S.E. Arnold
Inspiring! And as direct as Prokofiev’s music, it was Victoria Morgan’s thoughtful choreography harmonized
with the Cincinnati Ballet production of Cinderella into a hosanna of hope.
In her pre-curtain talks, Morgan detailed the influences manifest in her "Cinderella." She looked, for example,
at dozens of balletic and other theatrical productions of "Cinderella," including Disney’s film. More importantly,
however, her experience dancing the ballet’s title role with Ballet West and the San Francisco Ballet and her two
previous choreographic treatments of the subject, including the 2000 production for the Cincinnati Ballet put
the music and its theatrical possibilities in her DNA. Additionally, the steady rise in the excellence of the
Cincinnati Ballet and her growth as a choreographer motivated her to take a ‘have no mercy’ attitude toward
editing and refining the 2000 version. And, save for her practice of using the music both as a source of
narrative and movement, Morgan’s 2005 "Cinderella" is essentially a new, finely woven, and fast paced
work that is a challenge to dance and a thrill to watch.
“Dreams can come true,” said Morgan, smiling at her audience. Who could doubt her? Certainly principal
Kristi Capps and soloist Janessa Touchet, who each by their effort and courage rose from the corps and
who each in two evening and matinee performances received standing ovations for their heartwarming
interpretations of the title roll, would not. In this sense, dreaming equates with doing; that is with an
attitude that imagines possibilities and their achievement rather than passive wishing. And, it was in this
aspect of Morgan’s ballet, Cinderella’s bright attitude, that one felt hope’s hosanna.
Because the ballet is in her name and she is on stage for most of its three acts, one understands
Cinderella to be teller of this tale. The flow, for example, of her pas de deux with the Prince in Act II spoke
with a focused rapture of someone in love. Additionally, the contrasts between the decorum of the ballet’s
18th century costuming and the cavernous, vaguely Piranesian aspect of Peter Farmer’s design for
Cinderella’s home, the anachronistic hat that Cinderella uses to turn her broom into a dance partner, and
the Renaissance clad Joker in an Enlightenment Court, suggested a narrator that mixed memory with fantasy.
And, in spite of her nightmarish environment, Cinderella related to her buffoonish stepsisters (roles played
by men after Ashton’s "Cinderella") and stepmother with a stoic resign marbled with empathy. In contrast to
that one-way relationship, however, Cinderella and her father were like the massive posts and beams of
their dwelling, mutually supportive even in the face of bodily harm.
Granting that the ballet was Cinderella speaking for herself, it was reasonable then to think of the benevolent
Fairy Godmother and her entourage, the Fairies of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, as a projection of
Cinderella’s attitude. The identification of the Fairies with seasons, for example, and their structural
importance in the ballet (for they dance in every act) showed Cinderella’s constancy. Moreover, the
neo-classicism of their 18th century costumes brought to mind a line from an opera by Benjamin Britten that
neatly sums up the command Cinderella’s hopeful attitude has on the rest of her life. “Mine is the power,”
Apollo told von Aschenbach, “that binds his [read: her] days.”
A positive out look on life in fact binds Cinderella’s days and that attitude opens her life to possibilities;
and so it is no surprise that her story offers more than 50 student dancers the opportunity to perform with
her. The youngest were various Holders, Carriers, and Pages, while the oldest were Assistants to the Fairy
Godmother. Twelve costumed in purple, however, were the shadow, not of evil, but of the limitation of any
possibility; they were the numbers on the Fairy Godmother’s clock. And at midnight’s dramatic sounding,
the Ball Room darkened and the Fairies and Clock numbers mixed with the guests visualizing Cinderella’s
heightened sense of moment. Time pervaded all; guests either became clockwork mechanicals or
expressed the moment’s emotive burden with sweeping arms and bending bodies.
Cinderella ended her story with a return to the same sunny glade transformed from the massive Parnassian
structure of her household by the Fairy Godmother in Act I. And following a dance for the Fairies, the Prince
and Cinderella return, she already lifted into a dramatic but simple pose (which prompted an awestruck gasp
from the audience at every performance) passed through an Honor Guard of Fairies across the stage and
into a waiting carriage. More than a wedding celebration, it was an apotheosis of hope and – with pun
intended – a fitting end. Whatever the reality of her marriage to the Prince, her saint-like forgiveness of her
tormenters was genuine and continuous with the generosity of her bright attitude. And it is, one thinks, the
possibilities and courage spawned by her attitude that Cinderella will make her dreams come true.
In her pre-curtain talks, Morgan detailed the influences manifest in her "Cinderella." She looked, for example,
at dozens of balletic and other theatrical productions of "Cinderella," including Disney’s film. More importantly,
however, her experience dancing the ballet’s title role with Ballet West and the San Francisco Ballet and her
two previous choreographic treatments of the subject, including the 2000 production for the Cincinnati Ballet
put the music and its theatrical possibilities in her DNA. Additionally, the steady rise in the excellence of the
Cincinnati Ballet and her growth as a choreographer motivated her to take a ‘have no mercy’ attitude toward
editing and refining the 2000 version. And, save for her practice of using the music both as a source of
narrative and movement, Morgan’s 2005 "Cinderella" is essentially a new, finely woven, and fast paced work
that is a challenge to dance and a thrill to watch.
“Dreams can come true,” said Morgan, smiling at her audience. Who could doubt her? Certainly principal
Kristi Capps and soloist Janessa Touchet, who each by their effort and courage rose from the corps and
who each in two evening and matinee performances received standing ovations for their heartwarming
interpretations of the title roll, would not. In this sense, dreaming equates with doing; that is with an attitude
that imagines possibilities and their achievement rather than passive wishing. And, it was in this aspect of
Morgan’s ballet, Cinderella’s bright attitude, that one felt hope’s hosanna.
Because the ballet is in her name and she is on stage for most of its three acts, one understands Cinderella
to be teller of this tale. The flow, for example, of her pas de deux with the Prince in Act II spoke with a focused
rapture of someone in love. Additionally, the contrasts between the decorum of the ballet’s 18th century
costuming and the cavernous, vaguely Piranesian aspect of Peter Farmer’s design for Cinderella’s home,
the anachronistic hat that Cinderella uses to turn her broom into a dance partner, and the Renaissance
clad Joker in an Enlightenment Court, suggested a narrator that mixed memory with fantasy. And, in spite
of her nightmarish environment, Cinderella related to her buffoonish stepsisters (roles played by men after
Ashton’s "Cinderella") and stepmother with a stoic resign marbled with empathy. In contrast to that one-way
relationship, however, Cinderella and her father were like the massive posts and beams of their dwelling,
mutually supportive even in the face of bodily harm.
Granting that the ballet was Cinderella speaking for herself, it was reasonable then to think of the benevolent
Fairy Godmother and her entourage, the Fairies of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, as a projection
of Cinderella’s attitude. The identification of the Fairies with seasons, for example, and their structural
importance in the ballet (for they dance in every act) showed Cinderella’s constancy. Moreover, the
neo-classicism of their 18th century costumes brought to mind a line from an opera by Benjamin Britten
that neatly sums up the command Cinderella’s hopeful attitude has on the rest of her life. “Mine is the
power,” Apollo told von Aschenbach, “that binds his [read: her] days.”
A positive out look on life in fact binds Cinderella’s days and that attitude opens her life to possibilities;
and so it is no surprise that her story offers more than 50 student dancers the opportunity to perform with
her. The youngest were various Holders, Carriers, and Pages, while the oldest were Assistants to the Fairy
Godmother. Twelve costumed in purple, however, were the shadow, not of evil, but of the limitation of any
possibility; they were the numbers on the Fairy Godmother’s clock. And at midnight’s dramatic sounding,
the Ball Room darkened and the Fairies and Clock numbers mixed with the guests visualizing Cinderella’s
heightened sense of moment. Time pervaded all; guests either became clockwork mechanicals or expressed
the moment’s emotive burden with sweeping arms and bending bodies.
Cinderella ended her story with a return to the same sunny glade transformed from the massive Parnassian
structure of her household by the Fairy Godmother in Act I. And following a dance for the Fairies, the Prince
and Cinderella return, she already lifted into a dramatic but simple pose (which prompted an awestruck gasp
from the audience at every performance) passed through an Honor Guard of Fairies across the stage and
into a waiting carriage. More than a wedding celebration, it was an apotheosis of hope and – with pun
intended – a fitting end. Whatever the reality of her marriage to the Prince, her saint-like forgiveness of her
tormenters was genuine and continuous with the generosity of her bright attitude. And it is, one thinks, the
possibilities and courage spawned by her attitude that Cinderella will make her dreams come true.
Ballet-Dance Magazine
March edition
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Jerry Stein
Devon Carney, who is the Cincinnati Ballet's ballet master-in-chief, turned to Chopin for his new work,
"Another Time, Another Space."
The ballet, done in the classic and neo-classic styles, is one of two standout pieces being featured in
the "Come Together Festival."
The festival, which features seven short ballets, is being performed through Sunday in the new Mickey
Jarson Kaplan Performance Studio at the Cincinnati Ballet Center.
"It's an abstract piece," said Carney, who, as a dancer for 21 years, has vast experience in performing a
host of choreographic styles, from the classics to Paul Taylor. "It's a thin narrative of a relationship between
a man and woman."
The ballet is performed by Kristi Capps and Zach Grubbs, backed by a trio of women.
The use of Chopin's music for "Another Time" is a part of Carney's continuing search for a style.
"I'm still in the process of finding a choreographic voice," Carney said. "I'm trying a lot of different styles.
"For me, the piano scherzo (played on stage in the concert by Jim Hart) has always been sort of a mountain
to climb."
"When I first heard it (the scherzo), I said, 'It's a whole ballet in nine minutes.' I couldn't believe that in
nine minutes you could really fit quite an emotional range in there. I was just thrilled when I first heard it."
Carney created two other ballets last season for the company. He said: "I've always enjoyed
choreography, off and on, since I was 25 or 26. I've never had a chance to consistently work on things.
That's what I'm enjoying right now.
"I am really grateful that Victoria (Morgan, artistic director) is willing to give me the opportunities. It
certainly pushes me stamina-wise."
In addition to choreographing "Another Time," Carney is in charge of classes, scheduling and has
been rehearsing four ballets for the current concert.
"I really haven't had a lot of focused, quiet, introspective time to think about the piece of I'm doing. So,
it's really coming out sort of natural."
Carney said he would love to continue pursuing choreography all the time but, he has to be practical.
"You've got to have more of a steady type of job, which is being the ballet master here," he said.
Cincinnati Post
March 3, 2005
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Kathy Valin
The intimate 250-seat performing space showcased the Come Together Festival, seven pieces with a
cast of 26 dancers.
The styles were varied. The dancing was strong. Trad A. Burns' lighting clearly revealed the dancers'
eloquent faces.
Jay Goodlett's "Juste Une Autre Chanson et Danse" to Antonio Vivaldi was beautifully performed. Two
beaming lead couples, the women en pointe in flirty skirts and the men in billowing long-sleeved poet shirts,
interacted with three women and two men in the neo-classic style: in this case, whirling, abstract fun.
A highlight was the virtuosic dueling dance between Adiarys Almeida and Cervilio Amador. She did a split
on the floor: he flubbed his split, but answered with dizzying turns; when she did a "Kitri"
toe-touching-back-of-head leap, he jealously pushed her off balance.
Two short excerpts from choreographer Kirk Peterson were the sexiest of the night. In "Something Like
a Tango," Cheryl Sullivan made a brief, feline appearance, casually holding one extended leg nose-high.
"Melpomene (The Black Widow)" featured a flexible, all-legs Janessa Touchet, who twirled all around
Aaron C. Thayer but let him drag her headfirst across the floor and throw her into a Broadway-style
roll-down ending an inch from the floor.
In Donald Byrd's "Longing" seven dancers paired and unpaired, with one always left over. The
physically demanding choreography often sent them to the floor and up again. William Britt Hillard,
Sergei Pakharev, Thayer and Michael Wardlaw were the guys: Sarah Hairston, Marisa Anne Keller and
Dawn Kelly (as the one who didn't pair off) were the girls. The question was, were these people, who
seemed to interchangeably manipulate each other, happy?
Darrell Moultrie's "Heightened" sent 10 dancers to work through some invisible barrier, with twisted
torsos and limbs. At last they actually pulled back the black wing curtains and stood together in clear
light. Eliza Kelley-Swift had a standout solo.
In Balanchine's "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux," Almeida and Dmitri Trubchanov gave a bravura performance.
He leaped high enough to make his leg beats meaningful. Details like her head swiveling back toward
her partner after a fish dive were wonderful.
Finally, Devon Carney's "Another Time, Another Space," with live onstage piano from Jim Hart, was
a dreamy vision for Kristi Capps and Zack Grubbs.
Cincinnati Enquirer
March 3, 2005
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Jackie Demaline
I am excited about the new performance studio because of: All the amazing options it affords us, for
educational outreach, for informal events. I was reading in the New York Times how couples commission
music for special occasions. Why not a piece of choreography as a birthday present? We can do that now.
On hip replacement surgery: So many dancers have had this operation. It's the torque of the turnout, day in
and day out for years, the wear and tear. It's the left hip - I always pirouetted to the right.
Plans for my six-week recovery: I'm going to read. I'm so psyched. I never get to read, people have been giving
me lists of books. And I'm going to watch videos. I never get to see movies, either. I'll finally get to see the
Oscar movies.
My worst habit is: I can be so focused on an idea that I won't even hear someone talking to me. My husband
would agree about this.
My husband has one of the best wine collections ... One of the reasons we
bought our house was because it had an extensive wine cellar.
My biggest inspiration: Is the professional women in my life. The path isn't always clear, and they make
such a difference.
I knew I was a dancer: When I was 14 I was whining about practicing and my mother said, "You know, you
don't have to do this." I had the option to quit and didn't.
If I weren't a dancer: I'd probably want to paint. I used to - but you don't paint with this job. I'll be here eight
years in July.
Not counting ballet, my favorite style of dance is: Disco!
Cincinnati Enquirer
February 28, 2005
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By Jerry Stein
Morgan uses Sergei Prokofiev's 1945 score, passionately played by members of the Cincinnati Ballet
Orchestra under the direction of Carmon DeLeone.
This music is full of emotional depth. To Prokofiev, "Cinderella" was more than a fairy tale.
George Balanchine tells us that the Russian composer wrote "I see Cinderella not only as a fairy-tale
character but also as a real person." So does Morgan.
The first act, mostly pantomime and character development, shows family relationships. Cinderella
(Kristi Capps) melancholically sweeps the kitchen floor. She dances wistfully with a broom with a hat atop it.
No wonder she's moody. Cinderella has to cope with a stern stepmother (an animated, disapproving
Jennifer Drake, full of sharp movements).
Cinderella's quarrelsome stepsisters are Jay Goodlett and Valentine Liberatore in drag. They dance their
roles in Peter Farmer and Diana Vandergriff's garish yellow and orange peignoirs and matching, over-sized
duck feather house slippers.
They push. They shove. They fall and tumble. They don't get any more graceful and display no better taste in
gowns when they get to the prince's ball.
The fairy godmother appears (Mishic Marie Corn) with four attending fairies. The fairies, regal in their
movements, bring gifts to Cinderella for the ball.
Janessa Touchet, as the Spring Fairy, exhibits precise pointe work. And Cheryl Sullivan, as the Fall Fairy, brought briskness to her attack on her swirling phrases.
The second act, which features Prokofiev's edgy, even nervous waltz, is punctuated by a tuba. The waltz,
initially presents the corps de ballet in aggressive, circular partnering around the ballroom.
Cinderella, fresh from her silver coach, has a romantic pas de deux with the prince (Dmitri Trubchanov).
In addition to Trubchanov's dramatic elevations of Cinderella and tender embraces, there's even a kiss
at the end -- rare for these antiseptic fairy tales.
Morgan, in the romantic moments, transposes these fairy tale characters into passionate human lovers.
The only negative in the pas de deux was in Trubchanov's variation (solo) in which some landings seemed
slightly off-balance. And one miscalculated jump brought him uncomfortably close to a candelabrum upstage.
When the clock (not a piece of furniture but a dozen bouncing dancers holding numerals) strikes midnight,
Cinderella is in rags again and flees.
After the comedy of the stepsisters and mother trying to squeeze their big feet into Cinderella's glass
slipper that will identify the prince's love, the shoe fits Cinderella. You can feel the elation.
Capps and Trubchanov engage in another joyous pas de deux backed by the fluid movements of the fairy
godmother and her seasonal fairies.
The revival of this 2000 ballet from Morgan reaffirms that Cinderella's story may be a fairy tale but her emotions, as projected through dance, seem richly real.
Cincinnati Post
February 12, 2005
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'Cinderella' dancer lives the story
Kathy Valin
Cinderella's ugly stepsisters (played comically by Jay Goodlett and Val Liberatore) are traditionally a hoot.
For Morgan, though, Cinderella's transition from a child with a vivid fantasy world is key. "She goes from being
a flat character actor to an accomplished ballerina when she steps into the ball in Act II," Morgan says.
"Her dream comes true."
But for Capps, it's not just another role.
In fact, she might have been typecast to play the role of Cinderella. She says her dreams have come true,
despite having the cards stacked against her.
"Two things come to mind," Caps says. "First, just the fact that I 'made it.' To be a principal dancer is like a
fairy tale come true.
"I was never even supposed to walk. When I was born (in Newport News, Va.), my hips weren't formed right.
The doctors thought I would need surgeries and be in braces pretty much all my life.
"Maybe it was the 'prayerful' work my parents did," says Capps. "But I had a healing: My parents took me
back to the doctors when I was 8 months old, and my hips were suddenly fusing in the right way. They said
they thought I would be fine.
"It is an amazing story religiously - that I never had to have surgery. My parents always thought it was so
neat that I wanted to dance, because I was never supposed to walk!"
Capps also had some hard times as a young dancer at the North Carolina School of the Arts, a well-known
training school.
"Growing up dancing there, before I got my first professional job, I was told I was never going to be a dancer,
never really gonna make it - they told me maybe I should try to find other things to do."
But perhaps most amazing, Capps is dancing today with her boyfriend and co-principal dancer Dmitri
Trubchanov (he was promoted in 2002), who'll play her prince in "Cinderella." The two met at the Cincinnati Ballet.
"I guess we don't think about it every single day, but it is - I don't know - a dream," Capps says. "It's proof to
everyone, I think, that against whatever odds, your dream can come true."
Cincinnati Enquirer
February 10, 2005
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By Jerry Stein
For Mishic Marie Corn and Cheryl Sullivan, the fairy godmother is not just a role each will alternatively be
dancing in the artistic director Victoria Morgan's full-length ballet. In life, the two dancers, along with fellow
ballerina Sarah Hairston, have had fairy godmothers. And Corn has been called to become one herself.
The fairy godmothers for these dancers all turned out to be their dance teachers. These teaching godmothers
gave their dancers gifts of confidence, courage and, in one case, a pair of diamond earrings.
Corn found her fairy godmother in her native Plano, Texas, near Dallas/Ft. Worth.
"Kathy Chamberlain was the last dance teacher I had before I became a professional," Corn said.
"When I left the school where I was training, I was just a little bit disillusioned about becoming a
professional. I had so many auditions and nobody would hire me. "
Corn moved back to her hometown and began taking lessons at Chamberlain School of Ballet.
"Kathy helped me get my mind back straight and back on the path of being focused. She was actually
the person who got me my first professional job."
Now, every year, Corn returns to Plano to serve as a guest teacher at her "fairy godmother's" school.
Cheryl Sullivan also had a discouraging start to her career in dance. "After high school, I didn't get a
full-time job with ballet," said Sullivan. "I was at North Carolina School of the Arts (in Winston-Salem). We
were seniors and kind of the big cheese."
Full of heady anticipation, Sullivan went up to the Boston Ballet School and found adjustment there for a
young dancer difficult, too.
"They didn't know me. It was just a real hard time."
But Sullivan caught the attention of the great Balanchine dancer Melissa Hayden, who spent over 20 years
with the New York City Ballet. Hayden was teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
The two became friends.
After leaving Boston, Sullivan danced for a small company in Memphis, but things weren't picking up
there, either. Melissa Hayden was always a supportive presence at the other end of the telephone line.
"I would call her all the time," Sullivan said. "Those first couple of years when you first graduate high
school are really hard. After a year in Memphis, I did get into Boston Ballet II (the apprentice company of
the Boston Ballet)."
Sarah Hairston had a long-term fairy godmother who appeared in childhood and just may have stayed with
her beyond the grave.
"I was in training in Charleston," Hairston said.
After her father died and her mother remarried, the family moved to Columbia, S.C., when Hairston was
9 years old.
Hairston began to take lessons with Ann Brodie.
"I wasn't that into it," Hairston said. "I didn't really care."
But Brodie saw what Hairston didn't see.
"I called her Miss Ann. -- Right from the beginning she told me I could be a professional dancer
one day. She was one of the main reasons I really fell in love with ballet," Hairston said.
While Hairston was studying in Columbia with Miss Ann, the teacher developed colon cancer.
"She was sick a lot while I was there, and I was having to teach a lot of her classes for her," Hairston said.
Before Hairston moved on to the North Carolina School of Arts, Miss Brodie pulled her aside one day in the studio.
"She told me she wanted to give me her diamond earrings. I have one ear that is pierced, and I wear one
of the earrings in my ear every day."
Hairston went off to North Carolina for the next two years. But teacher and student kept in contact.
When Hairston returned home for visits, they would go shopping together to buy plants for Miss Brodie's garden.
"She was my best friend," Hairston said.
In her senior year, Melissa Hayden was trying Hairston out for the principal dancer part in Balanchine's
"Symphonie Concertante" to determine if she could dance the role in the main theater at Winston-Salem.
Miss Ann, quite ill, was unable to attend the tryout.
"I prayed she would make it through this performance -- Then, I would go home and be able to say goodbye
to her. I was so nervous, but when I went out there for my first entrance, I just felt I could do anything.
It was easy -- and the ballet is really hard.
"It was the most calm I have ever known. I felt like there was somebody out there with me."
Later, that night Hairston's parents called to tell her that Miss Ann "had died at 5:15 p.m. The performance
had started at 5," Hairston said.
The dancers say that the Ballet has a fairy godmother for the entire company, as well -- board member
Ronna Willis.
"We went to Alaska three times (to perform "The Nutcracker" on tour)," Sullivan said. "The first time she
bought us all coats with our names on them so we would be warm. Every year that we have gone to
Alaska there is something that we have gotten -- sweatshirts, scarves."
Adds Hairston, "We never have to go out and buy food. We have breakfast. We have lunch. There are
always cookies."
Cincinnati Post staff reporter
February 8, 2005
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Jackie Demaline
The Valentine venue: What's more romantic than "Cinderella," the most told fairy tale in the world? The first
known version is from 9th century China, but there are at least 1,500 variations on the story of the beautiful
and good but downtrodden girl meets a prince of a guy, proves her worth with a selfless good deed,
temporarily loses the prince, faces and overcomes adversity, and - happy day! - they find each other again
and live happily ever after. Friday-Sunday, Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., downtown. $17-$60,
(513) 621-5282; www.cincinnatiballet.com.
The backstory: Kristi Capps and Anthony Krutzkamp alternate with Janessa Touchet and Dimitri Trubchanov
in the principal roles in Cincinnati Ballet's full-length story ballet this weekend.
"One may think it's a story for children, with its pantomime and silliness," says choreographer and artistic
director Victoria Morgan, "but the beauty and sophistication of the music, the sense of despair and hope
engage the adult mind. We all have to remember that dreams do come true."
Love bites: The most popular Cinderella story is from France, so make it JeanRo Bistro after the
show (413 Vine St., downtown, 513-621-1465.) Of course there has to be chocolate - so definitely share
the sublime pot de crème.
Gentlemen, if you'd like to give your date something more, here are some possibilities, depending on
how fond you are: consider a mouse -pad if you're just getting to know each other. You can't go wrong with
a gift certificate for shoes. And if you're ready to pop the question and glass slippers are hard to come by,
diamonds can't be beat.
Enquirer staff writer
February 10, 2005
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By Kathy Valin
The show played to a near-capacity crowd at the Aronoff Center.
Whether she was in a mousy brown skirt and scarf, or a flowing white knee-length dress, Kristi Capps
made a charming Cinderella, who didn't seem to have an ounce of meanness in her, even toward her
dysfunctional family.
Jay Goodlett and Valentine Liberatore stole scene after scene as oversized Ugly Stepsisters. As they prepared
with Cinderella's Stepmother (Jennifer Drake) for the ball, they would have challenged Super Nanny with
their hijinks. Whether they were tearing apart a scarf, whirling necklaces around their necks like Hula Hoops,
or "accidentally" kicking each other as they tried to learn the lilting dance taught by Dance Master Zack Grubbs,
they were horribly, hilariously clumsy.
Capps had a clever dance with a broom, a hat, and her imagination. And, for those of us who know this fairy
tale backward and forward, it wasn't surprising to see the hag transformed into a glittering fairy godmother
(beautifully performed by Mishic Marie Corn).
A welcome interlude featured fairies portraying the seasons Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter (Janessa
Touchet, Tricia Sundbeck, Cheryl Sullivan and Sarah Hairston, respectively); the dancers showed off clear
technique.
Throughout the entire ballet, children played roles from pages to gown carrier, pumpkin carrier, cloak carrier
and crown carrier, adorably and on cue at the same time. Best of all were the 12 kids who embodied the
clock chiming midnight. Dressed in purple, holding silvery numbers over their heads, they formed a clock-like
circle and jumped as the orchestra tolled the hours.
When a transformed Capps entered the ballroom scene, she truly stood out, and it was no wonder that
Dmitri Trubchanov as the Prince fell for her. In her solos she showed flow and control, and drew applause
for a sustained balance. Trubchanov filled the stage with space-eating leaps and multiple turns. Together,
the two achieved tenderness and abandon at the same time. Especially wonderful were her swooning falls
backward in his arms.
Another standout performer was Cervilio Miguel Amador as Jester, a role that called for quickness, agility
and split-second timing.
Cincinnati Enquirer
February 12, 2005
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