Australia Dancing - Cinderella

Cinderella

Stringer, Walter: Robert Helpmann (left) and Ray Powell as the Ugly Sisters in Frederick Ashton's 'Cinderella', the Australian Ballet, 1972

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The Cinderella fairytale has been portrayed on the Australian stage in a variety of ballets. Fokine's Cendrillon, set to music by Frederic d'Erlanger, was performed in the late 1930s during the second and third de Basil Ballets Russes tours. In 1971 another touring company, the Novosibirsk Ballet from Siberia, showed Australian audiences a version by Oleg Vinogradov, set to the score written by Sergei Prokofiev in the 1940s. Notable Australian productions have also been staged over the years. Two versions have been created for West Australian Ballet - the first in 1953 by James Penberthy and another by Simon Dow in 2005. In the early 1960s the Victorian Ballet Guild performed a version by Maxwell Collis, to Prokofiev's music, and in 1975 the Queensland Ballet staged Walter Gore's production with a score adapted from the Rossini opera La Cenerentola. Harry Haythorne's adaptation of the libretto for this work maintained the opera's exclusion of supernatural elements such as fairies.

In 1972 the Australian Ballet premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, set to the Prokofiev score, marked the first occasion on which this work had been performed by any company other than the Royal Ballet. Ashton personally staged his ballet for the Australian company as well as performing alongside Robert Helpmann in the ugly Stepsister roles that they had created when the ballet was first performed in 1948. Set and costume design was by Kristian Fredrikson, and on opening night, 17 March 1972, at Sydney's Elizabeth Theatre, Lucette Aldous danced as Cinderella, Kelvin Coe as the Prince and Kathleen Geldard as the Fairy Godmother.

A new version of Cinderella was created for the flagship company by Stanton Welch in 1997. Welch set his ballet to the Prokofiev score and his adaptation of the libretto involved radical interpretations of the standard characters as well as the inclusion of the character Dandini from the Rossini opera. Design was again by Fredrikson, with lighting by John Rayment. In the world premiere in Melbourne on 21 February, 1997, Miranda Coney danced as Cinderella, with Marilyn Jones and Stephen Baynes as her Mother and Father, Paul de Masson as her Stepmother, Damien Welch as Dandini, Geon van de Wyst as the Prince, Steven Woodgate as Florinda, David McAllister as Grizabella and Marc Cassidy as Buttons.

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Internet - Google
Libraries - Libraries Australia
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia