Story by Rob Eisele

William Jewell’s Harriman Arts program transported about 750 students from Kansas City area schools to the storybook realm of Ballet West’s production of “Sleeping Beauty” during a recent Education Series event at the downtown Music Hall.

Students from elementary through high school age participated in the event, which included an interactive segment conducted by Ballet West’s director of education and outreach Peter Christie. With the help of Ballet West company members, Christie demonstrated various ballet steps and invited selected students from Kansas City’s Paseo Academy on stage to learn first-hand about balance and movement when partnered with one of the company’s dancers. Ballet West then performed the 30-minute prologue from Petipa and Tchaikovsky’s full-length story ballet.

The company gave two performances of the full “Sleeping Beauty” ballet as part of the Harriman Arts Program’s regular season offerings. The Kansas City Star’s music and dance critic Paul Horsley praised the Salt Lake City-based company’s “verve and polish,” noting that “there was much to admire in the richly hued costumes, ingeniously detailed décor and capital dancing.”

Another group of area schoolchildren were treated to a lecture and performance by the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at a separate Education Series event at Kansas City’s Folly Theater. Ma and a group of musicians demonstrated various instruments employed on the current “Silk Road Tour” and played selections from the full concert presented that night as part of the Harriman Arts Program’s “Great Masters” series. Among the special guests were a group of children from the Kansas State School for the Blind.