THE CINDERELLA BALLET BY THE CHOREOGRAPHER ILIĆ ON STAGE IN SKOPJE
In the Macedonian National Opera and Ballet, choreographer Prof. Aleksandar Ilić is nearing the end of the final preparations for the premiere performance of the contemporary dance performance Cinderella – Love is in the Air on Saturday, November 19th, starting at 7:00 p.m., performed by the soloists and ensemble of this company’s ballet in Skopje.
As the choreographer states, it is about the famous fairy tale by Brothers Grimm Cinderella, which we placed in a contemporary choreographic setting. In the new staging performed by the Macedonian ballet, our Cinderella is slightly moved in relation to the fairy-tale and established libretto, but in each part the originality and message of this well-known fairy tale is preserved. When the ballet director Olga Pango invited me to do the play, she wanted us to present it to the audience in a more modern context. I am sure that we managed to preserve the characteristics of the main characters (Prince, Stepmother, sisters), but also contributed to a new aesthetic interpretation of the fairy tale. Luxurious costumes but belonging to the time in which we set the story were made by costume designer from Croatia Katarina Radošević Galić (assistant to costume designer Angela Bogeska), set design by Filip Korunovski from Macedonia, sound design by Georg Draušnik from Croatia, and light design by Milčo Aleksandrov. Assistant choreographers are Mojca Majcen from Slovenia and Saša Evtimova, who will interpret the role of the main character Fairy.
The action of the play itself is set in a time period closer to ours, more precisely in the 70s, at the time of the premiere of the famous film Grease (made by Randall Kleiser, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John), when young girls wore flowing dresses, brushed hair with ribbons and ribbons on the head, and men combed their hair in partings. It was a time that is most closely described by the lyrics of the famous song by Bijelo Dugme, The Bastard and the Princess, or in our case, the Princess and the hooligan. When the biggest event was going out to the school dance, or when the only imperative was socializing, love and chewing gum. By retelling the story of Cinderella in this way, we brought the fairy tale itself closer to our time, and made this work more interesting for the youth and children, our main audience. In the end, I did not deviate from the original synopsis, from Prokofiev’s music and all that are the main characteristics of this fairy tale, which is Love, and that kindness will save the world.
Aleksandar Ilić recalls that last year at this time he collaborated for the premiere on the play Igra s mitom (Dance with Myth) which was performed at the Zagreb Dance Center (Croatia), then Možiček at the House of Culture in Celje and the House of Culture Velenje (Slovenia), the operas Vladimir and Kosara and Telephone did is in Novi Sad and Sarajevo, and at the end of the season he staged the contemporary dance show Tre Sorelle in Podgorica (Montenegro). As he says, with Skopje, the area of the former Yugoslavia, but also the country where he grew up, is rounded off. What politics divides, art unites, and as he states, the performers of all theaters and companies are part of one big family, regardless of country, religion, continent.
In Ilić’s Cinderella, the main roles are played by Hristina Nakjevska – Cinderella, Miroslav Mitrašinović – Prince, Saša Evtimova’s main Fairy, Stepmother Marija Josifovska Ristovska, sisters Andru Kuk and Kristijan Jangos, other fairies, women and men, etc.
Due to great interest, both the premiere and the first rerun scheduled for November 25th on the stage of the National Macedonian Opera and Ballet were sold out.
Photography by Aleksandar Paunovski, Poster design by Filip Korunovski.