The recording that was broadcast on the BBC over Christmas 2010 has been released on a DVD, and we received our first copies in the office a few weeks ago.
If you’d like to buy the DVD, you can do so (region 1) either through the Company shop by clicking here, or via Amazon by clicking here.
You can also buy Cinderella on Blu-ray through the Company shop by clicking here.
You can now get an idea of the length of time that Cinderella took to put together with our interactive timeline!
Click on the image below to open up the timeline, which is divided into seasons, each showing our Birmingham headquarters at a different time of year. It works using the Google Maps interface, so you’ll be able to zoom in and out and scroll left and right as you would do with an online map.
Select each of the red teardrop markers to open balloons containing images, videos and diary entries showing what was happening in the building during each of the seasons leading up to the premiere. We’ve also included Spring 2011, so we can post updates relating to this year’s final touring performances of Cinderella at the London Coliseum, 29 March-2 April (NEXT WEEK!)
Click on the image below to get started:
Cinderella was brought to the homes of millions this festive season, with a broadcast of the ballet on BBC2 on Christmas day. Scores of you used twitter and Facebook to send us your feedback, and your warmth was greatly appreciated!
We put all your comments through wordle.net, which created infographics showing the language used. The larger the individual word, the more often it was used (we’ve removed all the conjunctions). Click each image to open a larger version in your browser:
Click here to view a video of Christmas messages from various members of Birmingham Royal Ballet, filmed during our performances of Cinderella at Birmingham Hippodrome!
Don’t forget, the production itself will be screened on BBC2 and BBC HD this afternoon at 3pm. You can find out more by clicking here!
There’ll also be another chance to catch the broadcast on Boxing Day, 7pm on BBC4. Click here for details.
For a typical season at Birmingham Hippodrome, we would begin setting up the production on Sunday morning, before we opened the show on Wednesday night. As Cinderella is a new production, however, we have scheduled access to the theatre a whole extra week in advance. As well as allowing the dancers more time for stage rehearsals, this also affords the technical team a longer period to rehearse scene transformations and work on the sets and lighting.
Here’s an overview of the technical schedule for the fortnight:
Sunday 14 November
Sets and cloths arrive at Birmingham Hippodrome, and a sprung floor is laid on the main stage.Monday 15 November
The Lighting rig is built, and sets and stage cloths continue to be set.
Tuesday 16 November
The grand piano is transported to the orchestra pit and tuned. Every one of the countless lights used in the show has to be set and focused.Wednesday 17 November
Lighting Designer David A. Finn works on designs for Act I, aided by the Company’s lighting team. The technical team run through all of the scene changes and transitions in Act I, to live piano accompaniment. In the evening, work commences on lighting designs for Act III.Thursday 18 November
In the morning work continues on the lighting designs for Act III. In the afternoon there is a full technical rehearsal of all of the scene changes in Act III, again to live piano. In the evening there is a full run through of Act I. This is the first with the dancers, and the student participants from Elmhurst School for Dance, and involves props and costumes for the first time.Friday 19 November
The grand piano is retuned. Work begins on lighting Act II before a run through of Act II and Act III, again with the cast, including the Elmhurst students. Full sets, props, lighting and costumes are used.Saturday 20 November
The whole ballet is rehearsed to piano accompaniment during the afternoon, and then a second time with the orchestra in the evening.Sunday 21 November
No work scheduled!Monday 22 November
This day is kept free to catch up on any further technical or lighting work deemed necessary.Tuesday 23 November
The grand piano is checked for tuning while time is set aside for further lighting and technical work as necessary. A full orchestral rehearsal is scheduled for the afternoon, with the principal characters now in full wigs and make-up. A general rehearsal is scheduled for the evening, when Cinderella will be performed in full, with every element in place.Wednesday 24 November
A full piano rehearsal takes place in the afternoon, with sets, lights, props and costumes, and photographers take pictures for use in the media. Afterwards, everything is set for the evening, when Cinderella makes its debut in front of a packed Birmingham Hippodrome auditorium!
In addition to the scheduled work, the backstage team are constantly reviewing every aspect of the piece. Paul Grace, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Technical Director, said this afternoon:
‘Throughout the process there’s not a single moment when each aspect of the production is not being worked upon, with the whole team chipping away at it little by little until it’s perfect. That’s the difference between a good ballet and a brilliant ballet – never wasting an opportunity to revise and improve.’
Even the Sunday with no work currently scheduled will probably see activity of some sort take place. And don’t forget that while all this is going on, David Bintley is still leading rehearsals of the ballet up in the Company’s studios!
Birmingham Royal Ballet Principals Gaylene Cummerfield and Carol-Anne Millar are creating the roles of Cinderella’s sisters.
‘Both are great with comedy,’ said David of his choices. ‘I’ve worked with both before – both did E=mc² and Carol-Anne did The Shakespeare Suite – and they were very good to work with. They’ve also both danced in a lot of my other works, so I’m very comfortable working with them for this production. Importantly, I believe they’re also comfortable in demanding character roles like this.’
As David says, the roles of the sisters are demanding, with the Director citing them as ‘easily the biggest, apart from the title role.’ And the scenes that they share with Cinderella [Elisha Willis], and with the stepmother [Marion Tait] – are ones that David is enjoying working on.
‘With those four women together in the studio there’s a great atmosphere, and a professionalism. There’s a real sense that we can make something unique.
‘They’re very intense those scenes, just those four characters together. The stepmother isn’t a massive role in terms of her dancing, but she has an undeniable influence over the whole story. A lot of the story is just these four women together, and outside of the classical material their scenes really are the heart of the piece.’
Practicalities have seen changes to one of Cinderella‘s most iconic elements. ‘We’re not having a glass slipper!’ says choreographer David Bintley. He smiles and shrugs. ‘It’s a ballet, you know? It’s got to be a glittery pointe shoe that someone can dance in, it’s as simple as that!’
While the materials have changed, however, the importance of footwear in the ballet has been expanded upon by David and designer John Macfarlane.
‘There’s a kind of language of shoes going on throughout the piece,’ nods David. ‘There are a lot of very different kinds of shoes that appear throughout the ballet. Initially Cinderella is kept barefoot in the kitchen by her stepmother. But she has some ballroom slippers, left to her by her real mother, which she has managed to keep hidden from the rest of the house. In an act of compassion she later gives these away to a beggar woman, and the fairy godmother subsequently gives her a pair of dancing shoes to go to the ball in.’
In addition, we see piles of shoes which the Prince has discarded while attempting to track down Cinderella in the wake of her sudden departure from the ball. As these are simply props, and are not designed to be worn, many are being cast in latex and polyurethane foam at the Royal Opera House workshops.
Here you can see an example, complete with moulds in the background. The shoes will later be painted and decorated to match John Macfarlane’s designs. However audiences will have to wait to see just how many of them are being created…
Lighting Designer David A. Finn has joined the creative team working on Cinderella. He has worked with Designer John Macfarlane before, including on Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker.
‘He has strong ideas about how he wants to accomplish the necessary effects, and he’s designing the lighting rig, working closely with our own lighting team’, says Director David Bintley.
Some of the choreographer’s most recent works have incorporated light as a key feature of the production design, such as the dramatic backdrop of bulbs and laser-effect outlines in E=mc², or The Orpheus Suite‘s movable wall of LEDs.
‘We’re working in a different kind of way this time around’ he says. ‘This time the design and the light have been conceived as one thing. John uses a lot of these plastic backcloths that allow light to pass through, so they have already begun to dictate the lighting specifications. And very early in our own discussions, he came up with this ‘Close Encounters’ effect. There’s a moment when a light comes down the chimney, for example, so the set has been designed with these sort of lighting effects in mind.’
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s extensive 2010 performance schedule has meant that David has had to create choreography for Cinderella in short, intensive periods. These have been spread out between long months while the Company rehearses and dances other pieces. Between March and July, for example, there were just six weeks when the Company were not performing somewhere in the world.
These long gaps between work on the piece have not been unwelcome however. David has made regular recordings of the studio sessions, which he has been able to look back over during the quieter months.
‘About 20 years ago I worked with an artist named Victor Pasmore,’ he remembers. ‘He said that he kept his finished paintings around him for anything up to a couple of months, and would just keep looking at them every day. Some days he might make a small adjustment to one of them, or at some point he might decide to store a piece away and bring an older composition out to take its place. And he’d do the same thing all over again, constantly reviewing his work.
‘With Cinderella, production elements aside, I can watch the whole ballet from start to finish, because I’ve got recordings of every part of the choreography. This is proving really useful, because I can keep reviewing all this video material and keep thinking: “that’s not quite right” or “maybe a different arm position there”.
Happily, the periods when David has been able to get into the studio with the dancers have proven productive. Which is just as well, with the Company now back on the road for the autumn tour, David himself will spend the next few weeks nearly six thousand miles away, undertaking Artistic Director duties for the National Ballet of Japan.
‘The last few weeks went really well,’ he confirms. ‘I knew that I had to get as much done as possible, so that when I get back from Japan it’s not going to be this mad, frantic creative period. I also wanted to look back on everything that I’d done so far, and to give myself time to make alterations. I wanted to leave behind good, complete versions of all of the difficult solos and duets, so that even while I’m away, the dancers can think about the steps and continue working on them. And I managed to accomplish that, and I enjoyed it. Now when I come back in November, I’ll be able to turn my focus to production details.’
While Marion Tait will be creating the role of the wicked stepmother, the Company Ballet Mistress has also been helping David Bintley to recruit additional dancers for Cinderella.
‘We have a scene where you see Cinderella and the sisters when they were very young’ reveals David, ‘and so Marion has been up to Elmhurst [Birmingham Royal Ballet's associated ballet school] and auditioned some of the students. They will also play a couple of mice later in the story. Those are dancing roles, which is why we’re specifically using Elmhurst students rather than just child actors.’
Marion attended class at the school recently, and was introduced to a class of first-year students by former Company Ballet Master, now Elmhurst Artistic Director Desmond Kelly. So as not to cause any nerves, the children were simply told that Marion was simply there to observe class. It was only afterwards that they were approached separately and invited to join the cast for Cinderella. Once the Company returns from the autumn tour, the students will join Birmingham Royal Ballet’s dancers for the weeks leading up to the premiere of the new work.
