In an Australian first, the Adelaide Festival Centre will be the home to a magical collection of costumes that covers three productions of Cinderella from The Australian Ballet’s repertoire – 1972 to 2014.
The exhibition celebrates the 2014 The Australian Ballet’s production of Cinderella. This is the second costume exhibition in as many years and is an initiative of The Friends of The Australian Ballet (SA) in conjunction with The Australian Ballet.
The exhibition includes 27 costumes, 11 headdresses, accessories and images that span 42 years.
There will be 20 photographs and costume sketches and one of the highlights is Sir Robert Helpmann’s shoes from the 1972 production of Cinderella.
Finally, there will be promotional and behind the scenes DVD’s showing in the foyer to provide the public with a greater insight into the history of Cinderella productions.
The Australian Ballet Wardrobe Product Manager Michael Williams, said: “Visitors to the exhibition can experience a close up look at the exquisite workmanship in the items on display.
Cinderella 1972 -2014 An Exhibition is open to the public from Thursday 4th July until Friday 1st August in the Grand Foyer of the Adelaide Festival Theatre, King William Road, Adelaide.
Some notes about the costumes:
The 1972 production costume collection for Dame Peggy Van Praagh, The Australian Ballet’s founding Artistic Director and Sir Robert Helpmann, Co-Artistic Director, was designed by Kristian Fredrikson and included Sir Robert Helpmann and Sir Frederick Ashton in the cast as the ugly sisters. Ashton originally choreographed the work for The Royal Ballet in London and reproduced it for The Australian Ballet. The exhibition includes costumes worn by these twolegends of the ballet world and also a pair of shoes worn by Helpmann in the role of the Tall Ugly Sister.
In 1997 a new version, choreographed by Resident Choreographer Stanton Welch, was also designed by Kristian Fredrikson. This production is now with Houston Ballet. However there are several images and some photographs of the scenery on display. David McAllister, current Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet is shown in the role of Grizabella and Stephen Woodgate, Ballet Master for Houston Ballet, is shown in the role of Florinda, the ugly sisters in an image from this production.
In 2013 the third and completely different version was choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, former Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet and was designed by Jérôme Kaplan who has worked extensively in Europe, America and Canada. There are a number of stage shots of this production in the exhibition and at the conclusion of the season of the new Cinderella in the Festival Theatre, several costumes from it will be added to the exhibition.