“˜Cendrillon’ offers dreamlike rendition of fairy tale
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 8, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Courtesy of UCLA Performing Arts The Lyon Opera Ballet will
bring their rendition of the Cinderella fairy tale, "Cendrillon,"
to UCLA’s Royce Hall this weekend.
By Siddarth Puri
Daily Bruin Reporter
spuri@media.ucla.edu
Cinderella is now adapting to the times: From ballet to opera to
new renditions, Cinderella is putting on a new face ““
literally.
The Lyon Opera Ballet’s “Cendrillon,” an
original retelling of the classic Cinderella fairy tale, is set in
a dollhouse with dancers whose bodies are disguised to resemble
dolls with faces hidden by masks. This rendition will be performed
at UCLA’s Royce Hall this weekend.
“Cendrillon” is French choreographer Maguy
Marin’s haunting dreamlike vision of a lost childhood.
This unconventional play is seen through the eyes of a child and
combines ballet, opera and an orchestra together to help create an
eerie ambiance that takes the audience back to a simpler time:
childhood.
“We wanted a new, innovative style of ballet and so we
asked Maguy Marin to choreograph a ballet that would be
different,” said Yorgos Louka, director of the production.
“The play is definitely distinctive because of the masks the
dancers’ wear ““ it adds to the dreamlike state of the
play and makes it appear magical and sort of crazy.”
The play did, however, go in a different direction after the
actors saw the costumes. The costumes consist of heavy wardrobe and
masks that cover the face with mesh over the eyes.
While some of the dancers left the play due to the difficulty in
performing with the masks on, the ones that stayed endured the
challenge and now enjoy it because of the intimate atmosphere it
creates on stage.
“The masks were hard to work with, at first,” said
Andrew Boddington, who plays Prince Charming. “After you get
used to them though, I think they add completely different
expressions for the audience and make the play more
magical.”
The story of Cinderella won’t be seen in the same way
again, according to Loukas. The play has all the stereotypical
needs of a Cinderella story: the evil stepmother and stepsisters,
the confined Cinderella and, of course, the charming prince. It
also has, however, children dressed as dolls making the storyline a
little more complex.
“Cendrillon” focuses on the behavior of children and
the magic created in their minds, offering insight into their
world.
“The play is not sugary and sweet,” said Loukas.
“It reveals the irony and truth of childhood: that children,
though innocent, can be jealous, sad, angry, cruel and
compassionate.”
The play keeps the same plot of the original Cinderella, but
uses the sequence of dances and music as well as
“child-like” noises in the background to lure the
audience into an unpredictable, magical world.
“We’re basically offering the audience a different
sight of the story,” said Boddington. “I’d love
for the audience to see the tenderness of the dancers and
characters because it shows the greater theme of the play, which is
dreaming of a fantasy and making it happen.”
The distinct style of the play leads many audience members to
respond to it in different ways. Children fall in love with it
within minutes, according to Loukas. They see themselves in the
dancers and immediately sit up and pay attention. The adults have a
harder time accepting the abstract nature of it ““ but
eventually get into the rhythm of the performance.
“Recreating “˜Cinderella’ in an abstract dance
movement, using the mind of a child, would take us back to a time
when things were simpler and would make us think about the story in
a totally different way,” said Maryam Griffin, a first-year
political science student.
The play, which made the Lyon Ballet Company famous in the
United States, first premiered in New York in 1987. After stopping
the tour in 1993, the play began to tour again because of the high
demand for it.
From dancing dolls covered in mesh and masks to orchestral music
blaring in the background, “Cendrillon” aims to couple
theater and dance together to entice audience members into seeing
that human beings are complex, tender creatures.
THEATER: “Cendrillon” will be
performed Friday and Saturday night in Royce Hall at 8 p.m. Tickets
for students are $16 and general admission is $30. Tickets are
available at the Central Ticket Office and can be purchased by
calling (310) 825-2101.
