The New Jersey Ballet Company mounts the full-length version of The Sleeping Beauty.

Presented once again by the Bermuda Ballet Association, New Jersey Ballet, hailed as one of the best of America's many regional companies, will give four performances of the Tchaikovsky classic. The company made a big impression when it visited Bermuda three years ago, with a popular mix of short contemporary works and classical pas de deux. Although it is a regional company, it has attracted dancers from around the world. The three male principals in this production, for instance, come from Sweden, China and Russia.

Speaking from the company's headquarters in West Orange, New Jersey, executive artistic director, Carolyn Clarke told The Royal Gazette that the Company's decision to stage the full work reflects the mood of today: "Audiences are returning in droves to these 19th century classics. People really want to see them,'' she said, adding that her company is also in the midst of staging a full-length `Giselle'.

`The Sleeping Beauty' has been set for the company by prima ballerina Eleanor D'Antuono, who for 20 years danced with the famed American Ballet Theatre.

Ms Clarke said that two dancers will alternate in the role of Aurora: Lori Christman, who has already been acclaimed for her portrayal of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Debra Sayles who has won recognition for her dramatic ability, notably in Tudor's Lilac Garden. The role of Prince Florimund will be shared by Swedish dancer Johan Renvall who is a principal with American Ballet Theatre, You Ging Guo who came to America via the Central Ballet Company of China, and Timour Bourtasenkov, a Russian dancer who first joined the company in 1991. The ranks of the corps de ballet will be swelled by some of Bermuda's young dancers, who have been selected from the Island's three dancing schools.

D'Antuono's version follows the traditional formula of an opening Prologue at which Princess Aurora's christening party is interrupted by the arrival of the evil Carabosse who, furious at being left out of the celebrations, places a curse on the baby princess. In the first act, at Aurora's 16th birthday party, four princely suitors dance for her hand in the famous (and notoriously difficult) Rose Adagio. Too late, Aurora, fascinated by an old woman's spindle, grabs it and stabs her finger, as the old woman is revealed as Carabosse. The good Lilac Fairy comes to the rescue, and death is transformed to a hundred years' sleep. In Act II (the Vision scene) Prince Florimund is led by the Lilac Fairy to the enchanted castle where he awakes the sleeping princess with a kiss. The third act is given over to the celebrations at their marriage and is often presented as a separate suite of dances, `Aurora's Wedding'. In keeping with the traditions of the day, this last act, especially, was devised to display virtuosic dancing, with diverissement numbers for such characters as Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, the Blue Bird pas de deux and the climactic grand pas de deux between the Prince and his Princess.

Although classical ballet is always a box-office success, it has been fighting something of an up-hill artistic battle ever since the freer concepts modern dance became the `relevant' voice of the contemporary dance world.

Often deemed to be `artificial' (with the ladies dancing on the points of their toes, for heaven's sake) and the subject matter frequently dismissed as little more than fairy-tale nonsense, classical ballet has seemed, at times, to be going the way of the dinosaur.

Now there seems to be a new consciousness that the classics -- especially the great trio of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker -- are far more than museum pieces. For they represent the golden age of the Russian ballet, when music and choreographic invention became partners in the genius of Tchaikovsky and Petipa.

Today, there seems to be a new realisation that the sheer inventiveness of Marius Petipa's choreography has few equals and his relative indifference to the `story' or themes of his ballets has its counterpart in the abstract classicism of another great Russian influence on ballet, George Balanchine.

Although the swooning melody and grandeur of Tchaikovsky's music is now synonymous with dance, it was not always so. It seems incredible that initially, his music for Swan Lake was considered a failure; when the Russian Imperial Ballet decided to mount Perrault's fairy-tale of The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky had to be persuaded to compose the music. Tchaikovsky himself believed that his Sleeping Beauty score was the best of all his ballet music.

First produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890, the title role was danced, not by a Russian, but by the Italian ballerina, Carlotta Brianza (in 1921 Diaghilev would engage her to dance the evil Carabosse in his spectacular London production).

The next major production was that by Sadler's Wells (now the Royal Ballet) when The Sleeping Beauty was chosen to re-open the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden after World War II with Margot Fonteyn dancing the Princess. Three years later she repeated her triumph when the ballet opened their season in New York, the glory of that first night earned her the cover of that week's Time Magazine.

In sponsoring this major presentation by The New Jersey Ballet Company, the Bermuda Ballet Association continues an inspired policy that began over 30 years ago: this was to bring professional dance and dancers to Bermuda and, as such, became an intrinsic part of the upsurge of interest in the arts that took place in the 1960s.

With Patricia Gray as founding President, a close association was always maintained with her former teacher, the Yugoslav ballerina, Mme. Ana Roje, who died in 1991.

Thanks to the Association, which was formed with the aim of promoting the art of ballet and to assist students with their studies, many of the world's top companies from Europe and North America have been seen in Bermuda.

The Sleeping Beauty will be staged at City Hall on November 9 through 12. The box office opens tomorrow at the Visitors Service Bureau (telephone 295-1727).

Tickets are $20 and $10 for children at the Thursday performance only.

AURORA'S WEDDING -- The grand pas de deux from the last act of `The Sleeping Beauty' as Princess Aurora marries Prince Florimund.

PAS DE DEUX -- Debra Sayles and Joseph Fritz in a scene from the New Jersey Ballet Company's production of `The Sleeping Beauty'.