San Francisco Ballet

Cinderella's Prince, too, is more complex than in traditional versions — more than "just a handsome mug," Wheeldon says. He and Lucas gave the Prince a childhood — and a servant who happens to be his best friend. In a classic mistaken-identity plot device, the Prince masquerades as the servant, so "the Prince sees who Cinderella really is," says Lucas. "She isn't reacting to someone's status; she is treating him [respectfully] as she would the lowliest person, something he isn't used to experiencing. He has no idea that Cinderella is also hiding her identity." But what's a story without a setting? Wheeldon chose Julian Crouch to do the sets and costumes because of his "very fantastical approach to design. He always seems to embrace the darker side of the fairy tales he's done," he says. Crouch had designed for theater, opera, and musicals, but ballet was a new world for him. And he discovered that "it needs to be fluid. I think this Cinderella © is more fluid than the traditional," he says. "It moves scene to scene more rapidly; it has more locations. So for me it's been an exercise in suggestion, really — I've had to suggest a location and support the atmosphere and then move fluidly to the next one." As for the costumes, he says there's "a looseness about them. Fairy tales are 'once upon a time,' not 'once upon 1870.'" The period is the 1800s "but spread over the century," he says. "Each character is allowed to drift a bit in time. I'd say it's timeless; in that sense it has a fluidity as well." Crouch describes his design method as "like a purifying process." Set designs come before those for costumes, and he starts by collecting images that spark his imagination. "You collect these things and they become the beginning of a conversation, with yourself, but also with the people you're collaborating with." The images lead to ideas, which then develop into a design concept. One of Crouch's collaborators is award-winning puppeteer Basil Twist, whose primary role with Cinderella © was to make the tree be more than scenery — a character that would, in effect, dance. The mechanics aren't that difficult, he says; it's just like moving any piece of scenery. But then "you get to the moment when you're choreographing for the tree, to the music, and you're saying, 'Now it makes this shape; now it's that shape.' You feel the tree as you would a dancer. That's when it comes alive." Twist has done many productions involving dance and music, and his work spans continents. (His Obie Award–winning Symphonie Fantastique, an underwater puppetry and art extravaganza set to Hector Berlioz' score, ran for two years and caught Wheeldon's eye.) But of everything Basil has created, what holds particular meaning for him is the tree in Cinderella © . "This is maybe corny, but as a child I always used to go to [SF Ballet's] Nutcracker," he says. "And the tree growing onstage — it's one of the reasons I work in the theater. I so loved that moment." So he's thrilled, he says, to be "doing my own tree on the same stage." The tree's foliage and movements are enhanced by projections — not in a major way, Couch says, but to "support the atmosphere, like the lighting does." And lighting is where Natasha Katz comes in. To her, this ballet is "about transitions. Cinderella has moments of revelation and transition, and they're all tapered to a place of joy." What that means in terms of lighting, she says, is that "you can't have light without darkness. The lighting really is the chiaroscuro of emotion. We're going to have darkness when it's emotionally dark, and we're going to have joy when we're supposed to have joy. And that is light and fluffy and beautiful and fun." What's most exciting about this Cinderella © , says Katz, "is that it's completely new, that we all started from the same place together." She wasn't one of those little girls who dreamed of being Cinderella — but if she had been, she says, "this is the one I would have dreamed about." Left: SF Ballet in Wheeldon's Cinderella © // © Erik Tomasson Center: Frances Chung and Sarah Van Patten in Wheeldon's Cinderella © // © Erik Tomasson Right: SF Ballet in Wheeldon's Cinderella © // © Erik Tomasson 2017 SEASON GUIDE SAN FRANCISCO BALLET 83

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