Royal New Zealand Ballet's Cinderella at the on-going Beijing International Dance Festival, with its expressive story-telling and stunning sets, is a production the whole family will enjoy.

Choreographed by Christopher Hampson, Cinderella is bound to win over kids with its cast of benevolent fairy godmother, fantastic insects and slapstick comedy; while adults will be wowed by Sergei Prokofiev's powerfully discordant music, which plunges Cinderella into a darker struggle.

"It has become our company's most successful production to date - watched by nearly 44,000 people," says Gary Harris, artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB), who commissioned Hampson.

It is the second collaboration between the British choreographer and RNZB. Their first, Romeo and Juliet in 2003, left audiences and critics cheering for more.

"There are relatively few choreographers in the world who work in a strictly classical vocabulary. Whether this is a reaction to the strict confines of classical ballet training and technique, or because there are not that many around, I do not know. What I do know is that Hampson is one of the few who are making works purely in the classical genre," Harris says.

But why return to the Cinderella story, a well-known folk tale in Europe that some say originates from a Chinese book written around AD 850-860?

"This ballet has been the one I have wanted to create for as long as I can remember. The score drives this most magic of stories and has always driven me to look for more meaning to the journey Cinderella goes through," the choreographer writes in the ballet's program notes.

Prokofiev's overture is one of the heaviest scores in ballet music. It leads Hampson to begin the piece in the darkest place he could think of: Putting Cinderella at her mother's funeral.

"Aside from Cinderella's own story, I wanted to see a parallel journey happening, something visual. I decided on a rose growing from the grave and this, for me and certainly for Cinderella, was the way out of this dark beginning," the choreographer says.

The story is classic, with its cruel stepmother, comedic stepsisters and a handsome prince. But in Hampson's eyes, Prokofiev's score broadens the canvas, to show growth, honesty, humility and love.

"Cinderella is more than a girl's story from 'rags-to-riches'. It is a tale that shows us a journey from dark to light," Hampson adds.

Hampson's light and sophisticated treatment is a counterpoint to Prokofiev's heavy score. His choreography uses traditional ballet devices to allow the story to flow: There are elegant turns and arabesques for Cinderella; bumbling routines for the stepsisters and their retinues; and vigorous passages for the prince.

Cinderella will run at Poly Theater on Friday and Saturday.

Royal New Zealand Ballet's Cinderella is a highlight of the on-going Beijing International Dance Festival. (file photo from China Daily)

(China Daily November 19, 2007)