Christopher Hampson’s lively and inventive choreography for Prokofiev’s Cinderella has become a celebrated part of the Scottish Ballet repertoire. However, this revival – titled Cinders! – makes ballet history with a radical, gender-flipped twist: audiences won’t find out until the curtain goes up whether “Cinders” will be a woman sought out by her prince or (in a world first) a man tracked down by his princess.
In either case, in this relocation and recasting of the ballet, Cinders is the orphan child of the ill-fated Scottish drapers, the Roses, whose grand store is destroyed in a fire. The business is taken over by a wealthy, American heiress called Mrs Thorne. She arrives in Scotland, like an extra from The Great Gatsby, with her spoiled offspring (daughters Morag and Flossie, and son Tarquin) in tow.
On press night, the titular Rose among Thornes was performed by male dancers (Charles Waller as Young Cinders and principal dancer Bruno Micchiardi as the older Cinders). The gender swap might perturb those who prefer that folktales are kept in their traditional mould but, as Scottish Ballet says, breaking with tradition in ballet is a tradition in itself. In terms of both the narrative and the dance itself, the gender twist is smooth and (in 2023) unlikely to prove controversial.
We are given notice of the imminent arrival of Mrs Thorne (who is danced with wonderfully wicked angularity by Grace Paulley) and her trio of spoiled brats by means of cleverly invented newspaper headlines which are projected onto the set. The character of Tarquin (Aaron Venegas, abundantly detestable on press night) will be invaluable to performances in which the title character is male (as it is he, not the sisters, who attempts, with tremendous comedy, to force his foot into the glass slipper).
