For the first time in the studio’s history, the Centralia Ballet Academy will perform a full-length version of “The Sleeping Beauty” ballet at Centralia College’s Corbet Theater.
Performances are at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.
Composed by Pytor Illyich Tchiakovsky, who also composed famous ballets “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty” is based on the Brothers Grimm version of the classic fairy tale and incorporates a wide variety of fairy tale characters.
“Over the years, we’ve been doing ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in bits and pieces … but this year is the first time we are doing the whole thing,” said Centralia Ballet Academy co-owner Mickey Gunter.
Centralia Ballet Academy first tackled the third act of “The Sleeping Beauty” as a snippet called “Aurora’s Wedding Tea” in May 2021. The one-time performance was the first time Centralia Ballet Academy dancers performed live since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Centralia Ballet Academy presented a one-act, narrated version of “The Sleeping Beauty” in June 2024, and is now ready to tackle the full ballet.
“This is the epitome of classical ballet. It’s always been one of my favorites,” said Centralia Ballet Academy co-owner and “The Sleeping Beauty” choreographer Nancy Gunter.
“The Sleeping Beauty” features 60 dancers and 16 handmade pancake tutus, each of which took costumer Emily Smith about 100 hours of work to make.
“Fifteen were made last year, and then there’s a new one,” Smith said.
While the Centralia Ballet Academy is presenting its “The Sleeping Beauty” as the full ballet, like most companies that perform Tchiakovsky’s masterpiece, it is abridging the ballet from a run time of over four hours to roughly two hours.
“Tchiakovsky actually wrote in his notes when he was writing the music, ‘Too long,’” Nancy Gunter said. “There’s over four hours of music. Everyone makes cuts somewhere, and we have definitely made cuts, but it’s a lot, and it’s a major challenge, but it’s really fun to rise to the challenge.”
“The Sleeping Beauty” is Centralia Ballet Academy’s last ballet of the season, and the last opportunity for seniors to perform in a full production before they graduate and move on to their next endeavors.
“Our last bow is going to be sad and very fast,” said McKenna Bryan, who is dancing the Lilac Fairy.
Bryan started ballet when she was in elementary school and previously danced Aurora in the 2024 Sleeping Beauty and danced The Sugar Plum Fairy in the 2024 “Nutcracker.”
“My parents asked me when I was in elementary school, and they said ‘Do you want to do ballet?’ And I said ‘Sure,’ and 13 years later, here we are,” Bryan said.
Bryan’s longtime friend, Tess McMurry, who is dancing Aurora and one of the Jewel Fairies, had a similar start to ballet, joining the Centralia Ballet Academy when she was 8 years old after her dad saw a flier for a free ballet class.
“He asked me if I wanted to do it and I was like ‘No, I wouldn’t even like ballet, why would you ask me that?’” McMurry said. “And so, I showed up, and I was like, ‘We have to come back.’”
Bryan and McMurry will be going to the same college, but their dance journeys will end with their departure from Centralia Ballet Academy.
“I just feel devastated about it. It was a huge chunk of our lives,” McMurry said.
“You and I, we’ve spent, like, almost every day together since middle school,” Bryan said to McMurry.
“We’re a little bit emotionally attached,” McMurry said.
Fellow senior Nickodaemos Raynolds, who is dancing Catalabutte and one of the suitors, started “way later than everyone else” at age 11, he said.
At that point, I’d been asking to do dance, but it never really came up because the dance studio my cousins went to wasn’t quite guy-friendly,” he said.
Raynolds joined Centralia Ballet Academy after his uncle met Mickey Gunter and talked to him about the studio, he said.
The dancers will be available for photos and to talk with audience members after performances of “The Sleeping Beauty.”
Attendees, especially kids, are encouraged to dress up as fairy tale characters when they come to see the ballet.
“We want to make this an immersive type of an experience,” Mickey Gunter said.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit http://www.centraliaballet.com/the-sleeping-beauty.html
Transition to a nonprofit
In an effort to preserve Centralia Ballet Academy’s mission of educational community outreach after they potentially retire in a few years, Mickey and Nancy Gunter are working to transition the studio from a business to a nonprofit with its next season in the fall.
“My wife and I have been running the studio for like 16 years. We’re not planning on doing it forever,” Mickey Gunter said. “And so when the time comes, we’d rather (have) like a new artistic director come in and keep the mission going, rather than try to find someone to sell a business to.”
The Gunters don’t anticipate that the transition from a business to a nonprofit will affect Centralia Ballet Academy’s regular operations, aside from allowing the studio to expand its community outreach events.
Centralia Ballet Academy is also planning to make its model open-source for other ballet studios who are looking to do similar programs.
“We’re not going to try and sell you a system,” Mickey Gunter said, adding that the goal of making information about its model publicly accessible is to tell other studios “here’s what we did, go and make it do better than us.”
In addition to its spring ballet, the academy puts on an annual production of “The Nutcracker” at Christmastime.
Going forward, Centralia Ballet Academy will do a regular fall showcase in addition to the winter “Nutcracker,” and alternate the spring ballet with festival pieces or volunteer work helping other studios or local theaters with choreography for their own productions.
Upcoming spring productions the Gunters are looking to take on include “Cinderella,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “Peter Pan.”
“Under our artistic direction, we have about three more big productions to do in the spring, so we’ve just got to figure out what we’re going to take on,” Mickey Gunter said. “We’re looking forward to this change, just so we can get more people involved and, again, make sure the studio keeps going even after it’s time for us to not be leading it.”
The Centralia Ballet Academy is located at 1629 Kresky Ave. in Centralia.
For more information, visit http://www.centraliaballet.com, call 360-623-9010 or email info@centraliaballet.com.
“The Sleeping Beauty” cast list
Catalabutte (Master of Ceremonies): Nickodaemos Raynolds
King: Corwin Raynolds
Queen: Laurel Cochran
Nurse: Rebecca Fogde
Fairy of the Crystal Fountain: Elaina Porter
Fairy of the Enchanted Garden: Adeline Wilhelmi
Fairy of the Woodland Glade: Briana Smith
Canary/Songbird Fairy: Marilyn Selin
Fairy of the Golden Vine: Lily Lennox
Lilac Fairy: McKenna Bryan
Lilac Fairy Attendants: Kendra Aguirre-Huerta, Aurora Foote, Auria Franks, Meadow Hughes, Summer Moran, Laney Nowa, Amelia White
Carabosse: Jamiah Wood
Carbosse's Minions: Joshua Foote, Mars Hughes, Landen Nowa, Perrin Fisher, Xander Kellum, Tiberius Wilhelmi, Garland Waltz, Hester Fanning, Jonnie Foote, Emma Kresse, Behya Miranda, Delilah Newberry, Payton Roth
Aurora: Tess McMurry, Lydia Smith, Rose Adagio Suitors: Carter Johnston, Nickodaemos Raynolds, Emmett Thomas, Owen Hedgers, Wesley Wilhelmi
Aurora's friend: Samantha Gunter, Emma Hashagen, Lucy Lennox, Thalia Martinez
Prince Desiré: Wesley Wilhelmi, Owen Hedgers
Courtiers: Lily Bonenfant, Arianna Wilson
Duchesses: Elaina Porter, Adeline Wilhelmi
Villagers: Lucy Lennox, Cael Best, Carter Johnston
Woodland Nymphs: Kendra Aguirre-Huerta, Aurora Foote, Auria Franks, Meadow Hughes, Summer Moran, Laney Nowa, Amelia White
Diamond Fairy: Jamiah Wood
Jewel Fairies: Lily Lennox, Marilyn Selin, Lydia Smith, Tess McMurry
Princess Florine: Briana Smith
Bluebird: Owen Hedgers, Wesley Wilhelmi
White Cat: Samantha Gunter
Puss in Boots: Cael Best
Little Red Riding Hood: Emma Hashagen
Wolf: Mars Hughes
Cinderella: Thalia Martinez
Prince Charmant: Emmett Thomas
Tom Thumb: Liam Clark
Tom's brothers: Perrin Fisher, Xander Kellum, Tiberius Wilhelmi
Three Ivans: Joshua Foote, Carter Johnston, Landen Nowa
