Our holiday revue, Jingle Bell Jam, closed this weekend, so we now look toward the New Year and our next show, The Twelve Dancing Princesses! The onstage and backstage teams have been hard at work preparing this delightful show for audiences. Today I hope to give you a little background on the tale of our princesses and where they came from!
The Twelve Dancing Princesses was originally a German fairy tale, most notably collected by the Brothers Grimm in their volume Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are credited with collecting over 200 tales and legends in their seven editions of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Also known as “The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces,” The Twelve Dancing Princesses is in good company; many other familiar fairy tales have been adapted from the original Grimm stories. Tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White can be traced back to these fairy tales.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales was published in several volumes in the early 1800’s, so all the stories are in the public domain, meaning that anyone can rewrite the stories for their own use. Unlike the Disney versions of classic fairy tales like Cinderella, Tangled, and Sleeping Beauty that are copyrighted, the original versions of the tales can be used freely. Our version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses is freely adapted for the stage by Encore alum, Matthew Heap.
The play may have classic origins, but our cast will bring their own magic to it! Tickets are available now for The Twelve Dancing Princesses on stage at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre January 10-19, 2025. We recommend this production for ages 4 and older.
Photos by Larry McClemons. Blog contribution by Parker Nelson