally drew from three of Price's symphonies and her "Piano Concerto in One Movement" and she turned to more sensual music by Still for a scene that was "a little more dreamy and thoughtful."
The ballet is tightly constructed into 45 minutes with no intermission, which has made the tight timeline more do-able.
And Stalcup says this particular ballet allows her company to celebrate its diversity.
"We don't always get diverse talents who love classical ballet," she explains. "This is a chance to showcase and highlight what we have to offer."
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None‘Princess and the Frog’
- What: Arkansas Festival Ballet performs a storybook ballet set to music by Florence Price and William Grant Still, based on the folktale “The Frog Prince,” the novel, “The Frog Princess” by E.D. Baker and the 2009 Disney animated film “The Princess and the Frog”
- Where: Maumelle Performing Arts Center, Maumelle High School, 100 Victory Lane, Maumelle
- When: 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
- Tickets: $35, $25 for children.
- Information: (501) 786-0784; ArkansasFestivalBallet.org