In May 2025, a video with a fragment of the dancer’s performance spread on social networks. We checked whether the statements that a ballerina with parameters unusual for this type of art participated in the performances were true.
A video of a curvaceous ballerina dancing to Tchaikovsky's music has been widely circulated in Facebook, where one of such posts at the time of writing this analysis dialed 766,000 views, also in Instagram. Some publications specify that the dancer’s name is Sarah Saviola and this is a fragment from the ballet “Sleeping Beauty.” “Sleeping Beauty apparently also ate in her sleep,” joked the author of one of the posts..
Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty was first staged by choreographer Marius Petipa at the Mariinsky Theater in 1890. It consisted of four acts (a prologue and three acts), and more than a hundred performers were employed in it. Nine years later, choreographer Alexander Gorsky transferred Petipa’s performance to the Bolshoi Theater stage. Since then, the production has been edited several times: now in Bolshoi Theater it is shown in the 1973 edition, directed by Yuri Grigorovich, and at the Mariinsky - in the 1952 edition by Konstantin Sergeev. Based on Petipa's version its editors The Sleeping Beauty was also created by Rudolf Nureyev for the Paris Opera. However, there are also completely original versions of this ballet - for example, productions Matsa Eka And Matthew Borna.
The artistic director of the Finnish National Ballet, Javier Torres, like many others, staged “Sleeping beauty"based on Petipa's choreography. At the same time, he tried to make a family performance ideal for children's first introduction to ballet, which required significant cuts and changes. So, if Petipa has six fairies at the christening of Princess Aurora with their gifts (the fairy of sincerity, the fairy of blossoming ears, the fairy scattering bread crumbs, the chirping canary fairy, the fairy of ardent passions and the lilac fairy), then in Torres there are only three of them: the fairy of love Siren, the fairy of courage Volante and the fairy of joy and beauty Gracia.
It was a fragment of Gracia’s party that was captured in the viral video. In this case it is actually performed Sarah Saviola. She danced Grace from 2008 to 2018, but in parallel with her, other dancers also performed this role.
In the 2024/2025 season, the role of Gracia was danced by Hatice Cagla Ertürk, Edita Rausherova and Nao Harada. On stage they all look plump, but they have a completely normal physique for ballerinas. The cute plump fairy is the director’s find. To perform this role, dancers have to wear a special costume that simulates fatness.
The blog of the Finnish dancer Jericho Fox is preserved fast with impressions of this production, which he saw in October 2013 (he ended up in a different cast, without Sarah Saviola). He writes: “A very special driving force was revealed in Johanna Nuutinen’s role of Gracia, the guardian of joy. Gracia's so-called "fat" suit turned out to be a really great solution. Nuutinen’s light steps and curvaceous figure created a completely new, exciting illusion, and it was wonderful to see a body on stage that differed from the ballet norm, even if created through costume.” And on the Finnish National Opera Facebook page we found and comment Sarah Saviola about this role. “Grace, or the fairy of joy, is a character created by Javier Torres, who for me personally is a kind of rebuke to the one-sided standards of appearance that sometimes reign in the ballet world. Movement performed by a full, round body can be just as aesthetically pleasing, if there is skill behind it, as that of a thin dancer. True, the very image of Grace is comic in nature: she is so filled with joy, happiness and love that she seems to be intoxicated by the beauty of life. Therefore, at least for me as a performer, the comedy of this character has nothing to do with her appearance,” says the ballerina.
Thus, the video that went viral shows a ballerina in a “fat” suit, and not a plus-size dancer.
Cover photo: YouTube screenshot
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