Ashton's 'Cinderella' has 1st American performance

CHICAGO -- Wendy Ellis Somes is explaining to a ballerina portraying the Summer Fairy in "Cinderella" how to capture the languid essence of her solo: Think of how caramel would react on a steamy Chicago day, she suggests.\nDuring her career with Britain's Royal Ballet, Somes danced everything from the tiny part of a page to the title role of the girl who loses her slipper in Frederick Ashton's lavish full-length version of the fairy tale, set to a score by Sergei Prokofiev.\nNow Somes is in Chicago coaching the Joffrey Ballet, which will become the first American company to perform Ashton's work when "Cinderella" opens Wednesday at the Auditorium Theater. It's the company's biggest production ever, with a cast of 50 dancers plus 25 children and a budget of more than $1.5 million.\n"They're very excited because it's a very challenging ballet for them ... and I mean that from Cinderella to the smallest role in the corps de ballet," Somes said in a recent interview following her rehearsal with four dancers, each playing a different seasonal fairy.\n"It's all hard -- really hard dancing. And that is quite unusual in big ballets today. There is a lot of sort of milling around, and not exactly doing steps."\nAshton, a contemporary of George Balanchine, is considered one of the great classical choreographers of the 20th century, known for his lyricism and musicalilty. His other landmark ballets include "The Dream," "La Fille mal Garde" and "Birthday Offering."\nAshton died in 1988, and he left his ballets to friends, dancers and relatives. He willed the rights to "Cinderella" to Michael Somes, a frequent partner of Margot Fonteyn who created the role of the Prince when The Royal Ballet debuted "Cinderella" in 1948. When Somes died, he left the ballet to his wife, Wendy Ellis Somes.\nSomes said other companies in the United States have expressed interest in performing Ashton's "Cinderella." Robert Joffrey even hoped to make it happen for his namesake company before his death in 1988.\nBut it's a major undertaking, requiring a huge cast and glorious costumes and sets. Somes decided to grant the rights to the Joffrey after coming from England two years ago to see the company perform. She appreciated the quality of the company's dancers and productions and how it felt like a family.\n"I felt comfortable. I felt, yes, this is the right time to do it," she said. "It just felt right. A gut feeling."\nAnd back at the Joffery, they felt a production of Ashton's "Cinderella" was perfect for its two-season celebration of the 50th anniversary of the company's founding by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino.\nNot only had Robert Joffrey always hoped to have his company perform the ballet, the Joffrey was offered the chance to buy "Cinderella" sets and costumes from the Dutch National Ballet -- saving it the expense and time of creating them from scratch.\nAnd as a special treat, the Joffrey has arranged for two of the company's big stars from the 1970s -- Christian Holder and Gary Chryst -- to return and dance the roles of the Ugly Stepsisters, portrayed in Ashton's version by men in 2 1/2-inch high heels, towering wigs, heavy makeup and outlandish dresses. (Ashton played the younger stepsister himself.)\nHolder and Chryst said Joffrey actually mentioned to them once in the 1970s that he could envision them as the stepsisters. It was unusual, they said, because he didn't usually talk to dancers about what he had in mind for them.\nDecades later, they were both in Chicago to see a Joffrey performance when they heard about the company's interest in "Cinderella." When they mentioned what Robert Joffrey had told them decades ago, the company's management knew they'd found their stepsisters.