Doug Fullington on Awakening Pacific Northwest Ballet’s New Sleeping Beauty

Seattle native Doug Fullington has built an international reputation for resurrecting and restaging classical ballets from the 19th century, including a 2011 Pacific Northwest Ballet production of Giselle, created in collaboration with Marian Smith, professor emerita of music at the University of Oregon, and PNB artistic director Peter Boal. Fullington and Boal are now set to premiere a new Sleeping Beauty, based on the original 1890 production, by drawing on such materials as the original libretto and photographs from the 1890s, as well as Stepanov notation made in St. Petersburg, Russia, a decade later.

Fullington­ taught himself to read the notation system; he’s one of just a handful of people around the world with this skill. “We’re lucky to have him in Seattle,” Boal says. But restaging a classic artwork is about more than faithfully copying 19th-century steps and costumes. For Fullington,­ bringing Sleeping Beauty back to the stage means looking to see what it is about the early production that aligns with 21st-century aesthetics, ideas, and lifestyles.

Peter wanted to stage a new production. It was really time for a redesign of scenery and costumes. So he asked me if I’d work with him on staging. The first step is to see what’s available, whether it’s notation, music scores, photos, what you can pull together to work with.

There were four acts initially. We’re trying to put the first two together­ and the last two together to eliminate a couple of intermissions. What I try to do is recapture what we think the tempos were when the ballet was first performed. Generally, there’s been a slowing of tempos for most ballets since, I don’t know, the mid-20th century.

What I really, really like to do, if possible, is to disregard or wipe away a lot of the changes that were made. Set that aside and look at what the original creators did. You know, in a way it’s trying to find today in yesterday. How do we fit into what the creators were doing with this ballet?

I think we are trying to find the universality in it. The lead dancers in 19th-century ballets, the women, had agency, which is something that became muted in the 20th century. We want to push that aside and allow the character to drive the story. Aurora has a destiny to fulfill, so when she’s christened she’s given all these attributes by these powerful fairy godmothers.

There was a different way of training the body then, a different way of moving. The nice thing is that the ballet vocabulary has stayed the same. We still have the glissades, the jetés. There are a lot of choices about the position of the arms, the head.

Some of the dances that we might call classical today have a lot of character dance, whether the dancers are in a heeled shoe, or they’re holding a prop, or their knees are bent more than they would be in a classical piece. We’re trying to lean into that because it creates a lot of diversity in what you’re looking at as an audience member. Hopefully that’s not a barrier for enjoyment and understanding­ of the story and prolonging the life of the ballet.

I don’t think these ballets have to look old-fashioned. I think the ballet vocabulary has a transcendent quality. I think classical ballet would benefit from having a more open mind to more kinds of steps and what is thought of as acceptable to do onstage.

My idea is that the dancers in 1890 were doing what was natural for them, what was normal for the audience to see. I think we can do the same thing for us. One approach to authenticity in restoring the steps of 19th-century ballets is to encourage today’s dancers to perform those same steps in ways that feel natural to them, even if that may be different from the way we believe their predecessors moved: the height of the legs or arms, for example, the speed.

I know I can’t do this work by myself.­ I like to come to the studio with an idea but also want to be open to the dancers’ suggestions. I really like working with Peter Boal. He’s very open to the material we have and to the sources. It’s a happy collaboration. Hopefully we can bring everyone along to realize this in the movement and storytelling, and create sound and visual art that is relatable. If we can do that, we’ll be successful.