The Twelve Dancing Princesses - Adaptations

Adaptations

• Jeanette Winterson varies and adds to this tale in Sexing the Cherry, in which the old soldier is a prince with 11 brothers, each of which marries a sister except the youngest, who escapes before her wedding to the prince.
• In 'Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses', Barbie plays the role of the seventh sister, Genevieve.
• It was a storybook and cassette in the Once Upon a Time Fairy Tale series.
• In 1978, a made-for-TV retelling of the story was directed by Ben Rea, featuring Jim Dale, Freddie Jones, and Gloria Grahame. Significant changes were made to the story.
• It was retold in literature as Walter de la Mare's Told Again and Tales Told Again and in Robin McKinley's The Door in the Hedge.
• Patricia A. McKillip wrote an adaptation for the anthology A Wolf at the Door.It has a few variation, the most significant being that the princes the princesses were spending their nights dancing with were actually dead, and planning to take the princesses away from the mortal world forever the night after the soldier reveals what the princesses were doing.
• The children's television show, Super Why!, included an episode called "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" (Season 1. Episode 21, April 7, 2008) In this adaptation, the king asks the Super Readers to find out where his daughters are disappearing to each night. When their secret is discovered, the princesses confess to the Super Readers that they have been planning a surprise party for their father, which everyone gets to attend.
• Nancy Madore's erotic novel The Twelve Dancing Princesses focuses on twelve princesses who are already married to twelve princes. Unlike the original fairy tale, the dancing is only done in their dreams (although somehow the shoes still wear out in reality). A wizard determines that the dancing is due to the discontent in each of the princesses sex lives. And when the problem is solved, the dancing stops. The problems include such common issues as the husband neglecting the wife's desires, the wife's feelings of self-consciousness, and fear that religious beliefs prevent the enjoyment of sex.
• Suzanne Weyn's novel The Night Dance retells the story, intertwining it with Arthurian legend. Here the princesses are not princesses but daughters to Vivienne, better known as the Lady of the Lake, who bore twelve daughters to her mortal husband before becoming imprisoned in a frozen lake.
• The Juliet Marillier novel Wildwood Dancing gives a retelling set in Transylvania, mixed with traditional Transylvanian folk tales. The underground kingdom they dance in is the fairy kingdom, to which they have gained entrance by the grace of the Witch of the Wood.
• Jessica Day George's novel Princess of the Midnight Ball is a retelling with the twist that the princesses are cursed to dance every night for an evil sorcerer, the King Under Stone.
• The Thirteenth Princess" a novel by Diane Zahler, retells the story from the youngest, and thirteenth, princess Zita.
• The television series Faerie Tale Theatre had an episode entitled "The Dancing Princesses". There were six princesses as opposed to twelve, but otherwise the story remains the same.
• The anime series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, features a twist within the story (with the princesses being reduced to 3). It turns out demons live within the magical place and have placed a spell on the fair maidens before the soldier realizes the truth and rescues them. He marries the eldest daughter. In this version, the failed suitors are sent to prison instead of executed.
• The musical Metaphasia is a retelling by Paul Collette, Gary Fritzen and Robert Wright. The princesses in this retelling are all of different characteristics and descent. For example, there is a New York princess, a ballerina princess, and Asian princess.
• There is also a modern day version, Regina Doman's The Midnight Dancers.
• Heather Dixon's novel, "Entwined", retells the story from the point of view of Azalea, the oldest of the 12 sisters.
• "~ Slipperzzzz ~ The Torrid Tale of Cobb and the 12 Dancing Princesses" "" a comedy adventure-romance song and dance musical theater script by Jeannette Jaquish differs from the original fairy tale in that it is a young shoemaker, Cobb, who rescues an old woman from bandits and receives an invisibility cloak, the princes who fall asleep go to the mop closet that has "Dungeon" written on it, and the father of the Underworld Princes is the King's deceitful Grand Vizier. The Old Woman plays a key role in the princesses' rescue as well.