Alexandra

More reviews of the Royal Ballet's Cinderella: Anna Kisselgoff in the Times Jocelyn Noveck for the Associated Press

Perhaps two themes, symmetry and inevitability? To everything there is a season...... the corps de ballet are the stars -- all of this could quite possibly be a conscious reference to early Renaissance court ballets, the fathers of "The Sleeping Beauty," where the choreography often had floor patterns with astronomical significance. The seasons are presented like an "entree" would have been (with their little attendants -- and they're also reminiscent of the Little Red Riding Hood segment of the Royal's production of "The Sleeping Beauty," where they run out with the little trees befor the dancing begins. Both scenes refer to entrees of the old court ballets. I love the entrance of the corps, and the choreography for them generally. I think, with the fairies in Dream, it's one of the best examples of how Ashton took a very old formula and made it new. And then thematically, perhaps they also give the idea that there is justice in the world and that to everything there is a season. Cinderella will have her day and find her prince, just as surely as the stars move through the heavens and the spring follows winter.

On this video, I don't think the stepsisters overwhelm the story, and I think they give the character balance to the classicism that Ashton was after. I think he borrowed from the pantomime tradition in creating the first British full-length ballet -- not so much that he was influenced by them that he coudln'lt create something else, but that he wanted something that was familiar to the audience, and also identifiably British. (The 1940s and 1950s were a time of nationalism everywhere in European and American ballet. You had to give the audience recognizable material, like "Rodeo" or "Square Dance" so they could "identify" with this alien art form.) Even with Ashton and Helpmann (whom I loved!) I would have to say that it bothers me, in theory, that the stepsisters are 40 years older than Cinderella. I would imagine Ashton dispensed with the Wicked Stepmother because that would have been too much, but the poor father has to be the weakest man on the ballet stage. That said, I forget this when Ashton and Helpmann begin to move! I've only seen the latest cast on video too (it was broadcast on Britisih TV) and I think Dowell and Sleep are too much. These roles need to be directed by someone stern, who can say "stop!" I also agree with Mashinka that a lot depends on the ballerina. A truly great, authoritative ballerina is never upstaged. If you have a ballerina without Ballerina Authority, no matter how beautiful her dancing, she can be overshadowed by other performers.

I think, too, that sometimes choreographers deliberately include things so that they are preserved -- including the mime scene that Karsavina taught Ashton. And David Vaughan notes in his book several examples of little scenes from Pavlova ballets that Ashton quoted. Balanchine, I've read, deliberately used steps that were otherwise in danger of extinction when he made ballets to 19th century music, especially Romantic-era music. It's hard to find out, because dancers' memories of their art are like our memories of our families. Many of us can go back to our grandparents, but after that. ...whose turkey recipe was that? We don't know. There are gestures -- many of them stock, or that were stock at the time, taken from theater -- whose origins have also been lost. (One of my favorite stories is Father Menestier, writing in the mid-17th century, complaining that Italians today just aren't what they used to be. Why, we used to talk with our hands! he noted. Now everyone is so tame and quiet.....) It always stuns me that there is not one single step left of Noverre. Bournonville actually did save some that he knew, that he had learned from his father, in a ballet "The Magic Lantern," but that didn't survive long enough to be notated. And then there are the revivals where the restager "fills in" something that no one can remember with a quote from the time of the restaging. I think, unfortunately, that much of this is lost to history, unless the ballets were notated. Doug Fullington can speak to this -- I hope he sees this thread. From what people wrote about his restaging of "Jardin Animee" recently in Seattle, he could even tell the angle of head and roundess of line from the notation.

San Francisco Ballet issued its annual press release about promotions and new company members Friday: Nicolas Blanc has been promoted from soloist to principal dancer. Liz Miner and Rachel Viselli hve been promoted from corps de ballet members to soloists. Apprentices Martyn Garside, Autumn Graham, Alexandra Lorey, Joseph Phillips and Garen Scribner all promoted to corps. Nuntnaree Pipithsuksunt (from Thailand, late of the Royal Ballet School; see Jane Simpson's A Name to Watch Out For thread) joins the company as a soloist. New corps de ballet members: Courtney Clarkson, Hayley Farr, Nicole Grand, and Miriam Rowan. The company now has 66 dancers.

(3) Prokofiev's music is often acerbic and sour. Do you think that Ashton captures this in his choreography and staging?

(4) Some critics have argued that the antics of the Ugly Sisters overwhelm the story of Cinderella and the prince and the classical dancing. Do you agree?

(5) In another thread, a couple of posters said they found the ballet narratively deficient. Yes or no?

(6) What is the role of the Four Seasons in the ballet? Do they express a theme, aid the narrative, or are they just an excuse for more classical dancing?

(7) For those who have seen other versions of Cinderella, compare them to Ashton's.

(8) The jester seems to play a rather different role here than in other ballets. How is he different, and why? What is his role in the ballet?

(9) Discuss the performances on the video.

(10) For those who have seen the Royal's current staging, how does it differ, if at all, from the one we see here? Choreographically, theatrically, scenically, stylistically? Compare the dancing in 1969 and 2004. Has the company's style changed? Are the dancers as good?

(2) Can you see the influence of older ballets, such as The Sleeping Beauty, in this one?

(1) Ashton's Cinderella was the first full-length ballet made for a British company. To what extent is this ballet a statement of what British ballet is (or should be)?

Wow! What a great start! Thank you, Ari. Should we have a thread for each of your questions? Otherwise I'm afraid we may get lost. Thank you for all those links -- I love Sibley's quote about the amount of stage time the ballet offers (in the quotes about Cinderella) (Ari and I discussed this, and we're going to move this into the Ballets forum. Now that the videos forum is restricted to members, this means that non-members can't even see the forum. I'm also going to make separate threads for each question, as we did for the ballets in detail discussions. Anyone is welcome to post another "question" or topic!

Drew, I hadn't read that about "Ballo" (and I don't remember the step, not that that means anything!) but the step you describe is also on the Elfeldt film (made in Copenhagen c. 1906) in a solo from an opera divertissement. This bolsters my theory that there was, onceuponatime, ONE ballet, c. 1646, from which all later ballets descend!

Peter Schaufuss owns the rights to the ballet, as well as the sets and costumes. When he staged it in Copenhagen it was a bust -- it wasn't well staged. I love it, and would like to see it in repertory, but I think the chances are slim. I'd rather see ABT do Ashton's "Cinderella" than Stevenson's (the version they had last). It would help them be less brassy They were in the right key for "The Dream" and "Fille," so I think they could do it.

DanceView Times has added performance and dress rehearsal shots from the first week's performances to the reviews. We took down the preview shots and put up new ones. So if you're interested, go to the Reviews Index and check the first five reviews. We hope to have the second week's up later this week.

Mary Cargill reviews the third cast, and final night, of the Ashton Celebration for DanceView Times: A Ballet for All Seasons

Susan Reiter reviews the second cast of "Cinderella" for DanceView Times: "Cinderella" at the matinee

We've added a few things. First, an index of the Reviews Also, we put up photographs from the first week's performances on the reviews from the first week, so check those reviews for new photos. (By Lincoln Center's photographer, Stephanie Berger.)

Reports from "Cinderella," please!!!

I've liked ABT's Ashton very much -- more than anything else in their repertory, actually. Judging from photos only, I'd like to see San Francisco Ballet do Ashton. And I think they'd be interesting in "Illuminations," too. I think "Picnic at Tintagel" is a goner. I'd second "Scenes" for Paris. They'd have the crystalline brilliance the ballet needs, and, According to Vaughan, Ashton was a great admirer of the French style.

BALLETS RUSSES TO BALANCHINE: DANCE AT THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM, SEPTEMBER 25, 2004 - JANUARY 2, 2005 HARTFORD, Conn. (July 8, 2004)-In tribute to the centennial of the great ballet choreographer George Balanchine, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is presenting Ballets Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum, September 25, 2004 - January 2, 2005. With more than 80 works of art, nearly 25 costumes, and archival material and photographs, Ballets Russes to Balanchine reasserts the thrilling originality and brilliance of these theatrical productions while documenting the dawn of modernism in the 20th century. Among the visual artists represented are Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Natalia Goncharova, André Derain, Giorgio de Chirico, and Pavel Tchelitchew. The choreographers include Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, and George Balanchine. The exhibition is also a showcase for selections from the Atheneum's unrivalled Serge Lifar Collection of set and costume designs, most of them for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. These reveal Diaghilev's genius as an impresario. Intent on restoring ballet to its rightful place among the fine arts, Diaghilev demanded a collaborative synthesis between choreography, music, painting, and literature, with the aim of creating each ballet as a total work of art. (The parallel in opera is Gesamtkunstwerk, as composer Richard Wagner termed it). From 1909 until Diaghilev's death in 1929, the Ballets Russes incited a revolution in the scenic and performing arts whose influence and legend time has not diminished. Iconic designs for Petrushka, Le Spectre de la rose, L'Après-midi d'un faune, and Les Noces will be on view, as well as those for ballets that Balanchine choreographed for Diaghilev, including Le Chant du Rossignol, Jack in the Box, La Chatte, Apollon Musagète, Le Bal, and Prodigal Son. Actual costumes from Diaghilev productions will be displayed, including Schéhérazade, Le Spectre de la rose, Le Dieu Bleu, Le Sacre du Printemps, Le Chant du Rossignol, The Sleeping Princess, and Le Bal. Most within Diaghilev's circle greatly admired the American dancer Isadora Duncan, as did many European, Russian, and American artists. But none compare to Abraham Walkowitz in terms of his fanatical, lifelong devotion to her memory. He made a gift of drawings, water-colors, and pastels to the Atheneum in 1949; a selection of these, which depict his "sublime Isadora" in motion, barefoot and barelegged, in her customary classical Greek-styled tunic, will be exhibited for the first time since 1950. A Diaghilev designer who became a favorite early collaborator of Balanchine's was the Neo-Romantic painter Pavel Tchelitchew. Known for his fantastic costumes and theatrical effects, he designed the sets, costumes, and lighting for Balanchine's Errante and Serenata (Magic). The Atheneum owns vivid designs for both ballets. A favorite of Lincoln Kirstein's was Eugene Berman; the Atheneum has two of his designs for Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, as well as two for Frederick Ashton's The Devil's Holiday. The exhibition also features Henri Matisse's costume sketches for Léonide Massine's Rouge et Noir, first produced by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1939, and which have never before been exhibited. The museum's unique involvement in the dance world of the 1930s is documented in Ballets Russes to Balanchine. It is little known that in 1933, at the impassioned plea of Lincoln Kirstein, the Wadsworth Atheneum and its director A. Everett Austin, Jr., co-sponsored Balanchine's immigration to the United States with the intent of founding a ballet academy and a resident company in the Atheneum's newly built theater. While the Atheneum could not hold onto Balanchine, Kirstein credited it as the place where the historic first public performances of Balanchine's "Producing Company of The School of American Ballet" were given in December 1934. The final performance featured the premiere of Serenade, the first Balanchine ballet choreographed on American dancers. Earlier in 1934, in February, Frederick Ashton, whose centenary is also being observed this year, made his American debut at the Atheneum as the choreographer for the fabled Virgil Thomson-Gertrude Stein opera, Four Saints in Three Acts. The Wadsworth Atheneum provided a stage for Kirstein's Ballet Caravan, where it gave the premiere of Lew Christensen's Filling Station, designed by the artist Paul Cadmus. Modern dance was also welcomed. Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Agnes de Mille (with Hugh Laing), Erick Hawkins (with Peal Lang), and Anna Sokolow all performed at the museum, as did Southington, Connecticut native Alwin Nikolais, who made his professional debut as a choreographer here in 1938. The Serge Lifar Collection was acquired by Austin for the Wadsworth Atheneum in fall 1933 when Lifar, the last of Diaghilev's protégé male dancers, met with financial disaster on his troupe's American debut tour. Lifar's art collection was on view in New York at the Julien Levy Gallery. Lifar sold the cache to pay for his troupe's return to Paris. Over the years, the Wadsworth Atheneum has augmented the Lifar Collection, primarily with original costumes from Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Accompanying the exhibition Ballets Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum is a 48-page book of the same name, written by Eric M. Zafran, Eugene R. Gaddis, and Susan Hood, and published by the museum. It will be available at The Museum Shop. Ballets Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum is sponsored by the Katherine S. Hoffman and Dr. Anthony S. Krausen Fund, The David T. Langrock Foundation, Linda and Edmund Sonnenblick, and Sotheby's. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is located at 600 Main Street, Hartford. For information on hours, admission, and the ART Shuttle, please visit www.wadsworthatheneum.org or call (860) 278-2670.