Australian Ballet: Cinderella, London, July 2016

[Blossom]

Not the recent update but have seen on yt the original Ratmansky Cinderella and wasn't enthused.

[cavycapers]

I think I will save my money up for the wonderful BRB and David Bintley's production coming again in the new year, which I intend to see at least twice (three times....?)

[Bluebird]

I've been given the casting for the rest of the week with the usual warning that it might have to be changed.

Treat with caution:

 

This afternoon Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo

Tonight Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall

Friday Leanne Stojmenov and Kevin Jackson

Saturday matinée Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo

Saturday evening Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall

 

That 'treat with caution' might have been prophetic.  A couple of days ago I wrote to the Australian Ballet in Melbourne to try to get some accurate casting.  They've just sent me the link to the full nightly casting but they have the Saturday casts reversed with Scott/King-Wall in the afternoon and Kondo/Guo in the evening.

 

(The link says Romeo and Juliet Melbourne casting but it does take you to the London casting for Cinderella!)

 

https://australianballet.com.au/romeo-and-juliet-melbourne-casting

 

I would have thought the representative who's actually in London (and who gave me the casting in my original post) would have had the most up-to-date information but can't confirm that.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Bluebird

[Bluebird]

I've double checked with the Australian Ballet in Melbourne and they have confirmed the casting on this link:

 

https://australianballet.com.au/romeo-and-juliet-melbourne-casting

 

The remaining performances are, therefore as follows:

 

Friday: Leanne Stojmenov and Kevin Jackson
Saturday matinée:  Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall 
Saturday evening:  Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo

[Beryl H]

I was very pleasantly surprised at last night's performance, after sitting through the Ratmansky Mariinsky version at the ROH and being less than enchanted, he has made many changes, all for the better, I don't think it's a complete choreographic revision as the Prince's entrance, ballroom pdd and variations look similar, but the Seasons variations for the previous 4 men have been replaced by various solo's, duets and pas de trois for what is now a longer sequence for the Sun, Moon and planets. Costumes are a mixture of crazy and beautiful, the scenery is good and it actually looks like a fairy tale now, lighting excellent ! 

 

Cinderella and the Prince have 3 pdd , the ballroom waltz is more or less a pdd for them, then the normal pdd with variations later, and a lovely pdd in the last act, Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall danced last night, their beautiful dancing was the highlight of the ballet, there were many fine soloists, Dimity Azoury danced the Venus solo, and Vivienne Wong the first temptor as the Prince travels the world, lots of others that I can't identify.

 

Another happy change is that the stepmother and sisters are not as vicious and irritating as usual, so Cinderella is not as downtrodden in this version which takes away that rather cruel tone the ballet can have. With the whole Company dancing with enthusiasm and joy, after Ashton's I would say this is the version I enjoyed the most. 

 

Also Steven Heathcote made a small appearance as Cinderella's father, another bonus

[alison]

I'd be interested to hear what anyone who's seen both last night's and Wednesday's cast made of the respective performances?

[Jan McNulty]

 

Also Steven Heathcote made a small appearance as Cinderella's father, another bonus

 

 

 

I mentioned on the Swan Lake thread that I first saw this company at ROH in 1988 or 89.  It was a performance of Sleeping Beauty danced by Lisa Bolt and Steven Heathcote!  It's a kind of full circle really and great to see him still involved with the company.

[zxDaveM]

Foteini Christofilopoulou was also at the rehearsal, so here are some more photos:

 

Ingrid Gow, Ben Davis, Eloise Fryer
© Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

 

Ty King-Wall, Amber Scott
© Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr
 
See more...

Set from DanceTabs: The Australian Ballet - Cinderella
Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr
 

[aileen]

I quite enjoyed this this afternoon. The opening scene started very strongly with Cinderella looking at her mother's portrait to that exquisite musical motif which is used later in the ballet for the arrival at the ball in some versions, followed by the stepmother and stepsisters being revealed when Cinderella removes the washing from the clothes line. The designs were a bit of a strange mish-mash but the reasoning behind them was explained in the programme. I wasn't totally won over by them. In particular, the pom-pom tutus and shingards for the men in the planets sequence were not to my taste at all. There was some strong imagery though involving time / clocks before Cinderella leaves for the ball and metronomes emerging from garden topiary just before she departs. I missed the usual fairytale carriage.

 

The choreography for the stepmother and sisters was strong. Ratmansky has chosen to make the stepmother a foxy youngish wife who had probably made what turned out to be a bad match, to a drunkard, out of desperation. His choreography has a lot of detail but can be fussy at times. The Prince has a lot of demanding choreography but, interestingly, Ratmansky doesn't seem to go in for high or complex lifts. The ballet ends with a moving pdd for the two leads but there is something rather ambiguous about it. It's not certain that they will live happily ever after. Perhaps reality will not live up to the thrill of the chase after all.

 

Personally, I love the Prokoviev score but there's no doubt that there is a lot of darkness in it and I feel that, at times, choreographers struggle to find choreography to fit the music. Jerome Kaplan's quirky designs, incorporating surrealist elements, do complement the rather mordant score even though I find some of them rather jarring.

 

It's interesting to compare this version of Cinderella with Wheeldon's for DNB, which I saw last year. I prefer the Ratmansky one overall as I think that the choreography is better. I hope to see BRB's rather more traditional production again next season. The transformation scene before the ball is really magical and neither Ratmansky's nor Wheeldon's versions can match it in this respect. I live in hope that one day someone will make a perfect Cinderella ballet with subtle characterisation and decent choreography for the stepsisters, no boring planets / woodfolk etc sequence, a clever transformation scene and plenty of magic.

[Jan McNulty]

I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon.  More later.

 

Nice meeting up with Trog (who was also wearing his badge, as was I), Terpsichore and Michelle S too.

 

Aileen, both the versions by NB (both with scores by the wonderful Philip Feeney) have a different take - neither has planets, stars, woodland folk etc although David Nixon's version has a magician as the Fairy Godfather.  I love both versions (and would kill to see Christopher Gable's again).

[Terpsichore]

I have just this minute arrived from London.

 

I was very impressed with the performance - the staging, costumes and set designs and special effects as well as the choreography and dancing.

 

It was good to see Janet McNulty, Rebecca and two other subscribers whose names I didn't catch. I would love to have met Trog.   Janet said he was in the front row and wearing a badge.   I was a few rows back in the centre stalls and could not intercept his row in time.

 

I also love the two versions of Cinderella in Northern Ballet's repertoire. I think I prefer Gable's but ever so slightly.  IMHO Gable's era was a golden age for Northern Ballet though I continue to admire them very much indeed.

 

Two other Cinderellas that I particularly admire are Darius James's for  Ballet Cymru and Christopher Hampson's for Scottish Ballet. I saw Bethany Kingsley-Garner in the title tole in Hampson's and am now one of her fans.  I also liked Wheeldon's for the Dutch National Ballet when thet were at the Coliseum this time last year though mainly because of Anna Tsygankova's performance.

 

I shall post a full review in my blog tomorrow.

[Don Q Fan]

Whilst I enjoyed the matinee yesterday I was not over bowled by it.   There were some nice touches and the transformation scene was very cleverly done, but overall I think I much prefer Bintley's more classic/traditional Cinderella for BRB and Wheeldon's version for DNB (the coach in that version was just fabulous).  The costumes were interesting and the sets were nice but at times the lighting for me was rather dark.  Amber Scott was a lovely Cinderella but I could not work out quite what was going on with her pointe shoes I think she must wear some inner sock of some sort or have had her foot strapped up - whatever it had me puzzled, but I am interested in these things! I felt a bit sad for the dancers as they are flying straight back to Oz today and can only sympathise with their disappointment at the lack of chance for them to have some time in London sightseeing etc. Hope they bring their classical Swan Lake next time.

[Beryl H]

I noticed Amber Scott's pointe shoe ribbons that look like bandages too, they are visible in photos so she always wears them, I'm sure someone can explain them.

[Jan McNulty]

I noticed Amber Scott's pointe shoe ribbons that look like bandages too, they are visible in photos so she always wears them, I'm sure someone can explain them.

 

 

Well you've got me going now!!!

 

I googled photographs of her and I agree that in a number (but not all) of the photographs I looked at it looked as though she was wearing some sort of toe covering that came over the edge of her shoes and thicker than normal ribbons.

 

Yesterday it looked to me that she was wearing footless tights and that you could see her bare foot below the ankle ribbons.

 

Whatever it was, it did not affect the quality of her performance for me and I thought she was a delight as Cinderella.

[Don Q Fan]

Yes I agree!

[FrankH]

Saturday evening. Cast: Ako Kondo, Chengwu Guo, Valerie Tereshchenko, Robyn Hendricks, Jill Ogai, Jasmin Durham etc.

 

From reading various reviews I didn't expect that much. It turned out to be one of the most memorable artistic events I have ever attended, although for me not entirely because of events on stage.

 

I thought the dancers were superb - both soloists and Corps. If there were mistakes anywhere, they didn't affect my enjoyment.

 

As for the ballet itself, I was entranced by it. I am not a particular fan of Prokofiev's music, and this ballet didn't make me more of one. But I can see how well the score fits in with the mood and story of the ballet. Or rather, how well Ratmansky's angle on the Cinderella story fits the music. The ballet was a visual treat. The gimmicky parts actually worked for me. There are illogicalities in the details (e.g. why metronomes rather than clocks?) which some reviewers found annoying. I didn't. I just revelled in the imagery.

 

A bonus was the presence of Benedicte Bemet. Not in the cast, but as one of the "Artists of the Australian Ballet" who appeared as "Ball Guests" and "Temptors". She is not only a magnificent dancer but a fine actress. And I thought the same acting ability appeared in all the dancers. If there is a "weak link" in the company, it wasn't on view. The Daily Telegraph ballet critic doesn't rate The Australian Ballet among the global first XI of ballet companies. If so, it certainly plays at a standard well above its league placing.

 

And much of the credit for that must go to the artistic director and his staff. Which leads to the off-stage event which sealed the evening for me.

 

I was in a seat towards the back of the Stalls, row M. Imagine my delight in finding that seated only 6 rows directly in front of me was David McAllister, Artistic Director of the AB. I recognised him immediately as he was turned round in animated conversation with a white-haired gentleman in the row behind him, who must have been someone important in the ballet world. And then, in one of the intervals, Fiona Tonkin walked right past my seat on the way to greeting and embracing the white-haired gentleman. How elegant and graceful she still is, years after she retired as a dancer.

 

I am normally very shy - I wouldn't dare approach dancers at the stage door. But as David McAllister was leaving the auditorium at the end of the performance, I managed to find myself right behind him. With the exit door fast approaching, I plucked up my courage and said "Mr McAllister, I want to thank you ..."

 

And I mentioned World Ballet Day 2014, and I mentioned especially the wonderful Class led by Fiona Tonkin, that it had been one of the most joyous things I had ever seen, and that it had contributed to my becoming really interested in ballet. By that time we had reached the parting of the ways.There was so much more for which I wanted to thank him, and the AB, but I didn't want to detain him at what must have been a busy and stressful time.

 

For me, The Australian Ballet epitomise the qualities which have led me to love ballet as an art form. There is an elan, a special joy, about the Company, so evident in their sections of WBD, in both 2014 and 2015, and in the performances I have seen. And so much of that feeling must come down from the top.

 

Thank you, David McAllister. Thank you, The Australian Ballet. May it not be too long before we see you again in the UK.

[Jan McNulty]

I was really interested to see Ratmansky's take on Cinderella and am pleased to say that I thought it was terrific.

 

I liked the fact that neither the stepmother nor the stepsisters were too horrible to Cinderella and that actually Cinderella was quite spunky and stood up to them within the limits of being the household drudge.  The lack of a transformation scene involving cute animals and a pumpkin turned into a coach did not bother me in the least.

 

On the whole I liked the set and costumes but I wasn't too sure about the ones for the planets.  The two stars pointy tutus were terrific though!  I loved the metronomes!  OK, I know they weren't clocks but they matched the marching of the seconds towards midnight.

 

Ratmansky has produced some gorgeous choreography in this production - the final pdd was beautiful and moving and I loved the very quiet ending.  There were other sections that moved me too - when the fairy godmother reproduced the mother's portrait all over the walls and when the Prince walked past Cinderella when she was a servant without even noticing her.  There were plenty of moments for laughs too.

 

I loved Amber Scott as Cinderella.  She was really spunky but then seemed absolutely crushed after the evening with the Prince ended with him not recognising her in her real clothes.  Ty King-Wall was an elegant but somewhat playboy Prince till he fell in love with Cinderella.

 

I enjoyed both the Australian Ballet productions shown in London this year and I hope it is not too long before they grace us with their presence again.

[trog]

I noticed Amber Scott's pointe shoe ribbons that look like bandages too, they are visible in photos so she always wears them, I'm sure someone can explain them.

 

They might be wide elastic - some dancers use it as well as ribbons.

 

I absolutely loved the production. The surrealist/dada sets made sense after a while. I quickly spotted Dali's Mae West Lips Sofa and Man Ray's Object To Be Destroyed was a brilliant idea in place of the usual clock. I've seen the stool (with the ladies legs) the Prince was using when trying to find Cinders before too, but I can't remember which artist created it. I've tried Google but it's not the easiest of things to lookup. I'll report back if I find it.

 

Amber Scott is a delight to watch. She glides elegantly across the stage, barely seeming to touch the floor.

 

It's a shame that I missed out on the other balletco-ers, apart from Janet McNulty who I know well. Maybe next time?

 

Above, terpsichore mentions Darius James' version of Cinderella - I love that one too, as well as David Bintley's version.