{"id":32626,"date":"2019-06-22T10:03:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T10:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/?p=32626"},"modified":"2019-06-24T06:53:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T06:53:46","slug":"christopher-wheeldons-cinderella-for-english-national-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/christopher-wheeldons-cinderella-for-english-national-ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s Cinderella for English National Ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s Cinderella in-the-round for English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall is sumptuous and spectacular. Originally made for a proscenium-arch, the Hall\u2019s massive arena was inevitably going to bring up some issues with sight lines and intimacy, but it is a bold and magical looking production with some thrilling moments.<\/p>\n

Julian Crouch\u2019s resplendent costume and set designs are a feast for the eyes and Daniel Brodie\u2019s projections simply transform the Hall from the dimly lit scullery to a landscape or a palace in a matter of seconds. It\u2019s not entirely without flaws but Wheeldon\u2019s choreography fares best in the enormous corps de ballet scenes, particularly Act II\u2019s ballroom.\u00a0The opening moments are skilfully done as we see the young Cinders, grief stricken as she loses her mother to consumption. As her mother is transported heavenward, she appears to grow angel wings in a very effective and touching scene.<\/p>\n

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ENB Christopher Wheeldons “Cinderella” (Alina Cojocaru) Photo by Ian Gavan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Fairy Godmother is replaced by four Fates, who act as guides and protectors, gently urging Cinderella in the right direction. They also contribute to making the swirling lifts more fluid and airborne. The usually ugly sisters are, in reality, beautiful (Edwina and Clementine) but bad behaviour persuades us otherwise. The Prince has a best friend, Benjamin, with whom he switches roles at the beginning, thus a meeting with Cinderella is engineered. A moveable kitchen table works wonders in terms of the space allowing every quarter of the audience to catch some of the drama but occasionally the narrative gets lost in the ether, when backs are turned. In this way, I missed a fair-sized chunk of the action at the first performance I saw and was delighted at the revelations in the second.\u00a0 One rather crass moment is with poor Laura Hussey as Madame Mansard, the dancing teacher – adorned with voluminous, fake breasts which Michael Coleman as Alfred, Benjamin\u2019s father rather loses himself in. But as Act I progresses, it gets better and as the transformation begins, the seasons in their glorious and colourful costumes fill the stage, it starts to look like the fairytale should. In the final moment when Cinderella is hoisted in the air and a carriage and horses are conjured out of nothing, a billowing silk looking very pumpkin-like, the wonderment sets in properly.<\/p>\n

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Emma Hawes and Katja Khaniukova in “Cinderella” Photo by Laurent Liotardo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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English National Ballet in Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella in-the-round Photoy by Ian Gavan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Act II is ravishing with its cast of 48 dancers at the ball, dressed in a rich, deep blue. Wheeldon\u2019s vast corps navigate the stage (and all the entrances and exits) supremely well. In fact, the choreography for everyone works very well here although the Russian, Spanish and Balinese Princesses are superfluous as they don\u2019t offer much to the proceedings and have no room to develop. The comedy comes over best in this act, in particular for Stepmother Hortensia who drinks herself into a hilarious stupor. Cinders and her Prince are more mesmerising for being surrounded by spiralling courtiers.<\/p>\n

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English National Ballet – Christopher Wheeldons “Cinderella” Photo by Ian Gavan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Act III is also amusing – with the multiple slipper trying-on sections, especially Hortensia hammering the shoe onto Edwina\u2019s foot. And the final pas de deux is beautiful but somehow dwarfed by the immense space. It does, however, manage to retain the romance of it all.<\/p>\n

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Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez in “Cinderella” Photo by Laurent Liotardo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the first performance, Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez were Cinderella and Prince Guillaume, breathing real life into the fairytale. Cojocaru\u2019s fragility and vulnerability make her ideal as Cinderella yet her steely technique belies her delicate frame. She has us on board from the start, her sweetness, endearingly winning. Hernandez is a coltish young prince, rather than noble, but dances and partners wonderfully well. As Benjamin, Ken Saruhashi gives it everything and even gets his girl (Clementine) in the end.\u00a0 Emma Hawes and Katja Khaniukova as Edwina and Clementine are excellent though some of the comedy doesn\u2019t travel well and comes across as a little too slapstick (bad breath and orgies?). At both performances Sarah Kundi was fabulous as Hortensia, showing great comic timing especially in Act II.<\/p>\n

Erina Takahashi and Joseph Caley led the second performance with equal accomplishment. Takahashi beautifully expresses the transition from melancholy to awe to joy and with her flawless technique and real ballerina quality, had us in thrall to her performance. Caley too, is very boyish and charmed us with what seemed like genuine happiness at finding his true love. Alison McWhinney and Anjuli Hudson made good, funny sisters and Barry Drummond was a handsome, warm Benjamin. His clean technique and radiant stage presence surely make him a candidate for a Princely future.\u00a0 A few mentions of some of the less prominent dancers: the corps are superlative, but one cannot help but notice that through necessity, it was populated with soloists, first soloists and even a principal (Shiori Kase as a lead Spirit of Lightness – wasted!). Outstanding among the leading seasons were Shale Wagman, Rhys Antoni Yeomans and Noam Durand, who are just artists but dancing at top soloist level. It\u2019s a Cinderella<\/em> on a grand scale and unquestionably sends audiences home feeling utterly elated. The company looks unbeatable and boasts numerous casts in each of the solo roles. But, the final plaudits should go to maestro Gavin Sutherland who conducts a glorious sounding English National Ballet Philharmonic, miraculously appearing above the stage in the second act.<\/p>\n

Deborah Weiss<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s Cinderella in-the-round for English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall is sumptuous and spectacular. Originally made for a proscenium-arch, the Hall\u2019s massive arena was inevitably going to bring up some issues with sight lines and intimacy, but it is a bold and magical looking production with some thrilling moments. Julian Crouch\u2019s resplendent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32626"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32640,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626\/revisions\/32640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}