‘Cinderella’ is wonderland sure to please
By Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune
October 4, 2006
link to article here: Metromix
If the Joffrey Ballet’s “Cinderella” isn’t a huge hit, then fairy godmothers are extinct and happy endings are no more.
Frederick Ashton’s breathtaking classic, restaged with zealous energy and exquisite attention to detail by Wendy Ellis Somes, is now on view at the Auditorium Theatre. It is easily the most accessible and revealing of all the Ashton works acquired by the Joffrey, the late choreographer’s most avid and loyal American home. And though it boasts to-die-for sets and costumes (by David Walker), plentiful humor and a myth of a fairy tale, this “Cinderella” is much more, a choreographic wonderland for the adult balletomane, just as it’s a surefire delight for the kiddies.
Created in 1948, this is the work of a genius at the top of his game. Ashton attacks the rituals and shopworn antiquities of traditional story ballets with a fury, abolishing slow-moving pantomime in favor of ferocious invention. The story is there, brilliantly there, but the marvel is the technique, the variety, the sheer indulgence in structure, positioning and movement.
Cinderella herself signals this in her first solo, a miniature essay in the glories of point work, and a hint that the image of the glass shoe will evoke an array of dazzling, diversified footwork.
She is no wimp, but a strong, forceful athlete, a woman with arresting extensions, strength and agility, virtues mirrored by the fairy godmother and her quartet of seasons. One of the delights at Wednesday’s opening was the surefire performances of Julianne Kepley as the godmother and her masterful quartet of seasons: Heather Aagard, Kathleen Thielhelm, Jennifer Goodman and Valerie Robin. They and the ensemble as a whole were a bit bedeviled by the timing at the ball, but the corps deserves a salute for mastering Ashton’s tricky, contrapuntal designs.
Gary Chryst and Christian Holder, as the stepsisters, offer up the other side of the coin, Ashton’s funny tweak at gender stereotypes. These irrepressible veterans are a perfectly synchronized duo, Holder a tall virago, Chryst a fluttering butterfly, their dancing as plentiful and sharp as their comedy.
Willy Shives is an excellent prince, and Calvin Kitten delivers Ashton’s inimitable acrobatics as the jester.
But this is a ballet about women and their unassailable stature in the art. Maia Wilkins’ Cinderella—a role also to be danced by Kepley, Suzanne Lopez and Victoria Jaiani—is a triumph. Cherished for her lyricism in other roles, injured for a time, here she’s all muscle, command and classic poise, no mere princess but a queen on point. She executes the fiendish Ashton requirements with virtuosity, and here and there the split-second instincts, hesitations and flourishes of an artist.
It’s accompanied by the Chicago Sinfonietta, conducted by Leslie B. Dunner.
“Cinderella” plays through Oct. 15 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. Phone: 312-902-1500.