With the help of her fairy godmother, Cinderella sheds her skin as a humble servant dusted with cinder and transforms into a glamorous princess who becomes the star of the ball. Yes, she must flee from her prince at the stroke of midnight, but for a night, she is transcendent. As the Singapore Ballet prepares to raise the curtain on its brand‑new production of Cinderella, staged at the Esplanade Theatre from December 14 to 17, a similar transformation for the company awaits.
There exists many renowned versions of , including productions by heavyweights already in its repertoire, Janek Schergen, the artistic director of Singapore Ballet, chose to do a new production instead. “These dancers are significantly different from the dancers we had then. So we need to do something new that is made specifically to reflect how [our] dancers have grown and developed over the past 20‑plus years,” he says.
