Lauren RabainoCinderella will tip-toe into Cal Poly on her glass slippers Tuesday as the State Ballet Theatre of Russia presents their version of the classic ballet.
More than 40 different ballet companies have produced adaptations of Cinderella since 1901, and there have been over 1,500 versions of the tale of Cinderella created over time. The State Ballet Theatre of Russia will perform a French interpretation of Cinderella choreographed by Charles Perrault in 1697.
Previous Interim director of Cal Poly Arts Peter Wilt booked the show and said that he is excited that Cal Poly can bring a highly popular story ballet to the Performing Arts Center. “I am excited about the quality dancers that the people will be seeing on Tuesday night,” he said.
The State Ballet Theatre of Russia, which is the touring name of the Voronezh State Theatre of Opera and Ballet, began performing in North America in 2006. Many of the dancers are alumni of the Voronezh Choreographic School in southwestern Russia, near Ukraine.
In conjunction with a full orchestra playing the 71 minute piece composed by Sergie Prokofiev, the company is comprised of director Igor Nepomnyashchy, artistic director Nabilya Valitova, dance choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev and 55 dancers in a full-scale three act ballet.
Dance professor Moon Ja Minn Suhr said that there are a number of different types of ballet, including classical, romantic, neoclassical, modern and folk. Pantomime, the act of conveying emotions by gestures without speech, is an extremely important conponent of ballet, Suhr said, and is expressed with comedy in this performance of Cinderella. The choreographer, she said, decided to make this choreography more entertaining for the audience, partly by emphasizing important messages with several props to give the audience simple and clear understanding from symbolism.
Suhr said that the relationship between music and dance is very important, and is portrayed well in the State Ballet Theatre of Russia’s Cinderella performance. “Orchestra and dancers should always breathe the same breath,” she said.
A pre-concert lecture by Suhr will be held in the Performing Art Center’s Gallery Level Lobby at 6 p.m. Suhr said that ballet or any other type of dance is a beautiful thing to watch on stage but watching and understanding dance performance is not easy, which is why she gives a lecture before the performance to inform the audience about the particular dance, as well as background history. Hopefully, she said, the audience will enjoy the enormous number of different movement possibilities and that will motivate them to want to dance.
“Art makes the human living experience richer and ballet provides opportunities to grow and develop further in life. Dress makers, dancers, musicians and artists can become influenced, inspired and come up with new ideas by watching the performance,” Suhr said.
A master dance instruction class will be held by a State Ballet Theatre of Russia member for Cal Poly ballet dance students at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The ballet will take place at 7 p.m. on Feb. 10 in the Chumash Theatre.
Student and adult tickets for the performance range from $25 to $44 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center Ticket Office. If tickets are not sold out a special discount of $10 for students will occur 30 minutes before the curtain opens.
To order by phone, call 805/756-2787; to order by fax: 805/756-6088. To order online visit www.calpolyarts.org.