THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504160087
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Dance review
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
In the classic fairy tale, it's the prince-winning Cinderella who triumphs over her wicked stepsisters. But those evil sisters prevailed in the Louisville Ballet's interpretation Saturday evening in Norfolk, with farcically drawn characterizations that handily stole the show.
Ballerina Kathy Sawyer, a native of Elizabeth City, N.C., made a charming Cinderella, but her gentle depiction was overshadowed by the near-vaudevillian performances of Anthony Wozniak and Jeffrie Sodowsky as her over-the-top half-siblings.
The pair hammed it up mightily as the ill-tempered and squabbling sisters, often playing directly to the audience, keeping the many youngsters in attendance engaged and amused.
Sawyer has a lovely sense of phrasing, but was hardly given the opportunity to showcase it until midway through the second act, when she arrived at the ball after being transformed into a princess by her fairy godmother.
There she soloed - with intricate turn work - and was partnered by the prince, capably danced by Sawyer's husband, David Goud. Goud reached fine elevation in his jumps and turned with control. His travelling lifts of Sawyer lent an aura of weightlessness to her many striking, if sometimes oddly stiff, poses.
Other highlights of artistic director Alan Jones' choreography were the elaborate, ever-whirling court dancing of the ballroom scene and the angular port de bras of the corps depicting stars and fairies. by CNB