Cinderella

I guess we all know the story by now, but ballet? First time for me, it was swell.

The Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet Theatre did two mid-week performances at the Aladdin theatre for the Performing Arts. It was a cast of 125 with a full orchestra, which we did not see until the curtain call.

Dead time breakdown:
Late: 7 minutes
Show: 8 minutes
Intermission: 19 minutes
Show: 24 minutes
Intermission: 17 minutes
Show: 22 minutes

TOTAL: 94 minutes of show and 43 minutes of dead time. What is the ratio here? About 2 to 1. Absolutely awful, do we need 24 and 22-minute segments with two intermissions?

As good as this company was, changing sets and costumes was not a problem, and I wasn't the only one pissed.

Of course sitting behind me was a woman with, for all intents & purposes, a nursery. She talked to the kids, took flash pictures, rewound the film manually, ate out of that crunchy sack, and was generally a sideshow unto herself. I was not impressed and, even more astonishing, how does she know where I am seated so she can always irritate my patronage? I am sure she will be in hell when I get there and then she can get in the ten item or less checkout line to irritate me into perpetuity.

Ah the ballet! Boy it was wonderful. It was immersed in Russian culture with a large cast, well-costumed, well-lit, and staged in an elegant manner. I love the ballet on this size of set. A decade ago the Bolshoi did a dozen performances to dozens, but this time there are larger crowds, perhaps hundreds. The midweek schedule, however, was a puzzlement. With names like Vitaly Poleshchuk and Natalia Povorozniuk, the tradition is obvious. Choreography by Nikolay Boyarchikov and Alla Kozhunkova for sets and costumes. Sergei Prokofiev did the music, of course, and it could not have been more perfect. I am continually amazed by the coordination of music & movement and how well it can be done. Prokofiev was born in 1891 in the Ukraine and wrote for Cinderella in 1945, the year of my birth. It will obviously endure through the ages. I searched for the orchestra throughout but could not find them until the final curtain, they were behind the back drop set. I did not hear any sour notes, or else I would have noticed them! This was the longest ballet Prokofiev wrote and the most intensely dramatic. It was programmed to be a new work but the ending left the artist with the famous quote, "living people can dance, the dying cannot."

We are all familiar with the Cinderella storyline and this played well to it with a unique sequence to the midnight clock, which could have been even better. Right before midnight 12 dancers, identified with clock Roman numerals, appeared in a circle and were tumbled in order by Cinderella dancing around them. This idea was stunning and effective, and should have been repeated at the end of each act. I was not overwhelmed by the sequences with Cinderella losing and regaining her slipper. This could have been worked into the clock sequence in a repeating fashion.

Sounds like I didn't like this performance, hell no! It was great. It was just masterful Russian ballet with an eye to history and showmanship, coupled with magnificent staging and presentation. I liked the dancers, a super strong cast. When the ugly stepsisters opened I thought one was on stilts, she was 6' 5'' or so it seemed. The stepsisters were all excellent as were the Prince and Cinderella! Twenty ballerinas in Swan Lake type costumes, 16 pairs with soldiers in uniform, the time sequences, and 40 plus dancers on the stage. The enormity of it was truly overpowering. Pretty much world class stuff and only two nights for all the sets, costumes, bodies and technicians that they had to move in and out. I was very glad I lived to see this and I get Spartacus next week. Life is so sweet. Spartacus, incidentally, will be at UNLV with a Moscow production company.

A tough win because they lose points for that dead time, 98 A+. Sammy Davis Jr. still the standard I judge them all by.