Rumpelstiltskin by balletLORENT, filmed at Northern Stage, Newcastle, streamed by Sadler’s Wells 3rd April 2020 – Maggie Watson reviews

balletLORENT’s Rumpelstiltskin, is an engrossing story of love, parental betrayal and redemption. Rumpelstiltskin, a little boy rejected by his father the King following the death of the child’s mother, is cast out to live in the woods and hedgerows. Only the Shepherd’s Daughter is kind to him. They grow up, and when the Shepherd foolishly boasts that his daughter (Natalie Trewinnard) can spin straw into gold, the miserly King sets her to work, threatening to slaughter their sheep if she fails. (This is particularly poignant as the sheep are played by small children on all fours with sheepskins on their backs). Rumpelstiltskin (Gavin Coward) appears and for three long nights spins the straw into gold, in exchange for a ring, a kiss, and finally her first born child when she marries his father. When Rumpelstiltskin comes to claim the baby (there is an implication that the child is his), she breaks the contract by guessing his name. The outcast prince is re-united with his father, who conveniently dies, enabling the couple to marry.

 

Snow White – balletLORENT at Oxford Playhouse 8th April 2016 – Susannah Harris-Wilson reviews

There are many estimable things about balletLORENT and its goals: a company committed to training young people, even children, in the art of theatre and dance movement; a company of dedicated actors/dancers, some of whom have been members for ten or more years; innovative in commissioning work from other fields within the arts – poets and actors and musicians; able to appreciate the on-going relevance of literary works like fairy tales and the eternal commentary they make on our human condition. These are reasons to admire the company and their undertaking to express through dance what is very often verbally inexpressible.

Till recent film versions, the story of Snow White has found little new expression in art forms since Walt Disney’s 1950s animation. This is a pity. A musical, opera, or ballet would do well to pick up this tale and explore its themes – particularly the knotty relationship that exists between a mother and her daughter or between any older woman and a young woman who is outstripping her with youthful energies, promise, attractiveness. There is also the problem of privilege enjoyed by some women until it becomes exploitative when power is added to that privilege. As with all fairy tales, there are innumerable themes woven together under the delightful magic of storytelling.