About Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella
Thereâs no fairy godmother, but you wonât miss her a bit.
Christopher Wheeldonâs Cinderella is part of SF Balletâs 2023 Repertory Season. It will be performed in Program 6, from Mar 31âApr 8, 2023.
The heart of the old, the spirit of the new. Christopher Wheeldonâs Cinderella* tells the same uplifting story people have heard for centuries, but this is a ballet full of innovations and modern twists. A co-production of San Francisco Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, Cinderella premiered in Amsterdam in 2012, then flew across the Atlantic to make its US premiere in San Francisco in 2013.
âEach of Christopherâs works has something unique,â says Helgi Tomasson, SF Balletâs artistic director and principal choreographer. Wheeldon is an acclaimed dancemaker, in demand at companies worldwide. Formerly a resident choreographer at New York City Ballet and now an artistic associate at The Royal Ballet, he caused a sensation on Broadway with the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the Tony Award for choreography. And heâs a frequent presence at SF Ballet, with 14 works in the repertory. Cinderella was his eighth commission and first full-length story ballet for the Company.
Tomassonâs words about originality ring true in Wheeldonâs Cinderella. Youâll find no fairy godmother, no pumpkin coach, no clock striking midnightâbut you wonât miss them a bit when a tree comes alive and âdances,â or when Cinderella shows backbone and her Princeâs charm runs deep. And you wonât miss them when the dancing and the storytelling come from Christopher Wheeldon. âWhat I wanted to do,â the choreographer says, âwas echo the darkness in the music by taking some of the themes from the Brothers Grimm version rather than the [Charles] Perrault version,â with its fairy godmother and pumpkin coach. âThe Grimm version is more serious and a bit darker, centered around nature and the spirit of mother.â Thatâs where he got the idea of a tree that grows from the grave of Cinderellaâs mother, âthe deliverer of all things magic, which I think is more poetic [than a fairy godmother] and quite beautiful,â he says. âThere are comic moments because thereâs comedy written into the music, but itâs a more serious Cinderella in a way.â
That music, written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1940 but shelved for several years during World War II, made its first appearance when Bolshoi Ballet premiered Cinderella in November 1945, choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov. âI love it,â says Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West about the score. âItâs immediately striking, and astonishingly clever the way the themes come around, the way he could create an atmosphere out of something very simple.â Prokofievâs Romeo and Juliet, West says, âcame from the heart, but Cinderella is more cerebral. It takes longer to get into, but once youâve lived with it, it starts to eat at you. Some of it is so beautiful.â

As a ballet, Cinderella has a lengthy pedigree. It debuted in St. Petersburg in 1893, choreographed by Marius Petipa with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov, famous âfathersâ of classical ballet. (This was when ballerina Pierina Legnani first whipped out an unheard-of 32 consecutive fouettĂ©sâpirouettes in which one leg repeatedly extends and whips in, foot to kneeâa feat that is now a standard of virtuosity.) The West had to wait until 1938 to see a Cinderella, and when the chance came it was Michel Fokineâs one-act version in London, which added the role of Cinderellaâs cat. In 1948, Sir Frederick Ashton made a Cinderella for Sadlerâs Wells Ballet in London, 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 menâincluding himselfâas 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.
Ashtonâs Cinderella was followed by an onslaught of productions. Among them, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Peter Anastos made Cinderella for American Ballet Theatre in 1984; like Fokineâs, it included Cinderellaâs 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 Possokhovâs 2006 production for Bolshoi Ballet, the Storyteller (Prokofiev himself) replaces the Fairy Godmother.
Christopher Wheeldonâs Cinderella isnât the first to find a home at SF Balletâthat honor goes to a production by Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin, then co-artistic directors, in 1973. Wheeldonâs 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 isnât easy. âIt was my crazy idea,â he says. âI said, âIâll do some of it here and some of it there, and weâll make it work.ââ 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. âIt promotes a nice cultural exchange,â says Wheeldon, âbut it has its pluses and minuses. One dancer hasnât necessarily followed it through from beginning to end. On the other hand, more people have had the benefit of being created on.â
Listen to an interview of Cinderella choreographer Christopher Wheeldon at the time of Cinderella‘s premiere in San Francisco in 2013.
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 âa 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.â These included a substitute for the Fairy Godmotherâan essential element, according to Wheeldon. âWe all toy with the idea that loved ones are always watching over us in some way,â he says. He and Lucas settled on the tree that grows when Cinderella cries over her motherâs graveâin effect, a character, âa living thing that could embrace the action,â says Lucasâand four Fates who offer guidance and protection.
Wheeldon also knew he wanted his Cinderella to be in charge of her destiny. Yes, sheâs a servant in her own home, but âshe knows she doesnât have to be there forever,â he says. âIt is good versus evil; it is that if youâre a good person things can come out right. But itâs not saying if youâre meek or subservient youâll be rewarded.â Cinderella gains some of her strength from the four Spirits (seasonal fairies in Prokofievâs 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 Princeâs ball.
Cinderellaâs Prince, too, is more complex than in traditional versionsâmore than âjust a handsome mug,â Wheeldon says. He and Lucas gave the Prince a childhoodâand a servant who happens to be his best friend. In a classic mistaken-identity plot device, the Prince masquerades as the servant, so âthe Prince sees who Cinderella really is,â says Lucas. âShe isnât reacting to someoneâs status; she is treating him [respectfully] as she would the lowliest person, something he isnât used to experiencing. He has no idea that Cinderella is also hiding her identity.â
But whatâs a story without a setting? Wheeldon chose Julian Crouch to do the sets and costumes because of his âvery fantastical approach to design. He always seems to embrace the darker side of the fairy tales heâs done,â he says. Crouch had designed for theater, opera, and musicals, but ballet was a new world for him. And he discovered that âit needs to be fluid. I think this CinderellaË is more fluid than the traditional,â he says. âIt moves scene to scene more rapidly; it has more locations. So for me itâs been an exercise in suggestion, reallyâIâve had to suggest a location and support the atmosphere and then move fluidly to the next one.â As for the costumes, he says thereâs âa looseness about them. Fairy tales are âonce upon a time,â not âonce upon 1870.ââ The period is the 1800s âbut spread over the century,â he says. âEach character is allowed to drift a bit in time. Iâd say itâs timeless; in that sense it has a fluidity as well.â
Crouch describes his design method as âlike a purifying process.â Set designs come before those for costumes, and he starts by collecting images that spark his imagination. âYou collect these things and they become the beginning of a conversation, with yourself, but also with the people youâre collaborating with.â The images lead to ideas, which then develop into a design concept.
One of Crouchâs collaborators is award-winning puppeteer Basil Twist, whose primary role with CinderellaË was to make the tree be more than sceneryâa character that would, in effect, dance. The mechanics arenât that difficult, he says; itâs just like moving any piece of scenery. But then âyou get to the moment when youâre choreographing for the tree, to the music, and youâre saying, âNow it makes this shape; now itâs that shape.â You feel the tree as you would a dancer. Thatâs when it comes alive.â
Twist has done many productions involving dance and music, and his work spans continents. (His Obie Awardâwinning Symphonie Fantastique, an underwater puppetry and art extravaganza set to Hector Berliozâ score, caught Wheeldonâs eye.) But of everything Basil has created, what holds particular meaning for him is the tree in Cinderella. âThis is maybe corny, but as a child I always used to go to [SF Balletâs] Nutcracker,â he says. âAnd the tree growing onstageâitâs one of the reasons I work in the theater. I so loved that moment.â So heâs thrilled, he says, to be âdoing my own tree on the same stage.â
The treeâs foliage and movements are enhanced by projectionsânot in a major way, Couch says, but to âsupport the atmosphere, like the lighting does.â And lighting is where Natasha Katz comes in. To her, this ballet is âabout transitions. Cinderella has moments of revelation and transition, and theyâre all tapered to a place of joy.â What that means in terms of lighting, she says, is that âyou canât have light without darkness. The lighting really is the chiaroscuro of emotion. Weâre going to have darkness when itâs emotionally dark, and weâre going to have joy when weâre supposed to have joy. And that is light and fluffy and beautiful and fun.â Whatâs most exciting about this Cinderella, says Katz, âis that itâs completely new, that we all started from the same place together.â She wasnât one of those little girls who dreamed of being Cinderellaâbut if she had been, she says, âthis is the one I would have dreamed about.â
Listen to an interview with Music Director Martin West and pianist Michael McGraw on Prokofiev’s melodic, atmospheric score for Cinderella.
This production was part of the 2023 Season
by Cheryl A. Ossola
Header Image: San Francisco Ballet in Wheeldonâs Cinderella // © Erik Tomasson
*Cinderella© by Christopher Wheeldon