Ballet Spokane stages cheerful ‘Cinderella’
Chase away the winter blahs with Ballet Spokane’s performance of “Cinderella” this weekend at the Central Valley Performing Arts Center.
“This is a lighthearted ballet, not a tragic one,” said artistic director and choreographer Janet Wilder, who created the ballet with a fun, comic twist.
“The role of the stepmother is garish and overbearing. One of the stepsisters in ditzy, the other klutzy,” she laughed. “And both are unruly and uncouth.”
Character roles such as these require both acting and dancing, and this ballet is full of them.
Amanda Lochmiller, a graduate of the dance program at the University of Arizona who recently completed her fifth season with the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, will dance the stepmother. The stepsisters will be performed by company members Jaimi McGuire and Marcy Ray.
The wise, ethereal Fairy Godmother, another character role, will be performed by a former principal dancer of the Oakland Ballet and the newest member of Ballet Spokane, Phaedra Jarrett.
Even the five fairies who dress Cinderella in her ball gown and assure that she leaves the castle before the stroke of midnight are character roles in Wilder’s interpretation of this ballet classic.
The title role will be performed by Kari Jensen while her consort, the noble prince, will be danced by Todd Fox, a guest artist who freelances throughout the United States and Europe.
Based on French author Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale and the music of Sergei Prokofiev, “Cinderella” appeared as a Russian ballet in the mid-19th century in St. Petersburg and Moscow. However, because of Wilder’s uncommon interpretation of the story, she has substituted some of Prokofiev’s music with that of Paul Reade.
Most company dancers will be performing multiple roles during the performance. The comedy continues backstage as well as onstage as performers scurry to change costumes just in time to return to stage as a different character.
“You should see that dressing room at the end of the performance,” Wilder said. “But dancing multiple roles provides such a fine challenge for young company dancers.”