2020 Cinderella Study Guide – Northwest Florida Ballet 1
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2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET 1 WELCOME The Northwest Florida Ballet is proud to present the 40th annual production of The Nutcracker with live music by the Northwest Florida Ballet Symphony Orchestra. This study guide contains a variety of information about the production as well as theater etiquette, ballet terminology and several activities to engage your students prior to attending the performance. On behalf of NFB, thank you for taking the time to introduce a beloved art form to your students. Ballet is a cultural experience like none other and we are so pleased you have taken the time to share it with the next generation. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at the theater. CEO/Artistic Director: A native of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Todd Eric Allen was Todd Eric Allen a scholarship student at the Joffery School of Ballet in New York City for five years. He also attended Virginia Intermont College where he was awarded the 1985 Dance Magazine Scholarship to the Choreographers Conference. Mr. Allen has danced with Louisville Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Les Grands Ballets Canadienes, and has performed as a guest artist and teacher throughout the United States. He has performed featured roles in ballets by Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, and James Kudelka, and has performed with the Broadway cast of Movin’ Out in New York City. Mr. Allen has been praised for his choreography work for Boston Ballet, Rhode Island Festive Ballet, Sarasota Ballet and NBA Ballet in Tokyo, Japan. Northwest Florida Ballet: Located in the Sybil Lebherz Center for Dance Education in beautiful downtown Fort Walton Beach, Fla. 310 Perry Avenue SE Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32548 Phone: 850.664.7787 Fax: 850.659.7073 Web: nfballet.org Like us on Facebook & Follow Us on Instagram! 2 2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET THE STORY OF CINDERELLA “Cinderella” is arguably the most familiar and beloved fairy tale the world has ever known. Dating back to at least the ninth century A.D. when Chinese Folk tales praised the virtue and loveliness of women with tiny feet, Cinderella’s tale has taken on many forms in many different cultures. The “Cinderella” most Americans find familiar-not counting Walt Disney’s animated classic film, is based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, a 17th century French writer and political figure who, under the reign of Louis XIV, served as an administrator of the King’s buildings. Perrault would prove instrumental in facilitating the construction of the Louvre and Versailles, in addition to giving us tales like “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Puss-in-Boots,” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Many of his fairy tales, including “Cinderella,” would later be collected for inclusion in Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Todd Eric Allen, Artistic Director of Northwest Florida Ballet, has based the ballet Cinderella on the Perrault story with several exceptions, most notably the inclusion of the Fairies of the Seasons at the end of Act I. ACT I The story begins with Cinderella’s Stepmother embroidering a scarf she will wear to the Palace Ball that evening. Her two daughters begin teasing Cinderella’s father unmercifully. Cinderella enters the room and entreats the Stepsisters to stop. Instead, they turn on Cinderella and insist that she clean the room. The Stepsisters drag the Father from the room. Left alone, Cinderella picks up a broom and begins sweeping. She takes a portrait of her dead mother from its hiding place and gazes at it with longing. Her father returns and is overcome with remorse when he sees the resemblance between Cinderella and his first wife. His daughter tries to reassure him, but the Stepsisters, who have snatched away the picture, drag them apart. Suddenly, a mysterious old woman enters the room and begs for food, but the Stepmother gives her the portrait of Cinderella’s real mother. The old woman does not take it and returns the portrait to Cinderella, who offers the woman some bread. She accepts Cinderella’s kindness then departs quickly. A Dressmaker and Wigmaker arrive to prepare the Stepsisters for the Ball. Much confusion ensues only to be compounded by the arrival of a Dancing Master who makes a valiant, but failed effort to teach the Stepsisters to dance gracefully. All depart for the Ball, leaving 2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET 3 Cinderella alone and dressed in rags, with only her broom to keep her company. Just as Cinderella bursts into tears over her fate, the beggar woman enters the room and transforms herself into a beautiful Fairy Godmother. She then turns the kitchen into a magnificent forest, which undergoes a dramatic change of seasons as the Fairies of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter perform beautiful dances. The Fairy Godmother turns her attention to Cinderella, adorning her in a Ball gown and exquisite glass slippers. A pumpkin turns into a coach, mice into coachmen and Cinderella is ready for the Ball. Before Cinderella departs, the Fairy Godmother warns her to be back by midnight, the hour when the magic will fade. ACT II A Jester welcomes the guests to the Ball. The Prince invites six beautiful princesses in hopes of finding a bride. All are taken aback by the spectacle of the Stepsisters’ arrival, but the Prince gallantly invites both of them to dance. Suddenly Cinderella enters, and her gentle beauty overcomes the Prince. He falls madly in love with her. The guests are offered oranges-the rarest fruit in the land-and when one of the stepsisters is left without one; Cinderella gives up her own, without the Stepsisters realizing her identity. As the Prince and Cinderella are dancing, the clock begins to strike midnight. Cinderella flees, leaving behind only one glass slipper, which has fallen from her foot in her haste. ACT III Dressed again in rags, Cinderella sits in the kitchen and dreams about the Ball and the Prince. She discovers the other glass slipper, still intact, in her pocket. She quickly hides it as the Stepsisters return; proudly displaying the oranges the Prince had given them. The Stepmother suddenly announces that the Prince and his page have arrived in search of the owner of the glass slipper. The Stepsisters try in vain to squeeze their bulging feet into the tiny shoe. The Prince notices Cinderella sitting in a corner and despite her ragged appearance, asks her Father if she may try it on. She moves toward him and the other slipper falls from her pocket. The Prince is overjoyed and asks Cinderella to marry him. The Fairy Godmother returns and transforms the kitchen into a magical glade where Cinderella and the Prince are married. 4 2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Sergei Prokofiev Prokofiev was a multitalented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest marks from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1914), and was rewarded with a grand piano. He emigrated from Russia after the revolution, and made successful concert tours in Europe and the U.S. In 1918 in New York he met Spanish singer Carolina Codina (Lina Llubera), they married in Paris, in 1923, and had two sons. Prokofiev's radiant optimism and his childlike personality shines in his popular orchestral suite "Peter and the Wolf" and in the "Classical Symphony". His humorous irony and wit is popping up in piano pieces named "Sarcasms", also in his five piano concertos, ballets and film scores, all written in his instantly identifiable musical language. He wrote film scores for 'Lieutenant Kije (1934)', Alexander Nevsky (1938), 'Cinderella (1960)', and the two-part "Ivan the Terrible" (1944, 1958), directed by 'Sergei Eisenstein. His independent way of life and his free-spirited personality was irritating the Soviet authorities and some Soviet composers, who were jealous of his freedom and success. But the Soviet authorities kept inviting the world-famous composer, and paid him for his music and hotel in Moscow. That was a Soviet propaganda game, similar to the one played against the writer Maxim Gorky. When Prokofiev moved from Paris to Moscow with his wife and children - the trap closed. His Spanish wife was later exiled to a prison-camp in Siberia. All of his music, that he created while outside of the Soviet Union, was banned as cosmopolitan and antiSoviet. Some Soviet composers were gloating, and Shostakovich wrote in his "Testimony", that Prokofiev had "the soul of a goose" and was "scared out of his wits". Prokofiev's friend director Vsevolod Meyerhold was arrested and executed. Under such conditions Prokofiev wrote music score for the film of Sergei M. Eisenstein "Ivan the Terrible", alluding to Joseph Stalin. Prokofiev's second wife, Mira Mendelson, was his saviour. Their union was inspirational, and he wrote the powerful late symphonies and the brilliant ninth piano sonata for Svyatoslav Richter. But another official attack on his music and life started in 1948. The attack hurt Prokofiev and many other intellects, such as Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Aram Khachaturyan, and ended only after the death Joseph Stalin. Ironically, Prokofiev died on the same day and hour, as Stalin. 2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET 5 BALLET 101: POSITION OF THE FEET & ARMS 6 2020 CINDERELLA STUDY GUIDE – NORTHWEST FLORIDA BALLET BALLET VOCABULARY Accent: A strong movement or gesture. Balance: A state of equilibrium referring to the balance of weight or the spatial arrangement of bodies.