It would be hard to find a Cinderella ballet that we don't love. Well, the Mariinsky found one; but mostly, Cinderella is a winner whenever she sweeps into the room swirling to Prokofiev. It’s one of those (politically incorrect, according to a vocal minority without daughters) stories about goodness in the world winning out in the face of ugliness by being patient and always doing right without stepping on anyone’s toes. In the end, the ugliness reforms its ways and everyone gets along. Such a terrible story. So harmful to the psyche of little girls. Yeah, right. Girls will never achieve happiness by taking the “high road” and brushing off nastiness. In two weeks, the glass slippers will be under a pantsuit and girls of all ages everywhere will feel like Cinderellas.
Pennsylvania Ballet just wrapped up its run of Ben Stevenson’s rich production of Cinderella at the Academy of Music. Initially created for the National Ballet of Washington in 1970, it has been performed by many companies all over the world from Queensland to Portland. George Balanchine chose it for the Geneva Ballet when he was the artistic advisor for a time. The production was also presented by American Ballet Theatre where Angel Corella danced the roles of Prince and the Jester and still regrets not having had the opportunity to chew scenery as a Stepsister. In recent years, Stevenson has reworked sections of the ballet for different companies, and the sets and costumes, originally by David Walker, are for the Pennsylvania production by Patty Greer McGarity (costumes), Virginia Vogel (costumes), Thomas Boyd (sets), and Steven Rubin (sets).
Our draw to go to Philly for a performance was the Prince, Sterling Baca, who was one of the many talents suffocating in the ABT corps from lack of oxygenating opportunities until Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella threw him a lifeline with respirator. We came home Saturday night with new favorites among the ballerinas to go along with our already-favorite Lillian Di Piazza and Mayara Pineiro.
For the eleven performances of Stevenson’s Cinderella, Corella put together six different casts of Cinderella and Prince that spanned the ranks of the company. Three corps women were dropped off the edge of the diving board into the principal ballerina deep-end of the pool to swim for the title role. Two corpsmen and a soloist joined them as Princes. This type of growth-oriented casting should bring some calm to those still worried about whether Pennsylvania Ballet will lose its Balanchine bravery. This was his tradition which continues today at NYCB and also in Philadelphia.
At the Saturday 5PM performance, Oksana Maslova and Sterling Baca were bona fide fairytale from head to toe. Ms. Maslova along with Sara Michelle Murawski as the Fairy Godmother and Yuka Iseda as the Spring Fairy yielded checkmark [✔︎] arabesques and attitude positions with such flexibility that one wondered if they even had 33 vertebrae among the three of them. Ms. Maslova’s were of particularly fine form with a beautifully lifted torso and no visible strain. Her Cinderella was not a helpless captive victim but more of a young girl who realized that she couldn’t choose her relatives and had to make the best of her family situation with all its dysfunction. Her dreams and imagination were set free by joyous dancing with her broom and by keeping the memory of her birth mother alive even when that prompted scorn from her stepmother, the rather glamorous looking Holly Lynn Fusco, who one would never have guessed could have delivered the likes of Charles Askegard and Ian Hussey as the Stepsisters. There could be another ballet for discovering who their real father was.
When Sterling Baca's Prince arrived at the ball to trumpeting fanfare in Act Two, he did so in royal form with beautifully stretched sautes and arabesques. Nothing in the world would make him pause on his quest for the woman of his dreams until he met the unexpected gaze of Sister Askegard’s eyes and nearly came too close to her purpose-filled lipstick. He looked at her curiously before suddenly pulling his head back like he’d just sniffed ammonia – all of it tickled the audience with its perfect comedic timing.
The PdDs danced by the Prince and his Cinderella were filled with dreamy romance and elegance. A difficult double fish pose that went right and then left was done with such ease that we were disappointed we didn’t get to see it a second time.
In addition to the lovely Yuka Iseda as the Spring Fairy, this cast had the luxury of Lillian Di Piazza as the Summer Fairy, Mayara Pineiro as the Autumn Fairy and Dayesi Torriente as the Winter Fairy. Jon Martin, an instructor in Pennsylvania Ballet’s school whose own pedigree goes back to Ruth Page and Harold Lang, was the Priest who performed the nuptials of Cinderella and the Prince. The Corps de Ballet supplemented with apprentices performed with precision and joy.
All through the performance we were impressed with Baca’s confidence and the sturdiness of his technique. The stage walk in deep parallel plie at times looked a little like a Marx Brother, and there is a need for continual attention to turnout and stretching the fronts of the ankles, but overall, this performance was triumphant. We are very excited about the prospect of seeing his Ali in Le Corsaire this spring after he works intensely with Corella.
The HH Pump Bump Award, a Stuart Weitzman Cinderella glass ankle boot with diamonds, is bestowed upon Sterling. We’re glad that he didn’t go any farther away than Philly.
10 responses to “Pennsylvania Ballet – The slipper fits 10/22”
So glad to hear about Sterling Baca. Life can turn on a dime.
So glad to hear about Sterling Baca. Life can turn on a dime.
Agree 101% with the author!!..❤️
Agree 101% with the author!!..❤️
Thanks for your comments, Angelica and Vera.
It so happens that H.H. guest reviewer, “Mr. S” from Australia made a stop in Philadelphia on his annual trek to New York and managed to catch the opening night performance of Cinderella which starred the same cast as we saw: Oksana Maslova and Sterling Baca. Here is what Mr. S wrote in an email to Haglund:
“As it happens, I was in Philadelphia for a week before coming to New York. My week included the opening night of the 2017 Season of the PB and so I had the good fortune to see the opening performance of Cinderella.
The first thing that I noticed was that the audience was thin on the ground, especially for an opening night. I appreciate that the Academy of Music, splendid auditorium that it is, needs a very substantial number of people to fill it. Even so, the view into the auditorium from where I was sitting, in the second parterre box at stage right, was one of lots of vacant seats. I found that mystifying, because the evening’s performance was, at least to my amateur eye, a very accomplished one. In hoping, as I very much do, that the PB will go from strength to strength, I admit to a strong bias which can be expressed in two words: Angel Corella. I have seen Mr Corella dance with ABT. I have the ABT video on which he and Paloma Herrera dance the Don Quixote pas de deux, one of the most dazzling ballet performances that I have ever seen. I saw him dance in Madrid a performance of La Bayadere, opposite both Paloma Herrera and Gillian Murphy, a high-powered cast if ever there was one, and a performance to match. I think that it is a crying shame that his imaginative plans for bringing the great art of classical ballet to life in his own country fell apart for want of political and public support. I cannot think that I am alone in hoping that Mr Corella will crown a magnificent career in dancing classical ballet with a matching achievement in passing on, both as director and as occasional choreograper, all the things that he undoubtedly has to teach to a new generation of classical ballet dancers. Bocca di lupo, Mr Corella.
When I read the cast list, I noticed at once the name of Mr Baca. It was familiar to me from last year’s ABT Fall Season and I was naturally interested to see what he might make of a real leading role in a different company. He was, in a word, terrific. He looked good and moved well. He had a presence and a stylishness that fitted his role like the metaphorical glove. His partner was Oksana Maslova, whom I had not ever seen. She was perfect in the title role. She is slender and graceful and she has, or at least had in this particular role, a fragility, an air of innocence, that were completely right for the role.
Together , she and Mr Baca made a partnership of which any ballet company would be rightly proud. In the final pas de deux they danced an action that appears also, if memory serves, in the great pas de deux from the final act of Sleeping Beauty: the danseur takes his weight on an extended leg which is bent at right angles at the knee; he holds out an extended right arm which the ballerina uses like a barre; she does a set of spins and then goes with her partner into a dramatic fish dive. The effect, on this particular occasion, was simply electrifying. All in all, a splendid evening of classical dance.”
Thanks for your comments, Angelica and Vera.
It so happens that H.H. guest reviewer, “Mr. S” from Australia made a stop in Philadelphia on his annual trek to New York and managed to catch the opening night performance of Cinderella which starred the same cast as we saw: Oksana Maslova and Sterling Baca. Here is what Mr. S wrote in an email to Haglund:
“As it happens, I was in Philadelphia for a week before coming to New York. My week included the opening night of the 2017 Season of the PB and so I had the good fortune to see the opening performance of Cinderella.
The first thing that I noticed was that the audience was thin on the ground, especially for an opening night. I appreciate that the Academy of Music, splendid auditorium that it is, needs a very substantial number of people to fill it. Even so, the view into the auditorium from where I was sitting, in the second parterre box at stage right, was one of lots of vacant seats. I found that mystifying, because the evening’s performance was, at least to my amateur eye, a very accomplished one. In hoping, as I very much do, that the PB will go from strength to strength, I admit to a strong bias which can be expressed in two words: Angel Corella. I have seen Mr Corella dance with ABT. I have the ABT video on which he and Paloma Herrera dance the Don Quixote pas de deux, one of the most dazzling ballet performances that I have ever seen. I saw him dance in Madrid a performance of La Bayadere, opposite both Paloma Herrera and Gillian Murphy, a high-powered cast if ever there was one, and a performance to match. I think that it is a crying shame that his imaginative plans for bringing the great art of classical ballet to life in his own country fell apart for want of political and public support. I cannot think that I am alone in hoping that Mr Corella will crown a magnificent career in dancing classical ballet with a matching achievement in passing on, both as director and as occasional choreograper, all the things that he undoubtedly has to teach to a new generation of classical ballet dancers. Bocca di lupo, Mr Corella.
When I read the cast list, I noticed at once the name of Mr Baca. It was familiar to me from last year’s ABT Fall Season and I was naturally interested to see what he might make of a real leading role in a different company. He was, in a word, terrific. He looked good and moved well. He had a presence and a stylishness that fitted his role like the metaphorical glove. His partner was Oksana Maslova, whom I had not ever seen. She was perfect in the title role. She is slender and graceful and she has, or at least had in this particular role, a fragility, an air of innocence, that were completely right for the role.
Together , she and Mr Baca made a partnership of which any ballet company would be rightly proud. In the final pas de deux they danced an action that appears also, if memory serves, in the great pas de deux from the final act of Sleeping Beauty: the danseur takes his weight on an extended leg which is bent at right angles at the knee; he holds out an extended right arm which the ballerina uses like a barre; she does a set of spins and then goes with her partner into a dramatic fish dive. The effect, on this particular occasion, was simply electrifying. All in all, a splendid evening of classical dance.”
Because of our high regard for Angel, two friends and I subscribed to PA Ballet last year. Making the trip from Toms River, Wood Cliff Lake and Manhattan is a bear for us, but we renewed this year because of what the company is doing. The quality of the dancers, the variety of the ballets and the enthusiasm of Angel at every step of the way should bring many more New York Audience members to Philly. You will not be disappointed.
Because of our high regard for Angel, two friends and I subscribed to PA Ballet last year. Making the trip from Toms River, Wood Cliff Lake and Manhattan is a bear for us, but we renewed this year because of what the company is doing. The quality of the dancers, the variety of the ballets and the enthusiasm of Angel at every step of the way should bring many more New York Audience members to Philly. You will not be disappointed.
So glad HH et.al. could see “Cinderella” and other performances of PA Ballet. And SO very much regret my inability to see both the company and its AD at this time (distance – I live in W. Mass., budget, time constraints); but remain hopeful for next year?
Also thanks to “Mr.S” for his post. I, too, was so privileged to see Angel and his ABT guest artist/colleagues dance in Madrid, because I filmed them in rehearsal and performance – and also the other casts- as part of my documentary film. I miss them and Angel very much and hope someday soon to give back to them and audiences the joy they gave me.
So glad HH et.al. could see “Cinderella” and other performances of PA Ballet. And SO very much regret my inability to see both the company and its AD at this time (distance – I live in W. Mass., budget, time constraints); but remain hopeful for next year?
Also thanks to “Mr.S” for his post. I, too, was so privileged to see Angel and his ABT guest artist/colleagues dance in Madrid, because I filmed them in rehearsal and performance – and also the other casts- as part of my documentary film. I miss them and Angel very much and hope someday soon to give back to them and audiences the joy they gave me.