Nicolai Sergueeff and the Sleeping Beauty

Tracing the legacy of the man who preserved The
Sleeping Beauty’s choreography, through the classic ballet’s evolution from
the nineteenth century to the present

Nicolai Serguéeff
and “The Sleeping Beauty” explores the legacy of a former Russian imperial rehearsal
director who fled postrevolutionary Russia with the most complete choreographic
records of Marius Petipa’s ballet masterpiece, set to music by Tchaikovsky and first
performed in the late nineteenth century. This book traces the impact of this
act of preservation on more than a century of Sleeping Beauty
productions, examining the resilience of the ballet even as artists have
adapted and reinterpreted its traditions to suit changing circumstances.
Nicolai Serguéeff’s
scores, written in Stepanov notation, became a key resource for staging the
ballet around the world. In this book, Maureen Gupta explores five landmark
productions of The Sleeping Beauty: productions staged in London by
Serguéeff for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1921), Ninette de Valois’s
Vic-Wells Ballet (1939), and Mona Inglesby’s International Ballet (1948); and two
recent historical reconstructions using Serguéeff’s notations directed by
Sergei Vikharev for the Mariinsky/Kirov Ballet (1999) and by Alexei Ratmansky
for American Ballet Theatre/La Scala (2015).
Through extensive
archival research, Gupta provides insight into the nineteenth-century Russian ballet
while also highlighting its living tradition and continued relevance. This book
demonstrates how The Sleeping Beauty has evolved while maintaining its
classical core, resulting in an essential case study for dancers, historians,
and choreographers. It combines
dance history, musicology, and performance studies to show how a ballet can be
both timeless and ever-changing.

Author Biography

Maureen Gupta is a musicologist and dance historian who specializes in ballet and
choreomusical relationships.