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| Photo By Cincinnati Ballet |
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Victoria Morgan danced with Ballet West and San Francisco Ballet before coming to Cincinnati.
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While some might dismiss
Cinderella as simply a juvenile fairytale, it contains more substance than surface impressions might suggest. Through her choreographic talents, Cincinnati Ballet Artistic Director Victoria Morgan brings forth the story's values for any age group.
In describing what drew her to Cinderella, Morgan praises the Prokofiev score, "I think the music is fantastic. It is so gorgeous sometimes, and so silly and playful other times -- it has so much richness to it." Incidentally, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra Conductor, Maestro Carmon DeLeone seconds her opinion of the music: Morgan reports it's his favorite score, hands down.
Morgan readily admits, "I think that people think it's silly, and there's all this excessive pantomime, but the story itself is really quite moving." Besides the love story with the Prince, at the heart of the narrative, there's the broader concept of having a dream, of visualizing it before striving to make it happen. In spite of Cinderella's being in a situation where she's mistreated and undervalued, "She has this dream. And I think that's what's so great about it: she sees (her dream). And that's what we all have to do -- we have to see it before realizing it. That's a solid story to an adult."
Not a stranger to some adversity during her own formative years, Morgan shares some details: In response to a stomach hernia shortly after birth, a doctor prescribed exercise. Morgan embarked on creative movement classes at age 3. She continued dancing and, as discipline and attendance demands increased, she recalls her mother's saying to her, "You know, you don't have to do this," but Morgan knew she enjoyed it and never looked back.
Dressed casually in comfortable, colorful clothes, Morgan displays a natural, graceful elegance: Her years of ballet training haven't disappeared. Her cropped, curly light blonde hair might be the main feature separating her from a "traditional" balletic look: It affords her an edgier, yet slightly pixie-inspired appearance.
Hailing from Salt Lake City, where she was raised as "a really straight Mormon," she graduated magna cum laude with an M.F.A. from the University of Utah before becoming a principal dancer with Ballet West in Salt Lake City. Years later, she shopped around for a company she could better fit in with -- literally. At 5-feet-8 inches that's 6-feet-2 inches "en pointe" -- she sought a company with taller male dancers for partnering. After auditioning and accepting an offer with San Francisco Ballet, she needed surgery for bone chips her first year. The following year left her without a position, "So I just hung out, went to rehearsals, and finally someone got injured and they had to hire me," she chuckles.
After spending almost 10 years as a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, followed by nearly a decade as that company's resident choreographer, Morgan became Cincinnati Ballet's artistic director in 1997. Under her leadership, the company has experienced significant growth and critical success, including a first-ever appearance at the prestigious Vail International Festival of Dance last August.
She counts Cinderella as a milestone among her choreographic achievements. She presented earlier versions of it for Pacific Ballet in the mid-'90s and a well-received production for Cincinnati Ballet in 2000. She has continued to explore and update her work: "While the story and the structure are the same, a lot, a lot, a lot of the choreography is different."
Her face lights up when she mentions watching the Disney-animated version of Cinderella for the first time in years, prior to re-working the ballet. "They did such great things. You know (Cinderella) had wonderful relationships with little birds and mice -- that was her support system. It was fun to see that again, the innocence and sweetness of it." Children and adults alike could benefit from an entertaining escape into the magic of a place where dreams come true.
CINDERELLA, staged by the Cincinnati Ballet, is presented at the Aronoff Center on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
