Showing at the Grand Opera House from 5th to the 8th of February, Scotland’s national dance company take an all new approach to the classic Grimm Brother’s fairytale. It’s a strange thing, sitting down for three hours not hearing or saying a word, but Christopher Hampson’s Hansel & Gretel is such a visual treat that you don’t even notice the time fly by. Accompanied by Engelbert Humperdinck’s fantastical score and an imaginative set, Scottish Ballet’s surreal choreography fits this fairytale perfectly.
As the curtain is lifted, the audience is greeted with the sight of a woman handing out sweets to young kids, then, in a seemingly unrelated change of scene we meet our two protagonists, a young girl and boy who run away from home. The first half of the ballet is admittedly a little slow and there seems to be quite a lot of dancing for dancing’s sake rather than storytelling, but as the second half begins, the story ramps up and the audience is treated to a spectacular scene inside the witches cottage – there’s a massive furnace (we all know what that’s for), a big table laden with sweets and cakes which is rotated to reveal a cage for the children and ceilings dripping with what appears to be buttercream.
I don’t know an awful lot about ballet, but the dancing in the second half is so fluid and smooth that you actually forget that you’re watching a ballet for a second and the character’s elegant movements no longer seem laboured or unnecessary as the story unfolds. However, it’s the characters that really shine through in this production; the two children are playful and naive, whilst the wicked witch – who is undoubtedly the star of the show – is a grotesque creature who is actually quite terrifying.
Overall, the entire production is phenomenal, I know a lot of people are wary of going to see a ballet in case it’s ‘boring’ or ‘hard to understand’, but there were tons of children at the performance and with the enchanting story, backdrop and dance, it’s impossible not to enjoy the sensory feast in front of you.
