Photo Album: Wheeldon’s Cinderella – English National Ballet
This Cinderella combines intimacy and spectacle. In a space as vast as the Albert Hall it would be easy to lose focus, and for the action and visuals to wax muddy or arid. That rarely happens. The second act is especially expertly judged, rich in motion and emotion as the venue becomes a palatial ballroom for two dozen couples swirling round Cinders and the Prince. – Donald Hutera, The Times
Choreography
Christopher Wheeldon
Music
Sergei Prokofiev
Libretto
Craig Lucas
Set and Costume Design
Julian Crouch
Lighting Design
Natasha Katz
Puppetry Design
Basil Twist
Projection Design
Daniel Brodie
English National Ballet Philharmonic
Conductor
Gavin Sutherland
Cinderella
Alina Cojocaru
Prince Guillaume
Isaac Hernandez
Stepmother Hortensia
Tamara Rojo
Stepsister Edwina
Emma Hawes
Stepsister Clementine
Katja Khaniukova
Benjamin, friend to the prince
Jeffrey Cirio
Cinderella’s Father
Fabian Reimair
Cinderella’s Mother
Stina Quagebeur
King Albert
Fernando Bufala
Queen Charlotte
Jane Haworth
Alfred, Benjamin’s father
Michael Coleman
Madame Mansard
Laura Hussey
The two comic standouts are ENB dancer-director Tamara Rojo’s extravagant old soak of a stepmother (lipsmackingly channelling Alexis Colby, and particularly funny in the ballroom duet where her champagne glass is her real partner), and Emma Hawes’s Stepsister Edwina: they made especially fine work together of the shoe-fitting slapstick. Katja Khaniukova treads a nice line as the other, more sympathetic Stepsister, Clementine, rewarded by Wheeldon by being paired off with prince charming’s more charming friend, Benjamin (Jeffrey Cirio, as fleet and as mischievous as a squirrel). – Mark Monahan, The Telegraph
As for Cinders, Alina Cojocaru is a paragon of daintiness and delicacy. There are only, in my experience, two other female dancers alive (the Mariinsky’s Diana Vishneva and the Royal Ballet’s Francesca Hayward) so instinctively adept at using the classical-ballet vocabulary to evoke empathy. – Mark Monahan, The Telegraph
It might seem odd to laud the entrances and exits of a ballet, but when it comes to stagecraft Christopher Wheeldon is second to none. You lose count of the ingenious ways he finds to shift up to 130 dancers in and out of view at the Albert Hall. Wheeldon created his three-act Cinderella in 2012 for a conventional stage, but for English National Ballet he has reworked it for this vast, non-theatrical O. For once, the wheels of Cinders’ carriage have space to roll. – Jenny Gilbert, The Arts Desk
There is no doubt that this is a bankable show, which is what ENB needs in order to fund the increasingly interesting mixed programmes it mounts in autumn and spring. It’s not Wheeldon’s best work – for bums-on-seats appeal, his Alice for the Royal Ballet was much bolder – but many will enjoy the glossy effects, and might even be persuaded to give ballet a second look.. – Jenny Gilbert, The Arts Desk
Visually it’s often arresting. The blend of digital projections to furnish scenes where only a minimum of props are feasible, makes good use of the RAH’s victorian splendour, in particular in the famed Act II ball scene; the costumes and wigs are sumptuous; the company corps de ballet are on top form negotiating exacting dancing in-the-round, as well as numerous entrances and exits up up and down the stalls aisles, with ease and aplomb… That said, structurally this Cinderella-in-the-round has serious flaws. For one thing, whereas ENB’s previous in-the-round productions, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet, have many crowd scenes that fill that vast arena to dazzling effect, Cinderella has just one central crowd scene – the Palace ball in Act II. – Teresa Guerreiro, Culture Whisper
Alina Cojocaru performed the title role convincingly with a rich mix of fragility, stoic optimism and a thirst for romance. Her intelligent artistry is compelling, whatever the role, and the power of expression that she generates commands even this cavernous space. There is more of a back story for the Prince in Wheeldon’s narrative and Isaac Hernández gives the character similar depth in his journey from joker to jack of hearts. The romantic duets between Cinderella and Prince Guillaume are beautifully crafted by Wheeldon and were danced with captivating charm. – Graham Watts, Dance Tabs
Wheeldon created his Cinderella as a co-production with Dutch National Ballet and San Francisco Ballet back in 2012; then it won rave reviews as much for its lavish, clever designs as for its coolly neo-classical choreography. Here he’s adapted the show for the arena-like cavern of the Royal Albert Hall, ramping up the ballroom scenes with dozens more dancers and tweaking the ensemble work to provide spectacle from all the sight lines. Many of Julian Crouch’s original fantastical sets – notably the huge tree that springs out of the grave of Cinderella’s mother, made by puppeteer Basil Twist – have been reimagined using elaborate projections beamed on to scrims, curtains and the floor itself. Yet some of the best effects still remain; Act I closes with a carriage seemingly conjured out of thin air, designed using sleight of hand, a wind machine and yards of flowing silk. – Emma Byrne, Evening Standard
Like most British ballet choreographers, Wheeldon was weaned on Frederick Ashton‘s 1948 Cinderella and in his eagerness to make the story his own he has lost much of its power, but it is a magical production nonetheless. Designer Julian Crouch creates a whole second ballet’s worth of birds, beasties and tree gnomes and he and puppet master Basil Twist have ingeniously adapted their existing work to fit the space. – Louise Levene, Financial Times
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
