The Columbia City Ballet (CCB) is finally getting the chance to open Cinderella after having to cancel it last year due to COVID-19. Jasper got the chance to sit down with Cinderella herself, danced by Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, who has been with CCB for 10 years and is dancing her third season as principal dancer.
Jasper: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about the show — I know you’re busy!
Boiter-Jolley: It’s no problem!
Jasper: So, this show was actually postponed, right? It was supposed to happen last year?
Boiter-Jolley: Yeah, it was supposed to happen late March of last year (2020). We toured it to Florida, came home, had a performance in Columbia on Friday, the 13th and that was our last performance of the whole season. And last year, I was fairy godmother—our original Cinderella is a new mom, but I’ve been dancing all the principal roles this year because I’m the only principal in the company currently.
Jasper: Oh, I didn’t know that! I assume that’s just one of the many changes since COVID. And dancing in a mask! I can’t imagine — what’s that like?
Boiter-Jolley: It is definitely a challenge. Dancing in a mask is not fun, I will certainly say that, but it is something that a lot of us have been working with since last year, as soon as we were cleared to get back into the studios. It doesn't make it any easier, but you do kind of get used to the feeling of having something strapped to your face. But it's not just a breathing issue. If you inhale sharply, it’ll get stuck in your mouth, and you don't have your usual full range of vision because the mask is cutting off everything below your eyes. There've been a couple of times that a mask has actually slipped up over people's eyes. It's a little frightening, but I think, honestly, most of us feel as though it's a small price to pay to be able to do what we love and continue to work at our passion. And we really want to protect, not just ourselves, but our coworkers, our families, everything.
Jasper: How has this affected rehearsal?
Boiter-Jolley: So, we test every week. And we've actually been really, really lucky. Everyone has tested negative except for one false positive, and on that day, all rehearsals were cancelled and didn’t resume until we knew everyone was safe. We do our classes broken up into three different groups of people so that we're not all in one same group sweating and breathing together all day. It kind of gives us a little bit more space, so we feel like we have a little bit more room if we do need to pull our mask down on our face for just a second to get some water or to just catch a breath quickly. Partnering wise, we're trying to keep switching partners to a minimum when we can and trying to stay as closely quarantined amongst ourselves as possible.
Boiter-Jolley rehearses with guest artist Mark Krieger, coached by William Starrett
Jasper: And how long have y'all been rehearsing for Cinderella now?
Boiter-Jolley: We started last week, which isn’t particularly normal, but this is a show we had practiced for last season. I personally started rehearsing my role on my own over our Christmas break, and I came back into the studio in January, and [artistic director] William Starrett worked with me some individually. But many dancers had a head start and were able to recall roles they’ve danced before. And, of course, we’ve been trying to get in as much dance as we can because people need it these days. We just did “Off the Wall” two weeks ago, last week we had “Body,” and we're also working on “The Beatles” ballet.
Jasper: That’s so exciting! And even more so, this is your first time ever doing Cinderella, right?
Boiter-Jolley: Yes!
Jasper: You’ve danced so many roles—I’ve seen you in several! What do you think is unique about Cinderella?
Boiter-Jolley: There's a lot of acting in this role as well as some pretty hard dancing. I'm finding the partnering stuff in this one kind of challenging because I have a lot that's new to me. I'm actually learning some new bodily vocabulary—learning some new steps and new things that I haven't really been able to do before, I've never really tried before, or never been asked to do. I'm getting to push my boundaries, if you will, as far as what I am capable of. I've always been kind of a solo dancer, and that's just been my strength, to go out there and do my thing, but I'm going to get to carry this ballet. I start from the first scene and go all the way to the last scene. I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm also really excited because this ballet is all about Cinderella finally getting her chance to go to the ball. And I kind of see it that way, that it's finally my chance to go to the ball.
Boiter-Jolley in Off the Wall - photo by Ashleigh Concannon
Jasper: You said this show is more acting heavy than others. What did you mean by that?
Boiter-Jolley: Well, you know, there are the stepsisters and the stepmother, and they're kind of fun, I mean, they're mean, but goofy. And then Cinderella has to deal with them, she meets the prince and falls in love at first sight, and she’s on a path of self-discovery. So, it's kind of going back and forth between how I portray this sad girl and then how I transform into someone who will open themselves to love, who will accept it and become a princess…and all of that happens in a couple hours. So, to effectively communicate that to an audience is a challenge, and that's mostly my challenge in this coming week. I know all the steps, I know all the choreography, and this week, I'm really hoping to do a deep dive in character work to find out how I can bring this character to life.
Jasper: What does that look like for you? How do you do character work and make sure you're translating the ideas and emotions in your head into your movements?
Boiter-Jolley: That's a great question, and it's going to be a little bit different this time around because we are masked, so it all has to be physical—there's going to be a lot of physicality. How does my body language read? If I turn a shoulder this way, point my fingers that way, what does it mean? I need to spend some time just myself thinking through each moment. I need to sit with the music in the studio on my own, dancing through things. When you stop thinking about the steps, then you can start thinking about what the character is, who that character is, you know? And then, likewise, once you stop having to think about the characters, you can just become that character.
Jasper: If you had to describe this show in only 3 words, what words would you choose?
Boiter-Jolley: Romantic, whimsical, and inspiring.
Jasper: Oh, I love that! What do you think is inspiring about it?
Boiter-Jolley: I think it gives you the sensation that anything is possible.
Jasper: For people who may only be familiar with the Disney story of Cinderella, what should they expect? You know, coming to this show, what will they see that's familiar and that's unfamiliar?
Boiter-Jolley: Well, they're definitely going to see their favorite characters: Cinderella, the fairy godmother, the Prince, the stepmother, the stepsisters. But they're also going to see there's a whole horde of fairies from the traditional story that come to help the fairy godmother and bring her gifts that help her transform Cinderella into a princess at the ball. And I like to think these are just representations of things that Cinderella already has inside of her. You’ll see specific dances when the fairies give her gifts, and later on, she dances similar steps in her variation, so she kind of repeats the same steps that they did. I think that it's really showing that this is what was there all along, and they've just brought attention to it. Because you don't need a fairy godmother to make you a princess. You might just need a fairy godmother to let you be the princess you already are.
Jasper: I love that! Well, thank you again for talking to me. Good luck on the show!
Boiter-Jolley: Thanks! I just hope that people do get a chance to come see it because we've all really been excited to try to bring this ballet to life for the past year.
Cinderella will open at the Koger Center this Friday the 26th at 7:30pm and continue Saturday the 27th with performances at both 3:00pm and 7:30pm. The Koger Center is taking several COVID-19 precautions including limited, spaced seating and the seating of patrons immediately upon arriving at the theatre. Tickets can be purchased here: https://itkt.choicecrm.net/templates/USCK/#/events
Two additional performances will be done at the Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College Friday, April 9th at 7:30pm and Saturday, April 10th at 3:00pm. The theatre will also be implementing precautions but says the show could be delayed. Tickets can be purchased here: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35980/production/1039663
—Christina Xan
(Full disclosure: Bonnie Boiter-Jolley is the daughter of Jasper Project executive director, Cindi Boiter.)