Published July 12, 2024

SNB’s Sleeping Beauty and Prince Have Found True Love in Real Life

by Rosine Bena

Sierra Nevada Ballet will perform an innovative new version of Sleeping Beauty this summer on July 29 at Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe at 7:30 PM as part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and on August 3 in Carson City at 7:30 PM at the Carson City Community Center. 

SNB Associate Artistic Director, Ananda Bena-Weber, and I have taken the classic ballet and slightly updated it for a modern audience by developing the story through the character of Malifique, the evil fairy. This new version is titled Sleeping Beauty-A Fairy’s Tale.

In today’s society, we can search for love on the internet in all parts of the world and patiently sift through suitors until we find our match.  So the heroine in the story waits patiently in order to find true love. SNB’s heroine, Hikari Jacobson, found her (on and off stage) true love in SNB’s hero, Juan Magacho.

Juan is from Brazil and trained at Grupo Cultural de Dança-Ilha, in Rio de Janeiro. Juan first found a passion for ballet through his training in martial arts. He danced professionally with the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Atlantic City Ballet, San Jose Dance Theater and Peninsula Ballet Theatre. 

Hikari is from California and trained at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts and the San Francisco Ballet School. Similarly to Juan, Hikari found her devotion to ballet while studying gymnastics.

Hikari danced professionally in the Atlantic City Ballet, San Jose Dance Theater and Peninsula Ballet Theatre.

Hikari and Juan met in July of 2018 in New Jersey when they were both hired to dance with the Atlantic City Ballet.

Hikari said: “I was instantly drawn to Juan, he had an aura that made me have the need to be in his world. He didn't speak any English when we first met, but the connection was still quite strong. Juan learned languages quickly, and by November, when we were cast in the Arabian Coffee Pas De Deux in Nutcracker, we were able to communicate. The Pas de Deux had several really challenging lifts requiring us to practice a lot and spend a lot of time together in the studio and out.” 

Juan agrees: “Ballet definitely inspired our romance. We love to share the stage together.”   

The couple married in 2020 and have been dancing together ever since. They claim that living together and working together is both wonderful and challenging. While sharing a passion for the art of Ballet draws them closer together and inspires them, it can also be frustrating. 

There is a great deal of gender inequality in the professional ballet world. Men are usually paid much more than women and have far more professional performance opportunities. Hikari explained: “Though Juan understands and agrees that Ballet is often unfair to women, it is still sometimes difficult for me to hide my disappointment over the inequality and not to direct my anger towards him.” 

Juan recognizes Hikari’s frustration and said: “It is sometimes difficult to both work and live together, but, on the other hand, we work very well together, and so most of the time it is a fun experience.”

The couple is really enjoying dancing at SNB, and, seeing them dance together, it is obvious that there is a melding together of souls.

Hikari said: “I really enjoy the work at SNB and the great coaching that dancers are given by incredibly experienced and knowledgeable mentors. I am so fortunate to be helped both technically in class and coached in rehearsals for my dancing, character development, and story telling.”

Juan agrees: “I’m really enjoying working for SNB with experienced leaders who have a lot to offer. They are really exciting to work with and provide a great balance of fun and work. I also love how they always push all the dancers to make more improvement.”

Both Juan and Hikari have danced in the traditional Sleeping Beauty for several different companies. 

Juan said: “I like the innovation of this new production. Even though Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite classical ballets, I realize that the traditional version is overly long and quite outdated for modern audiences. This version will attract interest from more people.”

Hikari agrees: “I love the wonderful acting and the story telling in the choreography from all the SNB dancers, especially in the strong character of the evil Malifique danced by Ananda Bena-Weber. She is incredible and so enjoyable to watch.  I think this fine story telling is what will captivate the audience most.”

SNB traditionally performs our summer of classic ballets in Reno, Tahoe and Carson City, but this year, due to renovation work at the Pioneer Center, SNB will only present this production in Tahoe and Carson City. We encourage people to reserve their seats early, as tickets for this production are already selling quickly. 

Do not miss our SNB heroine finding her true life hero. 

For ticket information and information about other SNB productions or the SNB Academy, visit our website at sierranevadaballet.org or call 775-360-8663.

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