the sleeping beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts. marius petipa and ivan vsevolozhsky wrote the story of the ballet. it was based on charles perrault's 1697 fairy tale "the sleeping beauty in the wood". tchaikovsky wrote the music. marius petipa designed the dances. "the sleeping beauty" was first presented at the mariinsky theatre in st. petersburg, russia, on 15 january 1890. carlotta brianza danced the princess and pavel gerdt the prince, with marie petipa as the lilac fairy and enrico cecchetti as carabosse. it was first presented in europe in a shortened version by the ballets russes in london on 2 november 1921. catherine littlefield designed the first complete "sleeping beauty" in the united states, and presented the production on 12 february 1937 at the academy of music, philadelphia, with the philadelphia ballet.