Cinderella. - Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, Denver, Colorado - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, Feb, 1995 by Ann Barzel

Cinderella, the three-act ballet to the Prokofiev score as choreographed by Martin Fredmann, Colorado Ballet's artistic director, is not a Petipa-type classical work; rather, it has the enchantment and trappings of romantic ballet. Like all fairy tales, it points to a moral and endows the leading players with an aura of goodness. In that touch of humanity there is the realism in which romanticism usually ends.

Fredmann conveys otherworldliness by means of the movement vocabulary in which he couches his dances. Ragged Cinderella for the most part avoids the effortful, earth-anchored releve; instead, she steps lightly onto pointe in pique. She soars in jete-ballotte' with the accent on the upbeat, unlike the usual grand jete, which is usually accented on the downbeat.

At the ball the excellent corps de ballet performed lovely dances in the romantic mood, graced with elements of nineteenth-century period dances. This scene was spiced with showy variations by the company's several male virtuosos. And there was choreographic imagination in the wildly comic dances expertly presented by the Stepmother (Gregory K. Gonzales) and the Stepsisters (Mari Okamato and Kimberly Ann Horten).

Colorado Ballet's ending was not the usual one in which ragged Cinderella is transformed into the glamorous belle of the ball and embraced by the Prince. Fredmann carried the story a step further and enacted "and they lived happily ever after." There was a formal, lavishly produced wedding followed by the ballet's final scene, which could be termed a "honeymoon dance," a pas de deux by Cinderella and the Prince.

There were noteworthy differences between the ballet's two major pas de deux, the first with Cinderella and the Prince dancing at the ball and the second showing the pair dancing "happily ever after." In the ballroom scene they danced a bit formally until an obvious attraction developed to joyous young love. In the final pas de deux there was intimacy, even an erotic note, in the many lifts and ecstatic embraces. For the final curtain there was only the Fairy Godmother dancing her blessing.

The company presented two first-rate casts of principals. Mariko Miyauchi and Yuko Katsumi alternated as Cinderella. Both technically and dramatically superb, they displayed personal differences. Miyauchi, youthful with a childlike sweetness, was simply adorable, while Katsumi was more grown-up in her warmth and kindness. Alternates as the Prince were Igor Vassin, of the elegant line, and handsome Meelis Pakri. Russian-trained Estonians, they both danced and partnered magnificently.

Scenery and costumes for the ballet were by Peter Farmer, and the large and excellent orchestra was conducted by Frank Toth.