Clear evidence of just how variegated the choreographic plan is within the National Theatre Ballet’s ambitions is the staging of the famous Cinderella, this time in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s enthralling version. Maillot is a celebrated choreographic creator from the no less renowned Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, where this production originated. Czech premiere: April 14, 2011, The National Theatre in Prague.The company Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo works in a ballet “genius loci” since its beginnings date back to the legendary Les Ballets Russes, founded by Sergei Diaghilev, which marked a breakthrough in European artistic taste. Diaghilev’s ensemble brought about an artistic reform in Western Europe and innovation (not only) of ballet at the beginning of the 20th century. It grouped together the most signifi cant (and later on, the most celebrated) artists of its time: the painters Benois, Matisse, Derain and Picasso, the composers Stravinsky, de Falla, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Poulenc and Prokofiev, the choreographers Nijinsky, Fokin, Massine and Lifar, and others. Following the startling success of their fi rst Paris season, in 1911 the entire Les Ballets Russes group moved to Monte Carlo. In 1985, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo became the official ensemble of he Principality of Monaco. Artistic celebrities of the Paris Opera appeared there during the opening of their fi rst season. Since 1993, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo has performed on the big stage of the Salle des Princes at the Grimaldi Forum under Jean-Christophe Maillot.
Maillot is a choreographer noted for his extremely singular style based on the refi ned, primarily visual conception of his ballets. He presents the virtuoso classical ballet technique in new variants of movement and spatial structures, hailing as though from the “other world”. This exquisite taste is imbued with the peculiar beauty of modern “design” and always permeates the entire production and each of its components – the musical, visual, directional and choreographic.
Jean-Christophe Maillot has developed the famous Cinderella story into an image that seems both familiar and unfamiliar to the audience. The fine retrospective leitmotif of the relationship of Cinderella and her father to the prematurely deceased mother and wife is the main essence and source of a great love which, regardless of time and space, further expands and which, as is usual, at least in fairy tales, must eventually prevail over wrath and hatred. Source: National Theatre Photo by Pavel Hejný
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species