Arts & Entertainment Editor Denton Record Chronicle 

Denton City Contemporary Ballet is headed back into the woods.

For the third year, the local dance company revives two classics popular with little ones: Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Camille Saint-Saens’Carnival of the Animals.

Both short ballets began with the music. Prokofiev penned Peter in 1936 as a children’s story told in words and music. Saint-Saens wrote Carnival in 1886.

But over the years, both have grown. Walt Disney even adapted Peter twice, and incorporated the finale of Carnival into the animated film Fantasia 2000.

And along the way, the two have been turned into ballets.

In Peter and the Wolf, Prokofiev’s piece is scored so that each character is represented by a particular instrument — the bird dances to the flute, the cat prowls to the clarinet and the duck struts to the oboe. Denton City Contemporary Ballet will perform the ballet to the music of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The narrator on the recording is rock legend David Bowie.

Carnival of the Animals is set in 14 movements, each depicting an animal or set of animals. The choreography by artistic director Lisa Racina-Torre is meant to be playful and funny, and features both classical and contemporary ballet.

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