Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Confession time: while every other balletgoer of my acquaintance can trace their passion to childhood readings and re-readings of Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, I didn’t get around to it until last weekend. Turns out, it’s not really a ballet story but the tale of three random orphans adopted by an eccentric palaeontologist, who leaves them in the care of his great niece before disappearing on a 12-year-long fossil hunt. Short of cash, the niece takes in some interesting boarders and enrols Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil in stage school so that they can earn a living from an early age.Kendall Feaver’s dramatisation galvanises Streatfeild’s chronicle into a lively feminist tale of self-discovery and mutual support. Katy Rudd’s decisive direction keeps exposition to a minimum and handles the passage of time with wit and economy as our three heroines slog through daily class or toil away in the chorus.Streatfeild’s sketchy supporting cast has been vividly redrawn. The orphans’ guardian (the endearing Pearl Mackie) is now a talented illustrator and home improver with her own love interest. Great Uncle Matthew, barely more than a plot device in the book, is fleshed out fruitily by Justin Salinger who plays five different characters, including the imperious ballet mistress Madame Fidolia. Sid Sagar, a snake-hipped hoofer and natural physical comedian, feels underused as the lovelorn lodger.Frankie Bradshaw’s set — part wunderkammer, part Advent calendar — is an ingenious assemblage of doors, galleries, stairwells and cubbyholes stuffed with Jurassic bric-a-brac. Fast-moving props transform the space, aided by Paule Constable’s nimble lighting. Barres and mirrors create a dance studio. A few packing cases and a sail conjure a storm at sea. The soundtrack blends Asaf Zohar’s compositions with a dance mix assembled by former English National Ballet music director Gavin Sutherland.Streatfeild, with a ballet critic’s instinct, knew that painstaking descriptions of every enchaînement are the kiss of death to a lively narrative, but Rudd and her choreographers (Ellen Kane and Jonathan Goddard) fill in all the blanks, flooding the stage with ballet, tap and modern, cleverly flattering the cast’s skills. Posy, the wannabe ballerina, is perhaps the hardest Fossil to love. Her monstrous self-belief can only really be redeemed by genius and Daisy Sequerra never quite gives us that, but the pure dance sequences are very neatly done.At three hours the show needs trimming. Madame Fidolia’s tragic back-story involves a brief retelling of the Russian Revolution which, let’s be honest, is not best told via the expressive medium of dance — Boris Eifman (Red Giselle) and Kenneth MacMillan (Anastasia) have both been defeated by it. The big Alice in Wonderland number does little more than make work for the versatile ensemble but the second act’s futurist Midsummer Night’s Dream is a blast. Samuel Wyer’s tinfoil tutus — a sly parody of Oskar Schlemmer’s 1922 Triadic Ballet — are a triumph and Yanexi Enriquez’s Petrova seemed as thrilled as the audience by her all-too-brief flying sequence. Petrova, who dreams of engines and aeroplanes, finally gets her heart’s desire. Pauline (Grace Saif) goes to Hollywood, Posy goes to Paris and Petrova goes to Croydon aerodrome.★★★★☆To February 22, nationaltheatre.org.uk
