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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > May > 11
Monday, May 11, 2009
Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Cinderella’
In Ballet Austin’s “Cinderella,” the shoe fit well enough. The company’s revival of artistic director Stephen Mills’ 1997 ballet has the expected elements: a beautiful Fairy Godmother, a happy couple, and a pumpkin-turned carriage pulled by adorable pint-sized dragonflies. But Friday at Dell Hall, the ballet did little to exceed expectations. The story was confusing, especially around the stepsisters, and the dancing seemed hesitant.
Mills’ “Cinderella” relies heavily on the guidance of the Fairy Godmother, the sparkling Aara Krumpe. With Cinderella (Allisyn Paino) and, later, the Prince (Frank Schott) Krumpe is a dancing guide. In pairs the dancers sweep back and forth as the Fairy Godmother pulls the young lovers toward each other through dance.
Other choreographic choices didn’t feed the story as well. The stepsisters (Anne Marie Melendez and Jamie Lynn Witts) contrast little with Cinderella. It’s an odd case: good dancing undercuts the ballet’s story. Then the stepsisters don’t come to the ball as stepsisters, but as princesses, indistinguishable from the other two princesses (Rebecca Johnson and Beth Terwilleger).
In princess variations, Johnson, Terwilleger, and Witts displayed precision. The incorporation of the ball guests into the main pas de deux was another choreographic high point in Act II. The Austin Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Bay, buoyed all of the dancing.
Paino, best known for funnier performances like Kate in Mills’ “Taming of the Shrew” showed a softer side as Cinderella. Her acting, so compelling as midnight pulled her away from the Prince, will be missed when she retires after the weekend run.
Often Friday’s dancing looked anxious. In a dream sequence where the Fairy Godmother shows Cinderella her future, Johnson and Christopher Swaim struggled. Paino and Schott fulfilled the dream’s promise, also struggling in lifts as they reprised the duet at the ballet’s close.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance dance critic.
