Tim Rushton: ”Cinderella”
Royal Danish Ballet/Danish Dance Theatre
The Opera,
October 30 -31, 2008
The decor was stunning. The costumes were beautiful. The cast was well chosen. Still photos were magnificent. And you cannot get it wrong with Prokofiev. And yet Tim Rushton’s big scale “Cinderella” failed to live up to its promise. What went wrong?
Tim Rushton joined RDB as a young dancer with a background from Britain's Royal Ballet. During his years in the company he developed his skill as a choreographer and had choreographed several good works for RDB, including “Requiem” which won a Reumert Award for best Danish Ballet. Since 2001 he has been the leader and main choreographer for the leading Danish modern company, Danish Dance Theatre, but has continued to have close ties to the RDB.
It is easy to view “Cinderella” as the merger of the two sides of Rushton: the classically educated dancer of the British tradition (Michael Corder ,who has the same background as Rushton -- Royal Ballet, RDB and then choreographer -- also had done his take on “Cinderella”) and the modern choreographer. Rushton’s production even combined the dancers of the two companies so that most ensembles were danced by dancers from both groups doing the same steps.. It could have been strength, but it became a weakness. In principle it is an interesting concept to let classical and modern dancers do the same steps, but in reality it can only be done by the lowest common denominator, and thereby robbing each group to possibility to excel.
At the introduction matinée last week, Rushton demonstrated his method by showing how two of the DDT dancers had created a character dance for two hairdressers in first Act. It looked funny and sharp at the introduction program, but on stage it lost its edge, because when performed the focus was not on the duo. They had to compete for attention with not only Cinderella, the two stepsisters and two tailors, but also with an ensemble of 8 house servants constantly moving.
Rushton’s use of the servants ensemble is a good example on where the production went wrong. Firstly it is a strange concept to have a Cinderella with eight adoring servants to cater for her whims, secondly the ensemble dances a lot without really bringing anything to the story, and they keep on dancing when important dramatic moments takes place. As a result First Act gets very blurred and even though Christina Michanek is a charming and lovely, human Cinderella, and Rose Gad and Tina Højlund are funny and scary new sisters, the act seems overly long and unfocused.
Although Mads Blangstrup is the kindest and most handsome prince, even his contribution and a great décor by cannot quite save Second Act. At the intro Rushton worked with Michanek and second cast prince Nehemiah Kish on the second act pas de deux constantly asking the dancers to minimise the steps and make them more intimate. But the scale of the new opera demands full size dancing. Act two includes several clever interludes, but you never get the core concept of the ball, the prince choosing a bride, not only between three sisters, but from a very broad selection.
In Act three Rushton has broken away from canon and used the music for the prince searching through the high and lows of society before coming to the right home, servants and all.
The strongest point in the production is the first cast, which includes Christina Michanek showing why she is the leading ballerina in the making. She has a strong personality and personal style and is a constant focus point. She is well matched by Blangstrup's likable prince. Second cast Yao Wei and Nehemiah Kish are strong dancers but cannot project through the wall of moving cast members, nor have they developed their stage personas.
It could be said that Prokofiev has composed too much music for the simple plot in”Cinderella” and it certainly looked like Rushton had difficulties in using it all cleverly and driving the plot forward. Working with a fixed score put limitations on the choreographer and although Rushton is very experienced he is not used to adapting the choreography to the score and the classical format. His aim is to break barriers and move the art forward in a new direction. The conclusion must be that he will achieve his goal by creating his own material rather than working through existing scores and concepts.
Photo: Henrik Stenberg © Royal Theatre
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