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| PNB corps de ballet members Steven Loch, left and Miles Pertl flank Principal Dancer Lesley Rausch in Jean Christophe Maillot's "Cendrillon" photo by Angela Sterling |
When the last strains of
Prokofiev's score faded away, I felt sorry for Cinderella’s selfish, cruel stepmother.
How could she ever measure up to
the faded memories of a dead wife who was seemingly so perfect that she’d
transformed into a glittering fairy?
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new
production of Jean Christophe Maillot’s “Cendrillon” is by no
means the sticky-sweet version of "Cinderella" that most Americans know from Walt Disney’s 1950 cartoon. As PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal
writes in the “Cendrillon” program, Maillot has no room for bibbidy bobbidy boo
and enchanted mice.
Those of you familiar with
Maillot’s “Romeo et Juliette,” which PNB premiered in 2008, know the
choreographer creates seamless ballet stories, with the emphasis on dramatic
momentum. Cendrillon” may not have the heft of Shakespeare’s tragic love
story, but Maillot has crafted a nuanced, much darker, and ultimately more enjoyable version of the tale
of the orphaned girl and her prince.
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| PNB Soloist Sarah Ricard Orza, left, with Principal Dancers Noelani Pantastico and Rachel Foster in Maillot's "Cendrillon" photo by Angela Sterling |
The “Cinderella/Cendrillon” fairy tale presents
audiences with the archetypal blended family: a bereaved man discovers a second
chance at love with a beautiful woman. She has no room in her heart for his
daughter, and her own two girls ruthlessly mock and torment their new
stepsister. Can you say dysfunction?
In Maillot’s version, Cendrillon
craves any scrap of affection that comes her way; her heart opens again and
again, despite the abuse that comes her way. No wonder she leaps to embrace
the gilded Fairy who enters her wretched existence, offering an invitation to
the ball, and a cleverly presented preview of the happiness that awaits the girl
when she meets her Prince.
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| Prince James Moore meets Cinderella Noelani Pantastico photo by Angela Sterling |
Maillot’s Prince is
not charming, at least not at first. He strides onstage, resplendent in a shiny
gold doublet, trailed by four friends who alternately amuse and fawn over
him. He's restless, virtually screaming "is that all there is, my friends?"
"Cendrillon" is tinged with
melancholy, but Maillot also infuses it with humor: the stepmother’s purple gown features
a scorpion tail that looks a bit like Barney the cartoon dinosaur; her
daughters’ party wigs look like upside-down pastry horns.
Their party finery is presented
to them by a pair of fops who Maillot dubs the Pleasure Superintendents. They
simper and fuss, fluttering across the stage, but at times they seem robotic as well, their arms and legs
bending into right angles at the joints. These superintendents keep the story
in motion, herding the characters from scene to scene.
While story prevails in “Cendrillon,”
the dancing is intriguing and often exquisite. Principal dancer Noelani
Pantastico danced the role during her years with Maillot’s own company, Les
Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and she infuses the character with a tender yearning. From the ballet's prologue to her happy ending, Pantastico dances in bare feet. You can't take your eyes off of them as they are stomped on by her step sisters, dipped in glitter by the Fairy, and ultimately worshiped by the Prince.
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| Guest artist April Ball as Fairy, with Prince James Moore |
The Mother/Fairy was danced on
opening night by April Ball, visiting from Monte Carlo. What a treat for local
audiences: Ball is elegant in a waltz of love with her stage husband, the
equally elegant PNB Principal Seth Orza. As the Fairy, she twitches her way
across the stage, extending an impossibly long, undulating index finger to beckon Cendrillon, or
rubbing both sides of her nose, like Samantha on the old television show “Bewitched.”
On opening night James Moore was
a feisty, passionate prince, rejecting the beauties who paraded before him, only
to succumb to Pantastico’s simple allure. For her, he tosses aside his
gold jacket, revealing the pure heart he’d hidden away beneath it.
[I had the great fortune to see former
PNB Principal Lucien Postelwaite dance a one-night-only stint as the Prince.
Postelwaite, now a member of Maillot’s company, has performed this role with
Pantastico many times, and it showed on February 4th. Where Moore is
spunky, Postelwaite is all lyrical grace, revealing royalty with a simple
extension of his hands and the curve of his neck. He and Pantastico seem to
melt into one another in their romantic pas de deux.]
Corps de ballet members Miles
Pertl and Steven Loch excelled as the Pleasure Superindents; in fact, they
seemed to revel in their silliness, as did the most excellent Step Sisters,
Rachel Foster and Sarah Ricard Orza.
But back to their mother,
as danced by Lesley Rausch. Her long legs and arms sliced through the air as
she labored to sever Cinderella’s ties to her father. Rausch telegraphed
haughty disdain for her stepdaughter, and everyone else, with imperious finger
snaps, or an Edvard Munch-like scream (echoed by her daughters.)
Rausch’s Stepmother is indeed a
selfish woman, but in Maillot’s ballet, she is also pitiable. When it becomes
clear that she will never measure up to the memory of her predecessor, and she
is ultimately spurned, Rausch stands flat footed, center stage, gazing out at
the audience. Every trace of imperiousness is gone, and we recognize the
profundity of her loss is equal to that of her husband.
Cinderella and the Prince might live happily ever after, but there is no joy ahead for their elders.
"Cendrillon" may not offer the heft and emotional roller coaster of Maillot’s “Romeo et Juliette,” but this lush,
complex performance is worth repeated viewings.
PNB’s “Cendrillon” continues
through February 12 at McCaw Hall, with several dancers rotating in the main
roles.
