Ballet Coeur d’Alene student Klaire Mitchell dances during a rehearsal for the studio’s performance of “Carnival of the Animals” on Saturday. The students also will perform in “Adalia,” an original ballet.

The new ballet “Adalia,” to be performed Saturday by the students at Ballet Coeur d’Alene, has a fairy godmother and a palace in the clouds.

But it strays from the princess stories told and retold on stage and screen.

Brooke Nicholson – the studio’s artistic director and a former dancer for San Francisco’s Smuin Ballet, the New York City Opera, the Boston Ballet and other companies – adapted an “obscure little story” by the Brothers Grimm to write the ballet.

The result is “kid-friendly,” Nicholson said, “but not exactly pink sparkles.”

“Adalia” makes its premiere Saturday in Coeur d’Alene, in a program featuring the studio’s students that also includes a contemporary spin on Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals” and a series of variations, or solo performances. Adrian Rogers, SR

Okay, I admit it. I've never attended a ballet performance. Have you?

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