The Deal
- Two tickets to see Shanghai Ballet presents La Sylphide with or without Hylton Performing Arts Center membership
- When: Friday, November 22, at 8 p.m.
- Where: Hylton Performing Arts Center
- Seating: orchestra section
- Ticket values include all fees.
- Click here to view the seating chart.<p>
Ticketing Options
- $56 for two tickets (up to $122 value)
- $99 for two tickets plus one Friends of the Hylton Center membership (up to $197 value)<p>
Membership includes recognition within the Hylton Presents performance programs, invitation to the Hylton Presents season preview, and access to the Friends hospitality area during select performances. Click here to view a full list of membership benefits.<p>
La Sylphide
Like the Greek Muses, a sylph can steal any man’s heart—and lead him to his doom. Unfortunately for James Ruben, he spots the spirit near his wedding day. In the Scottish countryside, a woman in white appears to him in his sleep, captivating him with elaborate dances and promises of discounted hoagies before kissing him awake. James tries to brush off the apparition, but it’s not that easy. That day, the village sorceress tells the fortunes of him and his bride-to-be, Effie, but says that the wedding will not happen, that James has fallen in love with someone else. Sure enough, the sylph begins appearing to him in waking life—and he’s not the only one who sees her. His close friend Gurn catches the two of them together and tells Effie, but by then the spirit is gone, and soon James is too, chasing her into the forest and leaving Effie at the altar.<p>
Written by Danish ballet master August Bournonville and premiered in 1832, La Sylphide is one of the oldest examples of Romantic ballet. Defined by such artists as Lord Byron and John Keats, the Romantic period’s themes of the supernatural, the bestial, and the irrational essence of the human mind shine through in this sweeping production. But more than a sign of the times, La Sylphide was a herald of things to come. The ballet popularized dancing en pointe, and was one of the first to latch on to the otherworldly quality of the form by casting the female lead as a delicate and ghostly creature.<p>
Hylton Performing Arts Center
When visitors enter the two-story lobby of the Hylton Performing Arts Center, their eyes dart from the purple carpeting to the stately pillars—all accented by light streaming in from the windowed exterior. Inside the 85,000-square-foot events center, ballet performances unfold in the dramatically modern hall, toes tap along with cabaret shows in the intimate theater space, and exhibits by local artists and dexterous stagehands open windows to other worlds in the second-floor art gallery.