WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — The Wichita Falls Ballet Theatre is holding two performances of their new show Sleeping Beauty.

The performances will be Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20, at Midwestern State University’s Fain Fine Arts Center.

Carney Porter: Yes. Now, it’s Mishic Liberatore. She’s here to tell us all about Sleeping Beauty, which is Wichita Falls’- Wichita Falls Ballet Theater’s upcoming performance. Thank you so much for being here to tell us about it. Yes, ma’am. So tell us a little bit about the event and the performance. It’s going to be beautiful, I’m sure.

Mishic Liberatore: This is the classic, probably the the most classical ballet that we could bring to Wichita Falls. It is the classic story of Sleeping Beauty.

It’s all the fairies in Aurora and Maleficent, which we actually call Carabosse in the ballet world. So that’s kind of a little bit of a- it was hard for me to explain to the kids, ‘Hey, it’s not Maleficent, it’s Carabosse, but. And then something a lot of people don’t know is in Act Three, when Aurora gets married to the Prince, all the storybook characters come out. So we have Little Red Riding Hood and Blue Bird and Cinderella and her fairies.

And so it’s really a- it’s a great ballet for families for all ages. And we have purchased some of the most gorgeous tutus that these girls are going to be wearing. So if you just want to come out to see beautiful costumes, this is the ballet for you.

Carney Porter: Well, yes, beautiful costumes, for sure. But I know that they’ve probably been working so hard. Tell us a little bit about, so we can have a deeper appreciation, the work that goes into putting this on.

Mishic Liberatore: So we we actually started working back in February on this production. And we have one senior who’s graduating this year, and she is actually dancing the role of Aurora. And when she is done with this, she will be headed off to start her professional career. She got a contract with Ballet North Texas.

So that’s really exciting just for her to be able to work all these years, finish with this beautiful ballet, and then be able to go start her professional dance career because that’s what, you know, most of these kids are working towards when they’re spending hours and hours and hours in the studio dancing and working on their technique. And this ballet has pushed them. This ballet is challenging, so and they’ve really stepped up to it. So it’s going to be amazing.

Carney Porter: Well, you know, I don’t think it would be worthwhile if it wasn’t something that pushed their boundaries and their limits and made them better, overall. I’m sure they’re better for it in the end.

Mishic Liberatore: Absolutely. Definitely.

Carney Porter: And you get to see it for yourself, you know, in the flesh. You can see them put their hard work to use by entertaining you. So how can people see it? When can they see it, and how much would that cost them?

Mishic Liberatore: So our performance is May 19th at 7 p.m. and May 20th at 1 p.m. and we are at Fain Fine Arts at the MSU campus. It’s a great theater. Tickets are $25, and it’s general seating so you don’t have to worry about, you know, trying to get everybody together.

You just- first come, first serve. You can get our tickets at wfbt.org, or if you want to avoid the ticket fee, online fees, you can go to the box office at the MPEC or call 716-5500 or you can buy them before the performance. We’ll have the box office open at the theater an hour before each performance.

Carney Porter: Perfect. We’ll have that information on our website if you’d like to attend. Thank you so much for being here today.

Mishic Liberatore: Thank you for having me.

Carney Porter: Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.