A nostalgic traditional in 2024: Boston Ballet’s ‘Cinderella’

The traditional Disney canon is nostalgic for a lot of of this reviewer’s technology. Perhaps we re-experience it when now we have our personal kids and watch with them, or when these tales resurface within the cultural zeitgeist. Should you’re me, you come to them as a dance critic (actually no complaints there). 

By way of any of these avenues, we may be flooded with candy nostalgia. I felt that with taking in Boston Ballet’s Cinderella, even with the firm’s typical means of infusing a touch of the trendy right into a classical combine. Whether or not traditional or fashionable, the fantasy and magic at hand might seize our hearts and produce us into a complete new world for a short while. Malin Thoors and Wendy Ellis Somes directed, supervised and staged this system. Choreography is from Sir Frederick Ashton. 

We started this journey into the fantastical – a sensible world however touched by magic – with lighting dappling the curtain earlier than it rose (lighting design by Brandon Stirling Baker). It did so on Cinderella’s father’s house, together with her working away within the nook and her stepsisters being their flamboyant, considerably ridiculous selves. Delightfully portrayed by Graham Johns and Lawrence Rines Munro, full with large wigs and outlandishly loud garb, there was a “drag” ingredient to those characters. 

These two are villainous, even relentlessly vicious, in lots of Cinderella portrayals. But in Boston Ballet’s, they got here off (to this reviewer a minimum of) as extra bumbling and comical. That’s in step with the accessible humor in Boston Ballet applications reminiscent of Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. It additionally aligns with a extra fashionable ethos of refraining from judgment of our fellow people; labels reminiscent of “a great particular person” or “a foul particular person” can really feel too simplistic once we take into account the complexity of the trendy world and the lives inside it. 

The titular character, Cinderella, didn’t keep working within the nook – unseen, neglected – for lengthy. The stepsisters left, and Cinderella took up all of the house at hand to bop together with her broom. Lia Cirio danced the character with a way of the character’s full humanity: her innocence and goodness, but additionally resilience and persistence. On this first scene, nonetheless, Cinderella exuded a high quality extra on the sweetness and softness aspect of that spectrum – a younger girl dreaming of a greater life for herself, maybe even of a greater world past her. 

The lilting, romantic rating (by Sergei Prokofiev, carried out by Mischa Santora) enhanced that sense of dreaminess – and introduced me again to once I took this story in (repeatedly…sorry, mother!) as a really younger woman. Quickly, Cinderella met her Fairy Godmother – which Web optimization Hye Han danced with the entire sprightliness and effervescence of a very magical being. The easeful accents in her motion created a mushy, type vitality. 

A fascinating wooden, of glowing mild and grey shadow, was throughout them (scenic design by Toer van Schayk). With a vivid moon overhead, the rating translated a way of the grand, the celestial, the cosmic. Fairies of every season then got here to bop for Cinderella. The Fairy Spring (Nina Matiashvili) danced with the marginally cautious, but totally joyful sense of latest life rising. The Fairy Summer time (Haley Schwan) introduced the sensation of the languid, but wholly energized continuity of a protracted seashore day. 

The Fairy Autumn (Chisako Oga) moved with the purposeful freneticism of squirrels gathering nuts for his or her hibernation retailer. The Fairy Winter (Lauren Herfindahl) danced with the repetitive, staccato high quality of crunching steps in snow. Following them had been a charming corps of dancers embodying Stars, with the graceful waltzing of the Nutcracker’s Flowers and the punchy small jumps of its Snow. 

Simply earlier than the primary intermission, Cinderella appeared on the palace – utterly remodeled (costume design by Christine Haworth). As a intelligent translation into the ballet medium, dancers carrying Cinderella’s veil adopted her – no large pumpkin carriage in sight. The curtain fell, and we within the viewers had been left in compelling suspense for what would transpire there. Though, if we all know the story – and most of us do – we knew what would occur. The enjoyable half can be half-forgetting it for only a second, to a minimum of considerably expertise it anew.

The Second Act settled us within the palace for longer. Its opulence – tasteful somewhat than ostentatious – contrasted the relative modesty of the place Cinderella lived. Courtroom dancers moved with each brightness and grounding, inflecting ballet vocabulary into traditional courtroom dancing. Cinderella’s stepsisters had been additionally there, in all of their flashy buffoonery. 

Daniel Durrett danced the charming Jester, bringing pure enjoyable and vibrancy to this very critical courtroom ball. The pageantry of trumpets and all standing at attendance welcomed the Prince (Lasha Khozashvili). All through, he danced feather mild and with beautiful strains for days. 

Cinderella and the Prince danced, one thing we might all see coming. As was the case for this system total, there was additionally one thing wholly recent and ingenious on supply; the Stars and Fairies of the Seasons additionally got here to bop. Surrounding them dancing, it was as if the Stars and Seasons had been blessing this dance. This spoke to me of nature itself encouraging the assembly and interacting of those two individuals – fated, predestined, one might even argue. 

Whether or not or not, the circle of glowing dancers across the Prince and Cinderella was an aesthetic balm to the very soul. But the environment shifted because the clock struck midnight. A purple-blue mild settled over the house, and Cinderella ran off. The Prince waved goodbye to her, wistful and even unhappy. The curtain fell for the second intermission – creating one other suspenseful chapter break. 

Act III opened with Cinderella operating away, off into the woods and away from the fortress. Different pairs of lovers – every with a novel couple dynamic – additionally traversed the woods. That introduced a way of others peripherally linked to the story at hand, a complete group engaged with the prince’s courtroom. 

Subsequent, we had been again at Cinderella’s father’s house. Quickly the Prince arrived, with the entire pageantry usually in his orbit – together with the Jester. We who know the story (and once more, that’s most of us) knew what the Prince sought: the lady who wore the shoe, the shoe that was the one factor that he had left of her. As a lot because the stepsisters tried to power their too-large ft into it, that they had no such luck. 

Then got here the magical second of the shoe becoming on Cinderella’s foot, and the Prince recognizing her. The Jester actually leapt for pleasure, and the Fairy Godmother appeared as if blessing the second. The Seasons, Stars, and Prince’s buddies all got here to bop. An entire ensemble was there to rejoice the union of the Prince and Cinderella (although, as fairly the understatement, the stepsisters weren’t too happy) – their fairy-tale ending, considered one of all being proper on this real looking, but magical world. 

Even with that fairy-tale high quality, Boston Ballet’s presentation of the traditional story had its typical contact of a contemporary aesthetic and sensibility. If wanting from such a extra up to date lens, one may query (as I did at one or two factors whereas watching): can we actually have to preserve telling tales about princes and princesses, after they so diverge from the world of 2024? 

Nicely, Cinderella actually has highly effective issues to say about issues reminiscent of class, upward mobility and reaching one’s highest aspirations regardless of their societal function. Let’s additionally keep in mind that – though I started this assessment speaking about Disney princess nostalgia – these tales are a lot, a lot older (and infrequently extra grotesque). 

Any of that apart, possibly the magnificence and sentimentality of such retellings is sufficient. Perhaps basking in all of that may be a break from serious about issues of our hectic fashionable world. No matter any given viewers might expertise, Boston Ballet’s Cinderella actually invited them into one thing magical, one thing wondrous, one thing to treasure. Could we not neglect how particular that alone may be. 

By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.