Amal Choucri Catta enjoys fables and fairytales Russian Children's Ballet Season, Cinderella by Serguey Prokofiev. Venues: Alexandria Sayyed Darwish Theatre: 21 & 22 September, 10am and 2pm, and Main Hall, Cairo Opera House: 25 September, 11am and 6pm, and 26 September 10am and 12.30pm The Alexandria and Cairo performances of Prokofiev's Cinderella were presented by the young dancers of The Kharkov Children's Ballet Company from Ukraine within the framework of the Russian Children's Ballet season. Russian ballet has always attracted large audiences in Egypt and Kharkov's eight performances were no exception. The young dancers, aged between nine and 18, gave seven matinée performances -- targeting mostly schoolchildren, and a single evening performance beginning at 6pm in Cairo's Main Hall. This last was marred by a lack of organisation. Adults and children bearing unnumbered tickets insisted on sitting on seats reserved for holders of numbered tickets. Ushers tried in vain to convince the former to change places while those with numbered tickets grew increasingly shrill in their complaints as the Main Hall filled. Eventually chaos set in, with members of the audience screaming at each other as babies began to cry while other youngsters had fun playing hopscotch on the Main Hall's stairs. Children were still munching and rushing around as the lights dimmed, the overture began and a fairy in azure and silver costume waved her magic wand and executed impeccable pirouettes. The simple backdrop, showing a landscape with a castle in the distance and a pink slipper in the foreground, was partially covered by a movable tableau illustrated with pans and teapots, saucers and tableware and all kinds of kitchen paraphernalia. Cinderella began her daily chores, cleaning, washing, cooking. An excellent dancer, she displayed a supple, captivating grace, the perfect counterpoint to the two odious and ugly step-sisters. The ill-natured one was particularly unpleasant, her sister merely gruff while the mother, though beautiful and a glorious dancer, was excessively harsh. Receiving an invitation to the prince's ball the step-sisters brush up on their dances while buying new clothes, hats and jewellery for the occasion, convincing themselves they will be the belles of the ball. When they finally leave in a rented carriage, abandoning Cinderella to her brooms, a fairy appears and grants the poor girl's wish to go to the ball. Sadly for the audience there was no pumpkin to be magically turned into a carriage, though there were plenty of mice to be turned into the horses, pages and coachmen who escort Cinderella to the ball. With a final wave of her magic wand the fairy insists Cinderella leave the palace before midnight or else she will lose her lovely costume and appear in her wretched working clothes. The scene with the clock's hands was performed by two extraordinarily slim dancers, clothed in grey tights, rushing around to Prokofiev's obstinate musical tune which returns at the end of the first act when Cinderella, having enjoyed her dance with the prince, realises the clock will soon strike midnight. She rushes home, losing a slipper in her flight. Act Two finds the prince searching for his mysterious dance partner in Spain and in India. Finally he finds her closer to home, and the fairy blesses their wedding. Soloists and corps de ballet were all talented dancers. Though simplified and reduced to two acts, the ballet lost none of its enchantment. Sadly, many in the audience appeared to have trouble remaining quiet. Les Fables à La Fontaine; Compagnie La Petite Farbrique, France. Modern dance performance. Venues: Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 28 September, 9pm and Sayyed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 1 October 8pm With the exception of one woman who continued to talk in a loud voice until she was asked to leave the Main Hall the audience attending last week's performance of La Fontaine's fables was better versed in theatre etiquette. The tales, this time, were not of fairies and pumpkins but of rats and crows, foxes, oak- trees and subtly bending reeds. The French company, La petite farbrique, had commissioned several choreographers to create brief dances based on Jean de La Fontaine's famous fables. The three presented at Cairo Opera House were modern dance performances with two or three dancers and some perfect body language. The show started with Le rat de ville et le rat des champs -- the city rat and the field rat -- choreographed by Dominique Rébaud, with Severine Adamy as the city rat and Hugues Barnouin as the country cousin twisting and turning and somersaulting to the music of Alain Michon. The confrontation between the two, a series of alternating friendly and antagonistic encounters, culminates in mutual understanding with the city rat docilely following her companion into the fields. The second dance, Le corbeau et le renard -- the crow and the fox -- choreographed by Dominique Hervieu, with Boba Pani and Wuzheng, and accompanied by a video-conception, revolved around the themes of hypocrisy, vanity and the world's cruelty. The third dance, Le chene et le roseau -- the oak-tree and the reed -- choreographed by Mourad Merzouki, with Mehdi Heniche as the reed, Aurelien Kairo as the oak-tree and Halim Houcine as the wind that buffets the trees and the plants, was performed to music by Ahcen Merzouki. It managed, with minimal effects, to evoke the rigidity of the tree and the flexibility of the reed that bends but does not break. Brief, and executed with exemplary precision, the three dances managed to distil the essence of the fables in a startlingly original manner.
