Ballet character role of a lifetime for Scottish Ballet dancer Kara McLaughlin. Image source: wikipedia.org
Kara McLaughlin of the Scottish Ballet is playing the ballet character role of a lifetime. She’ll also be playing the Queen, Aurora’s kind-hearted mother in some performances of The Sleeping Beauty. But the role that has her happy is Carabosse, the wicked fairy.
Ballet character role of a lifetime
When asked which role she favors of the two, the Queen or Carabosse, her response:
“Hands down it’s Carabosse. It’s terrible isn’t it?
“The Queen’s a great role and it is lovely to be so good and to be so in love with her daughter, Aurora, but it is great to play the villain.
“I just love the fact you can get such a reaction from the audience. You can really bounce off it.”
Sleeping Beauty was first brought to the stage in 1890 by choreographer, Marius Petipa. The magnificent score is by Tchaikovsky, which he finished in 1989, adding to his trio of ballet masterpieces: Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. Based on the story of Charles Perrault, La Belle au Bois Dormant, it was performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
The Scottish Ballet’s version is choreographed by Ashley Page, artistic director and costumes and set design belong to Antony McDonald.
You can see excerpts of the Scottish Ballet’s performing The Sleeping Beauty last year here.
Despite Kara’s love of playing Carabosse’s wicked side, she is happy to report there is some form of redemption ahead.
“Towards the end you see a change in her. It’s almost as if she sees the error of her way throughout the ballet,” she said.
Read entire interview of Kara McLaughlin by Steve Hendry’s of The Daily Record here. You’ll also see Ms. McLaughlin in costume and makeup.
Character pieces are given to highly seasoned dancers. Our congratulations to Ms. McLaughlin for playing this ballet character role of a lifetime, which she is enjoying so much.
What role do you think you would enjoy most performing or watching on stage? The hero or the villain? Which one would be more fun? Something else Kara mentioned in the interview was that children seem to be more drawn in by Carabosse than by the Queen…interesting!
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About Romy Macias, Senior Editor
