Debra Campbell

What a privilege to be invited to review the ballet of ALADDIN by Victorian State Ballet company performing at The Palais in St. Kilda, a grande dame of theatres.

Everyone likes to dress up for the ballet! It’s so beautiful to even enter the foyer and watch lots of excitement meeting friends, buying programs before eagerly being shown to seats. A couple of young girls in front of me had their best ‘ballet’ buns in and ballet ‘pink’ clothes on, one with a picture of Princess Jasmin on the front. Their mum obviously equally looking forward to the show, smiling at her children’s joy. I remember those days!

Classical ballet is a very special form of dance. Whether or not these young girls are inspired to become advanced ballet students or simply continue to enjoy the art of ballet in an audience, they’ll never forget coming along to a full length ballet for the first time. (I asked their Mum and her reply was when she had heard it was ‘Aladdin’ she had to take them even though it was a late night because they love the Disney story so much!). After the show they were both skipping, twirling and arabesqueing up the aisle. I wonder if they went to sleep dreaming of either becoming a princess or a ballerina?

Alanna Puddy as Princess Jasmin shines as a principal. Not only is her exceptional technical training at The Queensland Ballet PPY and Australian Conservatoire of Ballet evident, she has the ability to tell this well-known storyline clearly and convincingly. There is often a lot colorfully going on around her and she is completely focused in bringing Jasmin to life within each scene exactly like those girls in the audience expect. They giggled at the cute moment of Jasmin playing cards with Aladdin.

I never look at who is in the show prior to reviewing, so I am thrilled to see a past school buddy of my daughter’s playing the title role ‘Aladdin’, Michael Scott-Kahans. Michael studied here in Melbourne at VCASS in the full-time dance stream, then went on to train at Tanz Akademie Zurich and European School of Ballet. At 18 he was accepted into a contract with Alberta Ballet in Canada. As Aladdin, from stealing apples to a memorable solo, Michael is superb and his extensive training is highly noticeable. Impressive clean grand jetés and an acrobatic aerial from this guy too!

Tristan Gross as Jafar is excellent. Jafar is an interesting character isn’t he…. scary and calculating. Though in a ballet of course Tristan, as the expert artist he is (formerly of The West Australian Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet), has to relay these mindful exasperations of Jafar very differently from those who get to play the role in a musical or movie; only non-verbal expressions – he does very well indeed.

Dancing since he was 5 after commencing at Melbourne Dance Theatre, Daniel Sierra as The Genie is absolutely living the dream and what a lovable role to fill. I have watched Daniel before as a much younger dancer (VSB shows regularly tour to the suburbs and regional areas in Australia). He continues to build a strong presence on stage I recognize and no doubt has an equally strong future ahead of him. It was fun to watch him as Genie.

Belle Thorneycroft (Sapphire) has exceptional poise and elegance.

New Zealander, Courtney Taylor (Ruby) shows passion and an eye for detail right to her fingertips.

Maggie de Koning (Diamond) simply oozes love for this genre she performs outstandingly.

Grace Kefford (Emerald) is graceful and gorgeous.

Felix Milewski (Magic Carpet) loves to perform since his journey began as a child dancer with the Australian Ballet. Though you cannot ‘see’ him as the Magic Carpet, the ‘dancing’ carpet is a feature especially entertaining!

Charlotte Jones (Aladdin’s mother), a very lovely dancer, having been accepted into the prestigious English National Ballet School in London, stood out to me as one upcoming young lady to watch.

There are members in the corps of Victorian State Ballet who are amazing; extensions that defy the definition of flexible and their interactions with each other are suitably staged with spot on timing to create the whole picturesque scenes in very pretty costumes. I particularly liked the castle scene. A+

I overheard many positive comments after the applause finally subsided and I’ll note one in particular:

“was interesting how they changed the lighting to show off the costumes”

I agree, the lighting was used in co-ordination with the costume colours and settings super well!

Every dancer tonight created an impactful connection with their audience to tell the narrative about a poor boy who falls in love with a girl, finds a genie in a bottle, fights off a villain and eventually gets to marry her as a princess (“wedding scene had ‘cool’ drum music” my own daughter reported on way home).

It was magical to see Aladdin as a ballet. Thank-you all!

The Victorian State Ballet is a professional ballet company all ages can go along to enjoy and appreciate the art of ballet at an affordable ticket price, but still with quality and care of remarkable artistic talent.

Congratulations Martin Sierra (Artistic Director) and Michelle Cassar de Sierra (Choreographer & Co-director) and your entire team behind-the-scenes and on/side-stage.

To find out more see www.victorianstateballet.org.au

Instagram: @victorianstateballet

To book tickets to Aladdin, please visit https://www.victorianstateballet.org.au/tickets

Photographer: Sasha Kane

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