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Program Notes

"...She begins to dance, but this time the shoes won't come off. They continue to dance, night and day, rain or shine, through fields and meadows, and through

brambles and briers that tear at her limbs. She can't even attend her adoptive mother's funeral. An angel appears to her, bearing a sword, and condemns her to dance even after she dies, as a warning to vain children everywhere. She begs for mercy but the red shoes take her away before she hears the angel's reply. She finds an executioner and asks him to chop off her feet. He does so but the shoes continue to dance, even with her amputated feet inside them..."

Excerpt from Hans Christian Andersen - "The Red Shoes" (1845)