During the intermission of the Saturday matinee performance of "Cinderella" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, little girls in frilly dresses, and even ballet costumes, pirouetted around the lobby, clearly caught up in ballerina daydreams inspired by this beautifully-staged classic ballet.
If St. Louis Ballet's aim was to win the hearts of a new generation of would-be ballerinas, then the fairy-tale "Cinderella" was certainly the right performance choice.
The "Cinderella" ballet, with Sergei Prokofiev's lush romantic music, was presented Friday, June 26 through Sunday, June 28. The Saturday matinee also offered a Cinderella Tea Party before the afternoon performance.
The ballet was classically staged, to present the kind of pretty, romantic picture about which little girls have dreamed over the years and which draws them into ballet lessons. The two and half hour production was presented with two fifteen minute intermissions.
The ballet opened with Cinderella, danced by Pamela Swaney in the matinees and Tanya Strautmann in the evenings, dressed in grey rags and happily dancing as she swept and dusted the equally grey kitchen. She is joined by her father, danced by Michael Monsey, who embraces her warmly and then by her two garishly dressed step-sisters, who do not. Instead, they order Cinderella back to work and rebuff their father's attempts to bring all his daughters together.
The step-sisters, danced by Joy Baker and Lisa Wolfsberg, are played as comically clumsy characters, more absurd than mean. A beggar woman, who is really the Fairy Godmother in disguise (Tanya Strautmann and Pamela Swaney, at alternate shows) arrives and is treated kindly by Cinderella but not her step-sisters. The arrival of an invitation to a lavish ball at the palace with the Prince, and preparations for the party, take up the rest of the first act.
The second scene introduced Cinderella's friends, the mice, danced by some charming young dancers, and features the return of the beggar woman, who now reveals herself as the Fairy Godmother. She takes Cinderella out to the garden, where a host of fairies, including four who represent the seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and several butterflies entertain them, before Cinderella is transformed into her finery for the ball at the palace. The mice are transformed into girls in white dresses, and along with the fairies, become a retinue for Cinderella. A giant clock face looms over the stage to reminder her about the midnight deadline.
The first scene has much of the comic element of the dance, as well as establishing Cinderella's happy nature. The second scene's fantasy features some of the prettiest dance numbers and a great deal of the show's magic, with the appearance of the carriage pulled by white horses, not the mice.
The second act focuses on the ball. Dancers at the ball, including the Jester (Jason Martin) dance about as they await the Prince. The Prince, danced by Stephen Lawrence at the matinees and Elliot Geolat in the evenings, arrives dressed in gold and white costume but with a little comic touch, as the court is facing the wrong direction. The step sisters arrive late and engage in some comic dancing with the Prince, until Cinderella and her retinue arrive in the carriage. They dance but at midnight, she flees, leaving behind a shoe.
Act III features the Prince's search for and eventually discovery of Cinderella. The act includes some touches of the exotic, with dances by Gypsy and Middle Eastern couples, as he tries the shoe on the dancing women. He arrives at Cinderella's home and dances recap both parts of Act I and Act II, as everyone dances for at the wedding at the palace chapel. The ballet ends with the new couple dancing while sparkly sequins fall like snow from a spotlight above them, a very pretty finish. St. Louis Ballet's production did its best to create a sense of magic and romance for the audience, and in some ways seemed more the star than the dancers themselves. The principles dancers did a good job, with professional work by all and special efforts by Jason Martin as the Jester and Mana Takada as the Autumn Fairy. Supporting dancers, however, often looked very young and sometimes not very polished.
The visual element was another matter. Everything on stage was appealing and colorful. Sets were simple but pretty flats as backdrops, with curtains and a few props. Costumes were classically plush as well, with sparkly accents and lush colors.
Music was recorded rather than live but the recording was good quality. A fog machine and strobe lights added some magically effects, although the noisy fog machine was a distraction, as was a false start with the recorded music during Act III.
Choreography by Gen Horiuchi was classic but overall neither challenging for the dancers nor especially original.
Overall, "Cinderella" seemed to aim at making little girls fall in love with the ballet, and help mothers recapture their childhood. Purely as dance performance, it was not quite up to the mark of some of Dance St. Louis' acclaimed presentations but it did a good job of weaving some magic to cast the spell of dance on a new young audience.
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