The Czech premiere performances of the ballet Cinderella take place on 14 and 15 April 2011 in the National Theatre historical building. It goes without saying that this is not the fi rst time that this famous ballet title to Sergei Prokofiev’s beautiful music will be appearing in the National Theatre Ballet’s repertoire. On this occasion, it will be the enthralling version conceived by the outstanding French choreographer and stage director Jean-Christophe Maillot, who is also the long-standing Artistic Director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the company for which this performance was created twelve years ago. The simplicity yet, at the same time, multi-functionality of the set design, the elegant extravagance of the costumes, the sensitive and sophisticated directional form. The perfect equilibrium and interplay of all these aspects makes for a truly exceptional spectacle notable for its magical poetics, natural human emotions of joy, sorrow, love and lovelessness, as well as bird’s-eye view and humour.
The charmingly whimsical version of the ballet Cinderella by the French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot was originally conceived for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, an ensemble that evolved from the celebrated Les Ballets Russes, founded by Sergei Diaghilev, thus highlighting the question of artistic development and taste. It was, paradoxically, Russian artists who between 1909 and 1929 brought about in Western Europe a creative reformation and innovation of (not only) ballet. Diaghilev’s company inspired and integrated perhaps the most signii cant (and later on, most celebrated) artists of the time: the painters Benois, Matisse, Derain and Picasso, the composers Stravinsky, de Falla, Debussy and Ravel, the choreographers Nijinsky, Fokine, and others.
Jean-Christophe Maillot is noted for a style based on the refined, primarily visual conception of his ballets. He presents the virtuoso classical dance 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. In the spirit of this creative energy, the main theme of Maillot’s Cinderella appears to be Memory: the memory of Cinderella’s mother, the memory of a happier life, the memory of the ball…
In his production, Maillot unfolds other angles of vision, new characters and stylisation. Guided by the memory of her mother, Cinderella takes a path of her own and with sophisticated attractiveness, amidst the excessiveness of the court, seeks recognition and love.
Let us surrender to the new creative vision and be carried away by light dance steps into the whirl of imagination, thanks to which we can admit that
“…Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.” (Jules Verne)
Source: NTPhoto: 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