Dancers shine despite technical issues

SNOW WHITE Victorian State Ballet Theatre Royal, Hobart June 29-July 1

ENTHUSIASTICALLY received by a local audience, the Victorian State Ballet is a combination of three bodies: the company, a pre-professional program and a youth ballet group. As such, there is a very wide range of skill and experience on stage.

In Hobart, the Youth Ballet group is replaced by members of the Tasmanian Youth Classical Ballet. Unlike most touring ballet companies, where local young dancers are introduced into narrative scenes mixing adult with child characters, these children perform two discrete dances on their own as the Children of the Court and the Forest Fairy Folk.While offering an exciting opportunity and ensuring a loyal following, this approach risks shifting the focus of this production because, including the children, the preprofessional students well outnumber the professional company members.

Choreographed by Michelle Cassar de Sierra, this production has some nice solos by Rebekah Petty as the vindictive Stepmother, and features Elise May Watson-Lord and each of the men in character solos.

Promoted as Victoria’s “leading ballet company’’ with a “magnificent classical ballet repertoire’’, it is disappointing to see the efforts of the dancers let down by a lack of professional-level sound and lighting production. A series of clunky sound edits and unnecessary pauses seriously mars the enjoyment of this very well-known narrative.