San Francisco Ballet

and it was the first English full-length ballet done in the tradition of the 19th-century classics. He based it on the Perrault fairy tale and used the Prokofiev score. Ashton revived an old tradition by casting men — including himself — as the Ugly Sisters. Margot Fonteyn, his choice for Cinderella, was injured during rehearsals, and so it was Moira Shearer of The Red Shoes fame who created the title role. Ashton's Cinderella was followed by an onslaught of productions. Among them, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Peter Anastos made Cinderella for American Ballet Theatre in 1984; like Fokine's, it included Cinderella's Cat. Baryshnikov had never danced this ballet in Russia; it was the music that enticed him to create his own. Rudolf Nureyev, in his 1986 production for Paris Opera Ballet, set the ballet in Hollywood and gave the beleaguered Cinderella an alcoholic father. And in SF Ballet Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov's 2006 production for Bolshoi Ballet, the Storyteller (Prokofiev himself) replaces the Fairy Godmother. Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella © isn't the first to find a home at SF Ballet — that honor goes to a production by Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin, then co-artistic directors, in 1973. Wheeldon's version, with all the technological advantages of the 21st century, began percolating when he and Tomasson discussed ideas for a new full-length ballet to be co-produced with Dutch National Ballet. As Wheeldon soon found, creating a production on two continents simultaneously isn't easy. "It was my crazy idea," he says. "I said, 'I'll do some of it here and some of it there, and we'll make it work.'" Several Dutch National Ballet principal dancers rehearsed in San Francisco for a few weeks in 2012, and several from SF Ballet went to Amsterdam; that way the choreography could be created on both companies at once. "It promotes a nice cultural exchange," says Wheeldon, "but it has its pluses and minuses. One dancer hasn't necessarily followed it through from beginning to end. On the other hand, more people have had the benefit of being created on." In creating a world for his characters to inhabit, Wheeldon assembled an artistic team with imaginations as big as his own. Step one was brainstorming with playwright and librettist Craig Lucas, who describes the early stages of Cinderella © as "a constant back and forth, teasing out a shared understanding of what is exciting about the story. [We wanted] to burrow into possibilities we had never seen explored." These included a substitute for the Fairy Godmother — an essential element, according to Wheeldon. "We all toy with the idea that loved ones are always watching over us in some way," he says. He and Lucas settled on the tree that grows when Cinderella cries over her mother's grave — in effect, a character, "a living thing that could embrace the action," says Lucas — and four Fates who offer guidance and protection. Wheeldon also knew he wanted his Cinderella to be in charge of her destiny. Yes, she's a servant in her own home, but "she knows she doesn't have to be there forever," he says. "It is good versus evil; it is that if you're a good person things can come out right. But it's not saying if you're meek or subservient you'll be rewarded." The concept of an empowered Cinderella suits Kochetkova just fine, "because I feel like you do have to fight for things in life, but by being a good person, not by pushing others out of the way. I feel like she's a really strong character." Cinderella gains some of her strength from the four Spirits (seasonal fairies in Prokofiev's score), who, while teaching her to dance, imbue her with such gifts as elegance and lightness of being. The steps she learns form the basis of her solo at the Prince's ball. 08 CINDERELLA © CONTINUED 82 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET 2017 SEASON GUIDE

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