Angelina’s Star Performance

Published Tuesday 11 September 2007 at 10:35 by Lisa Martland

Doubtless there will be sceptics quick to turn their noses up at this collaboration between TV company Hit Entertainment and English National Ballet, but both the artistic and commercial benefits are plain.

For a start, the tour will be big business at the box office, not to mention the merchandise stands, as little girls in particular rush to see their favourite pirouetting mouse Angelina Ballerina in the flesh, or rather, fur. Not only that but Antony Dowson’s brand new children’s ballet has the potential to give them the theatre bug at an early age.

At the beginning of the piece Angelina gives us a synopsis of the story which revolves around her creating her version of Sleeping Beauty, to be performed at the palace for the Queen. Dowson and his team have taken quite a risk in not including any dialogue during the performance, especially when the audience is likely to be so young, but it is a decision that works.

The usual childish chat and fidgeting are overcome by the ballet itself but also as the youngsters catch their first glimpse of the beautifully recreated picturebook costumes and sets, designed respectively by Wizzy Shawyer and Alan Riches.

Daryl Griffith has also integrated cleverly elements of Tchaikovsky’s score for The Sleeping Beauty into a ballet which Dowson ensures is accessible, entertaining, fun and genuinely touching.

On the whole the young performers do well to embrace their mouse personas and convincingly express their emotions through movement. Particularly impressive are Emma Findlay as Angelina, Monika Lepisto’s Princess Valentine and the wonderfully exuberant Ethan Brookes as William.