Cendrillon - Ballet Julien Lestel

Julien Lestel transposes the tale into a corporate world run by an authoritarian mother. Cinderella is a subordinate employee, harassed by her stepmother and stepsisters.

The godmother becomes the embodiment of her desire for emancipation and quest for freedom.

The prince, founder of a start-up, charismatic yet fragile, embodies another form of loneliness; their meeting is not a rescue, but a moment of mutual recognition.

The twelve strokes of midnight do not signal the end of a spell, but echo the harassment she has endured; the meeting is not a “happy ending,” but the beginning of a rebirth.

The music, which combines Prokofiev’s work with Ivan Julliard’s electronic creations, underscores this tension between the external world and inner life, submission and emancipation, tradition and modernity.

Opening the evening: excerpts from the ballet Libre, choreography by Julien Lestel, with students from the Marseille National School of Dance