Snow White by the Vienna Festival Ballet

A graceful reimagining of a timeless fairy tale classic, the Vienna Festival Ballet's performance of Snow White is well worth a trip to Windsor's Theatre Royal says Nella Guagenti

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The classic fairy tale by the brothers Grimm is familiar to us all yet the ballet form gives the story more romance and visual delight, with group ballet scenes and repeating dance moves in place of the well-known phrases and chorus lines. The impact was to transport me back in time - there is something reminiscent of another era about this classic ballet performance by the Vienna Festival Ballet. It’s run under the artistic direction of Peter Mallek, renowned dancer and teacher, who was taught in the ballet principles of old Russian Master Alexander Pushkin and who danced alongside Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn. Just for this reason it was a real pleasure to have caught a glimpse of this world.

The interpretation has the elements of a classical ballet experience, including plenty of charmingly performed corps de ballet scenes, memorable solo dances, sugar-coated costumes, a bit of wit and elegant backdrops.

The story begins with the Queen gazing at her mirror for reassurance that she is ‘the fairest of them all’ but is confronted by the vision of her stepdaughter’s face peering back at her. During the grand ball at the palace we are introduced to the Huntsman, performed elegantly but restrained by Dean Rushton, and are witness to his growing affections for her stepdaughter Snow White. The Queen is enraged and ends the ball. She reveals her love for him but it is not returned and so the Queen decides to rid herself of Snow White who is banished to the forest.

The narrative moves quite rapidly at times and slowly at others so some parts of the story – Snow White’s relationship with the dwarves, the forest episode with the poisoned apple (a magnificent alluring red one that would tempt any soul) and the revival of Snow White by the Huntsman – did not seem to be developed enough. Instead of plot development there was a lot of additional material tagged on to the end as a Grande Finale where solo dances were performed with great energy and talent but seemed something of an afterthought.

Where the storyline is explored the results are engaging with some innovative dancing and there are memorable scenes where both the performances and choreography are superb. The passionate emotions of the Queen are perfectly captured by Jodi McKnight when she expresses herself to the Huntsman and pleads with him to return those feelings and the cauldron scene with black-robed witches and blood-red apple. The end of the tale where she is remorseful and asks forgiveness is not so convincing but the dancing is nevertheless brilliant.

The interaction between Rachel Victoria Hernon as Snow White and Huntsman, Dean Rushton, is always fluid though lacking a little in emotional conviction and they make all the lifts and wrapping of bodies seem part normal, part magic. The jumps are amazing, performed by soloists and the male ensemble group.

I liked the modern twist of the hip-hop dancing by the dwarves though it went on too long and I would have liked to see more individual dances here. But all in all the ballet was easy to follow even for a ballet novice and visually captivating.

For tickets visit theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk

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