Henry Daily Herald

Special Photo: Jocelyn Buchanan (front), now an artistic director for the Atlanta Festival Ballet, performs as the Lilac Fairy in the ballet company’s 1998 production of “The Sleeping Beauty Ballet.”

A Stockbridge-based ballet company will reprise its version of a treasured tale of curses, fairies, and fantasy.

The Atlanta Festival Ballet (AFB), now in its 22nd season, plans to continue its outreach mission throughout the Southern Crescent with its upcoming tour of “The Sleeping Beauty Ballet.”

On Feb. 24, the ballet company is set to play to a crowd of youngsters in Lamar County Schools as part of its School Partnership Project. The following dates, Feb. 25, through Feb. 26, the company expects to perform for the community at-large.

AFB is working with Lamar County Schools to produce a family-friendly version of The “Sleeping Beauty Ballet” through its School Partnership Project, which integrates elementary school-aged youths with the ballet’s professional cast.

More than 60 students from Timber Ridge Elementary School, in McDonough, had small parts in AFB’s 2011 performance of the “Nutcracker Ballet,” according to Karen Beth Buckley, AFB’s marketing and public relations director.

Buckley said the company’s upcoming tour will feature about 25 young performers from schools in the Barnesville, Ga., area.

“Our mission is that we want to bring the ballet to individuals who would not normally be exposed to the arts,” said Buckley. “The reward is the joy that kids have, [and] seeing the joy in their faces. It’s what this is all about. It’s why you do it.”

Buckley pointed out that public schools often are limited in arts education. She said AFB works to fill in those gaps by physically casting the children in productions that allow them “to explore their creativity, learn the discipline of being a dancer, and experience the joy of performing with a professional dance company.”

AFB’s artistic directors, Nicolas Pacaña, Gregory Aaron and Jocelyn Buchanan, will bring Aurora, Lilac Fairy, Carabosse, the Blue Bird and Princess Florine to life in “The Sleeping Beauty Ballet.”

The company has about 20 professional dancers, and its 30 student dancers range in skill level and age, between 3 and 43. The marketing director also said the ballet company plans to donate to ongoing relief efforts in Lamar County and its surrounding communities, which were devastated by the tornado that scoured the Barnesville area on April 28, 2011.

“There is still so much rebuilding that is needed and so many families that were affected,” said Buckley. “Atlanta Festival Ballet will be taking one percent of their profits from the show and donating them to the Barnesville-Lamar Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund.”

Buckley urges citizens to support the arts, and those affected by last year’s tornado, by attending AFB’s production of “The Sleeping Beauty Ballet.”

The performance will be held at the Lamar County Schools Fine Arts Center, at 100 Burnette Road, in Barnesville, Ga. Public performance times are Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. To learn more, or to purchase tickets, visit online at www.atlantafestivalballet.com.