As it is known, the feature-length animation by Disney is based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, but only to some extent. Characters have been added, characterization has been changed and above all - the fairy tale is crowned with a happy ending. It is this version that is the basis of the performance we are about to see in Sofia. Most of the roles - of Ariel, the Little Crab, the Mermaids, etc. - are performed by graduates of the Masha Ilieva Ballet School. And the characters of King Triton, the Prince and the Witch are performed by artists from the Sofia Opera Ballet. 

The performance is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Sredets House of Culture, where the Masha Ilieva Ballet School was founded in 1995.  Over the years, perhaps thousands of children have passed through it, whose training has been entrusted to distinguished ballet teachers with a calling to build in their pupils a sense of beauty and grace, a sense of rhythm and refined behavior, and their performances are a feast for the audience. 

"People who grew up with me don't necessarily have to stay with me. It is obligatory that they stay with a good memory of ballet," says today Prof. Dr. Maria (Masha) Ilieva - one of the brightest names in contemporary Bulgarian ballet, the founder and artistic director of the school.

As prima ballerina of the Sofia Opera and Ballet (since 1990) she has performed all the leading roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and many others. Today, she is a rehearsal coach for the ballet company there. Prof. Dr. Masha Ilieva also successfully works as a lecturer at the National Academy of Music in Sofia.  According to her own words, the education she received is the basis of her artistic achievements and later - of her success as a teacher. When asked what people should know about her, she answers like this.

"I am a graduate of the Vaganova Academy," says prof. It is the most famous ballet academy in the world, the most popular, the most respected. Of course, there is a reason why. 

This academy, from its inception to the present day, has produced the most famous ballet dancers in the world. All this is connected with my teaching activity afterwards. Graduating from the academy, I did not stay in Russia, even though I had such an offer. 

In that period she was offered to create a ballet school at the Sredets House of Culture, and at the same time she started teaching at the National School of Dance Art.

"It was the early 1990s. At Sredets I started to learn what amateur art means, but conveyed in a professional way - i.e. the knowledge I had acquired had to be adapted in some way for these young children ( 3-5 years old). What I did, perhaps for the first time in Bulgaria, is that I created groups for adult amateurs. It was in the Sredets House of Culture that people over 20, even over 30, started to sign up. Amateur ballet art became very popular and competitions began to appear which were far from the idea of high professionalism. In the beginning I was strongly against children going to such forums, but then I changed my mind. Our alumni have probably won hundreds of awards from such competitions."

In the school she has also prepared participants for the Varna Ballet Competition, as well as for the Youth America Grand Prix competition, created in the USA for non-professional schools.