Dance Review by Deborah Jowitt

FOOTLOSE & MELTING

...The plot, based on an 1873 play derived from Slavic folklore, is minimal. The Snow Maiden falls in love with a man who’s already got a fiancee, and melts in his arms on his wedding day leaving him with... incurable sadness. Stevenson decks this with dances, including snow - sprite ensembles and Slavic village and court numbers (magnificently costumed by Desmond Healey).

The Tchaikovsky music, culled by John Lanchbery from various works including the composer’s score for the original play, is lovely, but curiously undramatic...

The ballet was created for Nina Ananiashvili, and she is adorable in it - innocent, fleet, delicately precise, frisking on pointe in Healey’s frozen world... From the first flash of his red velvet breeches, the appearance of Angel Corella as Misgir wakes up the winter world. It drowses again through a long, sweet pas deux for him and his lovely fiancee (Kathleen Moore), although Stevenson builds drama by haying the Snow Maiden shyly copy Moore’s moves when she gets Corella to herself. Corella, with his glad face, noble bearing, beautifully incisive legs, and creamy turns, is a splendid match for Ananiashvili. Small wonder that she climbs into her silver sleigh and takes off after him, to the despair her father (Victor Barbee is marvelous as a bumbling white-on-white Santa Claus)...

Stevenson emphasizes the classic ballet tragedy of lovers from separate worlds who may not unite...