Spectacular Traditional Cinderella!
The Cinderella ballet is one of those ballets that takes many different forms in the hands of various choreographers. Take for example the variation from the Monte Carlo Ballet Cinderella to Nureyev's Paris Opera Ballet version: barely recognizable as the same ballet, except for the music. This Birmingham Royal Ballet version follows the traditional story with the focus on Cinderella, herself(pretty much an essential) and her two stepsisters. Here, the stepsisters are named Skinny and Dumpy. Dumpy wears a fat-suit. Both sisters dance on pointe and almost steal the show. They are given very aggressive, athletic choreography and pull it off with perfect technique and humor. They are about the funniest stepsisters I have seen in a Cinderella ballet. Cinderella is equally impressive. She dances barefoot except when she dresses up for the prince's ball, and then she dances on pointe. The shoe she leaves at the ball when she scurries off is a pointe shoe, similar to the Nureyev version...
A Dreamlike Cinderella
There have been several performances of "Cinderella" available on disc, and I think they own them all. They have all had problems: poor production values, poor camera work (in the Frederick Ashton version), poor direction, etc. Thus, when I attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet's wonderful version last year, with Carla Körbes in the lead role, I thought that just maybe I would never see a better Cinderella. The person with whom I attended the PNB version still likes that one better, but I would have to go for this BRB blu-ray. The main reason is Elisha Willis. She is the ideal Cinderella. She really comes across very well as an "everygirl." Her acting is very convincing and not even all that stagy...which makes the way she lights up at the ball even more amazing. Anyone watching this production sympathetically, male or female, will kind of fall in love with Cinderella. And Willis's dancing is first class, worthy of any great ballet company. Iain Mackay as the Prince is...
A Very Interesting Ballet Movie Classic!
First of all, this is from 1961 and is a very fine example of the Russian cinema from that period. It is in color with beautiful camera work, special effects of the period, and great acting. The camera gives us many closeups to show facial reactions. The image and sound quality are very good and typical of movies from that period. If you have been spoiled by the technical perfection of image and sound quality of today's digital products, you may not want this. I have met many people that tell me they refuse to watch any of the older movies for this reason! I, for one, am very glad to have these classics available to me(as I was growing up, I only heard about classic movies, but could never see them!). The performance, itself, is quite good with very interesting choreography. All the female parts are danced on pointe, including the ugly sisters, the mother and even the fairy godmother. We are also given the fairies of the seasons here with solos for each of them. The famous...
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