Ballet Theatre Company will have a ball at The Bushnell with ‘Cinderella’

West Hartford’s Ballet Theatre Company has revived and revised its 2018 production of “Cinderella,” blending fantasy, beauty, comedy, drag, pageantry and Prokofiev’s sumptuous score into a big classical dance extravaganza that has three daytime performances at The Bushnell.

Like its rags-to-riches protagonist, the whole production of “Cinderella” has “changed dramatically,” said Ballet Theatre Company artistic director Stephanie Dattellas. “Most of it has been rechoreographed. We’ve been able to reshape it. The story and the synopsis (are) the same, but now (they have) more depth.”

“Cinderella,” Ballet Theatre Company’s big spring show, will take place April 29 at 1 p.m. and April 30 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at The Bushnell’s Belding Theater. The 11 a.m. performance on April 30 is sensory-friendly. The company has been fundraising so it can offer discounted tickets to the Miracle League of Connecticut, Autism Families Connecticut, Autism Services & Resources, Gengras Center and other community organizations that help those on the autism spectrum.

“Cinderella” was the first spring show Ballet Theatre Company did shortly after Dattellas became the company’s artistic director in 2018. “Cinderella” also happens to be the first ballet she ever staged on her own, years before she came to Connecticut. The 2018 version at the University of St. Joseph’s Autorino Center featured two of the same people who are dancing in the show at The Bushnell: company member Emily Aubrey Silva and Hartford-based dancer Calvin Bittner.

Bittner is playing the same role he did before, one of Cinderella’s cruel stepsisters, but Dattellas said the dancer has altered how he does it. In the five years between the performances, Bittner, who studied dance at the Hartt School, became known as the drag queen Miss Vidalia Onions. He is also a noted wig designer and has designed the wigs the stepfamily wears in “Cinderella.” Bittner will have a different stepsister this year than he did five years ago in Ballet Theatre Company apprentice company member Ali Nitowski.

At The Bushnell, the evil stepmother will be played by Darlene Zoller, who runs her own long-established dance company in West Hartford: stop/dance theater, which is the resident dance company at Playhouse on Park. stop/time’s own spring dance show, “Stop Time Dance Machine,” happened just a few weeks ago. Zoller’s and Dattellas’ companies have collaborated before, but “there’s never been a situation before now where I’m telling her what to do. It’s been fun for both of us,” Dattellas said.

Cinderella will be danced by Jo-ann Burke and the Prince who finds her glass slipper will be Gennara Della Ragione. Both are professional dancers who are part of the nine-member resident dance company that Ballet Theatre Company created in 2021. Both Burke and Ragione were in last year’s spring ballet, “Aladdin.” The Fairy Godmother will be performed by a guest artist, Lindsey Donnell of Dance Theatre of Harlem, who last performed with Ballet Theatre Company as the Dew Drop Fairy in “The Nutcracker” last year.

The rest of the roles in the show, including the Spring, Autumn, Summer and Winter fairies, are danced by a combination of professional company members, Ballet Theatre Company’s Junior Corps de Ballet and students at The School of Ballet Theatre Company.

The elaborate costumes, which include all-new outfits for the seasonal fairies, are designed by Pat Nurnberger. The scenic design by Jacob Sikorski includes an enchanted horse-drawn carriage. For the music, Ballet Theatre Company is using a popular recording of “Cinderella” by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn.

The great Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev premiered his three-act “Cinderella” ballet at the Bolshoi in 1945. It takes the familiar fairy tale about an oppressed young woman forced into being the servant to her stepmother and stepsisters and adds an ensemble of fairies and several bursts of grand pageantry to Cinderella’s transformation from sweeping the fireplace to dancing with a prince.

“This is a show about kindness and overcoming adversity, and we need that right now,” Dattellas said. “Yes, it’s also about love, but she is selfless and always acting in kindness.”

Ballet Theatre Company’s “Cinderella” is taking the stage April 29 at 1 p.m., April 30 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. The 11 a.m. Sunday show is sensory-friendly. $43-$66. dancebtc.org/cinderella.