Saturday, May 13, 2000
Ballet Review
Add some fairy dust, and Cinderella delights
By Carol Norris
Enquirer contributor
Cincinnati Ballet's new Cinderella captures the spirit of the fairy tale. From the dreaminess of the fairy dances and the wisp of skirts, to flickering fireflies appearing mysteriously in the woods, to tiny tots scurrying around as pages and helpers, a sweet magic is captured in Victoria Morgan's vision of the classic.
Is it perfect? Not at all. A ballet doesn't have to be perfect to be liked, and I liked this Cinderella for its faithfulness to the spirit of the material. Ms. Morgan never lets you forget this is a fantasy — and she has great fun letting the familiar story go forward.
Friday night's opening saw a packed house at the Aronoff Center — more than 2,100 fought over parking spaces with the Jammin' on Main crowd. Full-length ballets are great box office; everyone loves a good story.
The characterizations in this one were a delight. The Ugly Stepsisters — as danced by Quillan Nagel and Jay Goodlett — were a riot, but not over the top. These sisters were too goofy to be menacing, and they set the tone for the rest of the ballet.
Things became more purely classical in Act II when the Prince (a charming Alexei Kremnev) and Cinderella (the radiant Anna Reznik) met for the first time and danced their duets and solo variations. They were wonderful as always, but I found something missing in the choreography, which seemed somehow lacking in enchantment — an essential element in a fairy tale.
Jennifer Reed played the Stepmother deliciously uptight. In most ballet versions of this tale the Father (Oliver Arana) is still in the picture. I like the cartoon idea better because he's gone; the cruelty to Cinderella is then better understood. What kind of dad would stand there and let his two ugly stepkids and witchy wife head for the ball, but not his lovely daughter?
Ms. Reznik dances with understatement and is quietly unassuming. It's a delightful approach that reflects in a feeling of lightness whenever her character is performing. With his blond Russian features, Mr. Kremnev looks like the perfect prince — and dances with clean precision.
Often in these old ballets, choreographers have so much business going on at once, you get lost in a hodgepodge of mindless activity. Ms. Morgan has a knack for focusing the scene — not always easy with 10 or 15 dancers flying around.
Her sense of comic timing is well-tuned; I don't know if all her bits were her own, but whether she was staging pratfalls or silly tugs-of-war, they worked.
The company could benefit from more performances of these old standards. There's something missing in the epaulement — the carriage of the upper body — that can be developed only through experience. A coach would be helpful, but there's nothing to take the place of actually doing it.
Chandra Moss was an elegant Fairy Godmother; the four season fairies were lovely, especially Cheryl Sullivan as Fall. Fine dancing came from Miroslav Pejic as the Jester and Michael Wardlaw and Yu Hong as the Prince's Friends.
Cinderella concludes today at 2 p.m. at Aronoff Center for the Arts, Procter & Gamble Hall; 241-7469. Call ahead; tickets are scarce.
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