Joffrey Ballet's Cinderella

I went with a bunch of ballet friends to see the Joffrey perform Frederick Ashton's version of Cinderella. The music is by Prokofiev. Our special connection to this performance is that at Dance Camp, our 3A group did a version of the 'Stars' repertory. Those of us in the piece can't wait to see the pros do it. The sets and costumes are wonderful and the dancing is really top-notch. As usual, those of us who have done pointe work are in awe of the things that everyone else barely notices-like Cinderella walking down a set of stairs on pointe! She couldn't see her feet past the tutu even if she tried, but she was looking straight ahead and had some assistance from the Prince. These two also do a wonderful supported penche with her on pointe and him lowering down into a lunge. The 'Stars' corps is terrific and this version of the repertory piece is even more complicated than what we did. There are a lot of little girls at this show and this really is a wonderful full length ballet to take children to. It's a story that they already know, has a great deal of humour in the Stepsisters roles (always performed by men) and it moves along at a nice clip without a lot of fluff. I wish it was performed more frequently.