West Australian Ballet Company's
Cinderella
Canberra Theatre
November 15 - 19
Reviewed by Samara Purnell
On opening night of The West Australian Ballet Company’s Cinderella, the foyer of The Canberra Theatre was full of tiaras, tutus, ballet slippers, long curled hair and excited faces. That was just the parents! Young and old, first-timers and old timers turned out to see this classic story.
This version was choreographed by Company dancer Jayne Smeulders, in her first full-length choreography for the WA Company. And while overall the choreography itself wasn’t overly memorable, it was well designed and satisfactorily executed, making impressive use of the stage and space.
Allan Lees 1930’s sets and costumes were rich, luscious and appealing – a strength of the show, despite needing to downsize the set slightly for the Canberra Theatre. A wonderful ballroom scene and enchanted forest scenery were a visual delight and the sparkly silver coach was as pretty as could be, although more fuss could have been made of the clock, and midnight curfew.
Andrea Parkyn danced the title role soundly, but slightly more daring and tight choreography would have just tipped it over into really connecting with and thrilling the audience.
As the “ugly” stepsisters, the exceedingly slim Jennifer Provins and Brooke Widdison-Jacobs provided plenty of entertainment, particularly in the second act, where at the Ball, their immodest attempts to attract the Prince’s attention provided many chuckles. This was a high point of the show, as it also contained some of the most cleverly choreographed and well executed dancing. The girls displayed strong technique and distinct characterisation.
The Prince, in a desperate attempt to escape the attention of the stepsisters, thrusts his younger brothers into their arms, much to the disgust of Provins, who is forced to contend with vertically challenged young prince (Andre Santos), whom she towers over. Santos was the strongest male dancer on stage. Milos Mutavdzic as the Prince needed stronger choreography as most of his time was spent running away from overzealous women at the Ball. The rest of the male corps lacked a little flexibility and grounding in their technique although the solos from the birds were enjoyable.
In Cinderella the challenge is to either throw your ball into the court of pantomime, melodrama or a serious dance performance. Finding the delicate balance of these runs the risk of missing everything and falling flat. This rendition managed to entertain with enough laughs and seriousness without descending into the ridiculous and still keep the magic of the story.
Comments were overheard at interval from several audience members about the “missing mice and pumpkin coach” but Smeulders had based her story on the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, as opposed to the Disney version that the younger audiences would be familiar with. So Cinderella was taken to the forest by the spirit of her dead mother appearing as the Fairy God mother, understated and delicately danced by Yu Takayama. Birds deck her out in gown and sparkly shoes for the Ball.
In a nice twist, when her Prince comes searching for the owner of the shoe, Cinderella’s father reveals that she has in fact hidden the matching slipper in her birdcage.
The denouement of Cinderella and the Prince dancing a beautiful pas de deux in front of a starry night and full moon closed the show in the choreographic highlight, to Sergei Prokofiev’s score.
Overall this was a very pleasant production, lacking a little “oomph” but a night out that no doubt sent the young girls and ballet lovers in the audience home with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their toes.