“It’s that time of year again,” said Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet (NCCB) Artistic Director Tory Gozzi. The ballet company this year will present Sleeping Beauty, onstage at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, June 21. The special Father’s Day performances will be offered at noon and 3 pm.

The event,  sponsored by Rotary Club of Newtown, is intended to be a fun father-daugher type of event, said Ms Gozzi, who is also owner of the South Main Street dance studio.

Admission is free, but tickets are available for those who wish to guarantee seating.

The special event will also include a flower sale, bake sale, and concession stand.

“Our studio has always prided itself on spring performances that bring ballets to the public without charge. NCCB has done this for many years,” Ms Gozzi said, adding that the spring traditional began long before she became the studio’s artistic director. Ms Gozzi became the studio’s director in June 2013.

With the local Rotary Club’s support and the Edmond Town Hall welcoming her ballet company into the town’s theatre, she said, “We hope to continue this tradition for many years to come.”

Last year NCCB performed on Swan Lake at Reed Intermediate School.

This year, the ballet company has “a lot of older dancers and graduating seniors,” Ms Gozzi said. “I wanted to showcase them, and it’s a good [play] for the younger kids too, there are many unique character roles for them all to explore.”

The graduating girls “have been with our school for a long time, and they are great kids going on to great colleges and we wish them well,” Ms Gozzi said.

Sleeping Beauty is “great for a ballet,” Ms Gozzi said. She has read the story and introduces the main characters to her students and showed them how the story “adapted into the ballet, and it’s nice too, the way ballet is structured.

“Other fairy tale characters attended Sleeping Beauty/Aurora’s wedding, like Little Red Riding Hood, Puss In Boots, and Cinderella,” she pointed out.

The story will be slightly shortened to fit into a 90-minute staged performance.

“I was thinking it might be interesting to note that Sleeping Beauty music was written by Tchaikovsky just like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker,” said Ms Gozzi. “Those are his three great ballet scores and it’s interesting to see how some of the melodies and instruments are similar to those heard in the other two shows.”

She has been working with students “to hear some of the similarities due to his composition style.”

Seating for both performances will be first-come, first-served.

Tickets are available at the NCCB studio, at 87 South Main Street. Contact Ms Gozzi at 203-241-5362 or torygozzi@gmail.com for additional information.nccballetandvoice.com, or visit