Just in time to mark Valentine's Day comes Ballet West's second go-around with "Cinderella," and it's just as elegantly beautiful as the first time. Indeed, it seems to have grown in stature and appeal - probably because of the repeat factor, where you take in more detail.
Nowadays so many things are shrinking in size, corners are being cut, details are being scaled back. Not so "Cinderella," whose opulent costumes, sets and properties are all that your heart could desire.David Walker's skillful design creates fairy-tale magic. For example, take the scene where the dingy kitchen disappears and a woodland glen materializes, amid rapidly rising and lowering panels. The fairy godmother (Lisa Lockerd) appears in a flash of light, surrounded by her dragonfly entourage; she summons her seasonal fairies to dance their variations, then clothes Cinderella for the ball and sends her off in a pale, ornate pumpkin coach, drawn by four prancing gray "horses." Now that's balletic charm.
Equally appealing is the ball scene, with its ten waltzing couples glowing in dark luster, coming and going a few at a time, then all together. And the final tableau with Cinderella and Prince Charming, crowned and robed and surrounded by courtiers and fairy folk, makes the ideal climax.
Choreographer Ben Stevenson is English trained and schooled, but having spent more than 25 years in America, 18 of them as director of the Houston Ballet, he seems to have taken on an American voice - fluent, sprightly and open. He does well with a full-length piece, keeping the action moving and dancers relating.
His movements for pas de deux are quite individualistic, as Cinderella discovers her prince in a dance with an effervescent lift and joyful attitude. The wedding pas de deux is more tender and quiet, with considerable side-by-side dancing.
Wendee Fiedeldey is all you could wish for in a fairy-tale princess, gracious and smiling, willowy and romantic, with every technical facility to make her grace totally natural. Richard Bradley is her strong partner, who is ever more confident and masterful in solo.
Also delightful is the comic element in this ballet, which balances out the pathos. Cinderella gets knocked about a little, but she seems always to have a certain secret humor, an inner sense that this is not her real life, this is not forever, as she sweeps her hearth.
Once you've seen the ugly stepsisters played by men, you can never happily go back to women. No matter how humorously women play them, there's a certain underlying hurtfulness in what they do that comes too close to real-life meanness.
Men are so preposterous, so patently unreal, that you accept the whole thing on a cartoon basis - no real harm intended, so let the slapstick fall where it may.
Jeffrey Rogers and Gilles Maidon have a great time with these dysfunctional dames. Rogers wades in to every situation flat-footed, exuding scorn and outrage. Maidon plays the spoiled darling, like a silent movie heroine gone haywire, whose every coy attempt at charm and grace falls flat on its face. They drew delighted squeals from children in the opening night audience.
Indeed, this is an ideal children's show. It has energy and variety, just the right balance of romance, fantasy and humor, and such memorable characters as Jiang Qi's acrobatic jester and the busy tradespeople who ready the family for the ball.
Terence Kern conducts the chamber orchestra vibrantly, highlighting Prokofiev's score so suitably attuned to the story.
In sum, "Cinderella" is an eye-filling spectacle with an intimate, warm feeling, a balletic fairy tale beautifully danced. If you missed it in 1992, you may want to get your tickets early for this run.