“We have never done the mashed potato on pointe shoes,” said Ballet Fantastique’s executive director Hannah Bontrager,@@http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/artStaff.php@@ “and I don’t know of any ballet company that has.”
That will all change this weekend, when the Hult Center hosts Ballet Fantastique’s @@http://www.hultcenter.org/@@latest original ballet, “Cinderella” — a rock opera ballet set in the 1960s.@@http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/events.php@@ The show runs May 12 at 7:30 p.m. and May 13 at 2:30 p.m., @@checked@@and it is the third and final piece in the ballet company’s 2011-2012 season.@@checked@@
The ballet follows the well-known fairy tale but with a unique spin: Cinderella goes by “Cindy,” the Prince’s ball is prom, and ’60s dance moves like the mashed potato and the twist are incorporated into classic ballet performance. Choreographed and produced by mother-daughter team Donna and Hannah Bontrager, @@http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/events.php@@“Cinderella” is an example of the signature mash-ups created by Ballet Fantastique.
“It’s helping us attract nontraditional theatergoers. It really appeals to anybody, even people who don’t think of themselves as ‘ballet’ fans,” Hannah said. “One of the things I love about the Cinderella story is that it really has a lot of timeless elements to it.”
The good girl goes through trials and tribulations, and the power of true love wins over social class tensions and injustice in the end. And these elements are easily transferable to another time period: think polka-dot dresses, Marilyn-Monroe hairdos and a soundtrack of ’60s billboard hits.

Said music will be provided by Eugene musicians and husband and wife Shelley and Cal James. @@http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/events.php@@The couple performs as a duo as well as with several bands, including Agents of Unity,@@http://www.shelleyandcal.com/home/@@ which will perform for “Cinderella.” Shelley and Cal have a large repertoire, performing original songs, gospel music and rock covers from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
“We’ve done so many different kinds of styles,” Shelley said. “Our fan base here in Eugene knows how diverse we are and that we can pull off just about anything.”
But “Cinderella” is the first time the duo has focused on ’60s music, so adjusting to the new tempos and style has been a new experience. Shelley and Cal arranged 14 different hits from the time period for the ballet. As an alto and lead vocalist, Shelley had to change the key of several songs, as well as lengthen all of them to accommodate the choreography: The longest songs in the ’60s ran about two and half minutes, while most songs today run around four to five minutes. After the songs were arranged, Shelley and Cal recorded them for rehearsals and prepared to perform them live with the band for the show.
“It was a lot of work. But the moral of that story is that I ended up falling in love with this decade,” Shelley said. “The honest truth is it’s really been an amazing serendipity for me as a musician in that I took on the challenge, and I’m glad I did because now I love these songs.”
The music adds a fun dimension and connects the regular Cinderella story to the time period.
“Once we started thinking of songs, it was just completely perfect,” Hannah said about the brainstorming stage of the show last spring.
Songs include picks from The Supremes, The Ronettes, The Beatles, The Temptations and more. Act one opens with “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” the stepsisters send their wishes about the ball to “Mr. Sandman,” Cinderella dances “You Don’t Own Me” to the stepmother, and the Fairy Godmother urges Cindy to “Tell Him” that she loves the Prince.
Not only did the song choices place the musicians outside their comfort zone, but it also challenged the dancers. When ballet companies do modern work, the standard equation is contemporary movements sans pointe shoes paired with classical music. Ballet Fantastique, in contrast, has kept the pointe shoes, switched up the music and added ’60s dance moves in the mix. Hannah and Donna researched dance videos from the period, perusing titles like “West Side Story” for inspiration. Then they spiced it up, merging classical, technical ballet with modern, complex choreography.
“We’re really challenging ourselves technically,” Hannah said. “It’s really high-energy choreography, in part to keep up with this awesome music. You can’t sit around to these songs. One of the hardest things for us is not singing along.”
The show will feature eight female and four male dancers, as well as a narrator. The role of Cinderella will be played by Alanna Fisher, @@http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/dancers.php@@who is currently enjoying her first year with Ballet Fantastique. The Prince will be played by Fredrick Davis, a visiting dancer from the Dance Theatre of Harlem.@@http://dancetheatreofharlem.org/artists@@