Salt Creek’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ highlights

Salt Creek Ballet's “Sleeping Beauty” will be at College of DuPage May 12 and 13. | Courtesy of Salt Creek Ballet

Updated: May 8, 2012 9:45PM

For many dancers or other entertainers, giving the audience what they want is essential to their performance. Luis Caro, a ballet dancer performing in the Salt Creek Ballet presentation of “The Sleeping Beauty, Aurora’s Wedding with Additional Repertoire,” views things a bit differently.

“For me, it’s never really been about the audience,” said Caro, who is dancing the role of Puss in Boots in the Salt Creek Ballet show. “To really please the audience I think you have to forget about them and just get into the role and perform it.”

Salt Creek regular

Caro has been “getting into his roles” since he started dancing at 18 years of age. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance from Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., and has danced professionally with the Louisville Ballet in Kentucky, the Montgomery Ballet in Alabama, the Eugene Ballet in Oregon and has made guest appearances with several other dance groups around the United States. Now 42, Caro is semi-retired from dancing. Still, he has performed with the Salt Creek Ballet for the last 15 years.

“I do character roles now,” he said. “I have done a variety of roles over the years.”

The Salt Creek Ballet presentation of “The Sleeping Beauty, Aurora’s Wedding with Additional Repertoire” will be performed on May 12 and 13 at McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.

The ballet of “Sleeping Beauty” is a traditional fairy tale about Aurora, a princess who has been cursed by a wicked fairy and falls asleep for 100 years. The only way she can be awakened is by being kissed by a true love. Prince Florimund finds his way to Aurora, kisses her, and she wakes up from her deep sleep.

The spell is broken, wedding preparations are made and a dance of many fairy tale characters, including Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood and the White Cat, commences.

Wedding dance

The Salt Creek Ballet production is a portion of “Sleeping Beauty,” specifically the Wedding, and not the entire ballet. Additional Salt Creek Ballet repertory will complete the performance.

Caro believes that the performance will appeal to many audience members.

“If you like classical ballet, you will like this show,” he said. “And for the young at heart, it is a fairy tale. In addition, the music is great.”

For Caro, getting back in shape for his role has been a bit of a challenge.

“If it is ‘Nutcracker,’ and it’s the party scene, the dance is really just walking on stage with a beat,” he said. “But this role, although it is not complicated, you have to behave like a cat, so you are in a crouch position. You have to stay low, so it is more demanding. It is just a different way to move. But I’m adapting.”

But despite the hard work, Caro enjoys his participation in the production.

“If I am not enjoying the people I am working with, then it is not worth it for me,” he said. “At Salt Creek Ballet, I love the people there.”

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