Sleeping Beauty Ballet

Maddie and I went to Sleeping Beauty Ballet this Saturday at Irvine Barclay Theater. Ticket was $20 per person which is a bit more than what I’m willing to pay for a 3 year old. However, since Sleeping Beauty was also MY first ballet that my mom took me to, I just couldn’t resist.

As I mentioned before, there is something about a LIVE performance that kids just LOVE. Maddie was perfect for the first 45 minutes. I did give her a candy after that. (YES, I said CANDY.) The rest, she kind of “wiggled” through it. The performance was great and Maddie loved it. (Duh, all the ballerinas were wearing a TUTU and a TIARA!)

For me, the highlight was when Princess Aurora fell asleep. The 4 princes (there were 5 princes including the “kissing” prince in this ballet) were carrying the sleeping Princess Aurora on their shoulders and a little voice cried out “MOMMY, I CAN SEE HER UNDERWEAR!!” Oh, the things kids say…….

Finally when the prince kissed the princess, a thought occurred to me. At that point, Princess Aurora is 106 years old (16th birthday party + 100 years of sleep) and the prince is probably in his early 20s. So, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) was a COUGAR. She outranked Demi Moore by far!! Very forward thinking story, don’t you think?

My tips
- Bring candy for emergency. This is really useful if your child becomes restless in the middle of the performance. As a matter of fact, you should always have some kind of EMERGENCY candy handy. Sometimes you REALLY need it but don’t abuse it. Oh, make sure that the wrapper is not a noisy kind.

- Arrive close to the show start time so you don’t have to hear “mommy/daddy, why isn’t it starting?” 100 times.

- Bring a light book or activity book to entertain the child while you are waiting for the performance to begin