Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty featured in Alberta Ballet fairytale show

A sneak peek at the Alberta Ballet's premiere show of the season in Edmonton coming Sept. 19 and 20, 2025. (Darcy Seaton, CTV News Edmonton)

If you’re looking to escape the world for a little while, the Alberta Ballet is bringing its season-starting Once Upon a Time – A Thousand Tales show to Edmonton on Friday and Saturday.

The show runs for two days at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.

Francesco Ventriglia, who both created Once Upon a Time and is Alberta Ballet’s artistic director, said the show is full of surprises and unexpected moments.

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“I don’t want to reveal the twist we have in the plot. What I can say is that this show is very colourful, very happy,” Ventriglia told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

“It’s an adventure, a journey with lots of fun characters, and it’s a show for everyone.”

The show is a blend of well-known fairy tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Swan Lake and Aladdin. The iconic White Rabbit, of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fame, will lead audiences through the story.

The show first premiered in 2023 on the Dubai Opera stage, becoming the first Canadian ballet company to perform on a prestigious international stage.

“It took over one year to create every aspect of it to be presented on stage,” Ventriglia added.

“I’m talking about the design of the show, the set, the costumes, the music composed for the show, and the choreography was created all around the world.”

Dancer Jolie Rose Lombardo, who plays the white swan queen as well as Princess Jasmine, said on Friday the show has something for everyone.

“It is fully immersive … it’s also great for people who are enjoyers of the ballet, because the choreography is so unique and outstanding,” she said.

“I mean, I’ve been in the ballet world my whole life, and the type choreography that [Ventriglia] has done for this ballet is breathtaking in every scene, so it really keeps people captivated from the beginning to the end.”

She also noted preparations for the three-hour performances have been “genuinely fun,” if not athletically grueling.

“We are elite athletes who are athletic while being artistic, while being emotional, while trying to make the audience have emotion as well,” she said.

“It’s all the same thing. We give enjoyment, we give an experience, and we give something that you can’t replace from an audience point of view.”

Tickets for shows on Friday and Saturday can be found on the Alberta Ballet’s website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Darcy Seaton