With spring approaching, Les Petits Ballets' performing company would typically be busy getting ready to perform a new production at Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe in May, as was the case for decades. While still in the midst of the pandemic, we have shifted our goals to work towards a production of a smaller scale. The senior half of the school have begun work on a new production of Peter and the Wolf choreographed by Lacey Smith, with music by Sergei Prokofiev. The story portrays a young boy named Peter who disobeys his grandfather and climbs over the garden wall. Over the wall, he encounters a wolf and with some quick thinking and the help of his friends – bird, duck and cat – Peter captures the wolf and it is taken to the zoo.
The story of Peter and the Wolf is a composition for orchestra and narrator aimed at children. It premiered in 1936 in Moscow, Russia. Prokofiev intended the narrator to tell the story with the music serving as the 'illustrations'. Each character was assigned a different instrument or group of instruments to help children visualize the story and learn to identify various parts of the orchestra:
Bird - flute
Cat - clarinet
Duck - oboe
Grandfather - bassoon
Wolf - horns
Hunters - percussion
Peter - strings
This composition proved extremely popular and was adapted into a short animated film by Disney in 1946 as well as being adapted for various ballet productions. Les Petits Ballets' production will use Prokofiev's beautiful music and use dance to further illustrate the classic Russian story. We are excited to bring this story to life and with some luck it will be the first time our dancers have performed in over a year!
