Choreographer George Williamson retells Cinderella for a young audience, presented predominantly by young artistes of the English National Ballet 2- a joint venture between English National Ballet and its affiliate school. George turns this children’s favourite, to an unforgettable stage experience through the rudiments of the classical ballet. It is not easy to hold the attention of children for one hour and ten minutes of classical dance and music. Williamson effortlessly achieves the feat through a glittering presentation.
Cruel oppression ending in triumphant reward is a theme that has and always will enchant children. Topped with elements like malicious step sisters, an unjust step mother, a fairy godmother, a simple girl in rags transformed to a beautiful bejewelled maiden, a fairy chariot, a palace, a grand ball and a charming prince is bound to be a successful choice for creating children’s entertainment. A modern take on the story is added to this presentation by bringing in the land of the seasons where Cinderella is led by the fairy godmother to meet the four season fairies. This section is Williamson’s personal touch as it lends the variant seasonal shades to the piece both in colour and choreography. The section runs with a glistening silver moon on a black backdrop representing the still night sky, a very serene and twinkling scene for children to enjoy. All this set to Sergei Prokofiev’s emotion wrenching music is immensely powerful. The music has a melancholic undertow on which different emotions ebb and rise creating the rightly nuanced mood.
The dancers of the company ENB2 have excelled and are idols for the little aspiring ballerinas watching them in the house.
We have also tried to see the performance through the eyes of one of these aspiring little ballerinas. In the passages below we have Aishani sharing her experience of watching “My first Cinderella” in her own words.
Protima Chatterjee
