Singing birds, flitting fairies and girlish innocence are all commonly associated with The Sleeping Beauty, thanks mainly to the light-as-a-feather Disney version. It turns out, however, that the Brothers Grimm and Giambattista Basile and Charles Perrault, who wrote earlier versions of the tale, actually concocted a much darker narrative. With this in mind, Dominic Walsh created a new ballet set to Tchaikovskyย’s classic score, a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty in which drugs, sex and struggle are the backdrop to a young girlย’s burgeoning adolescence. Ten dancers, including Dawn Dippel as Aurora, will abandon the classical form for bolder, rawer modern movement, wearing costumes inspired by current runway fashions. The result is a dissected, redirected fairy tale that understands that ย“happily ever afterย” takes more than a kiss. See the world premiere of Dominic Walsh Dance Theaterย’s The Sleeping Beauty today at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. For more information call 713-315-2525 or visit www.dwdt.org. $17 to $42

Oct. 18-21, 7:30 p.m., 2007

This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2007.