CELEBRATING their 34th Anniversary, the Vienna Festival Ballet is presenting its new spring ballet for this year – the classic tale of Cinderella.

One of the best-known rags-to-riches fairytales of all time, its features a mistreated young girl, a glass slipper, two comical ugly step-sisters and a handsome prince. These combine to make the perfect piece of story-telling.

Vienna Festival Ballet's full-length version of Cinderella, choreographed by Sheila Styles, will be performed at King George’s Hall, Blackburn, on May 29. The production features a specially commissioned orchestral score, created solely for the company by Chris Nicholls, with music from some of Rossini’s most famous operas.

Before the show the Vienna Festival Ballet provides an Introduction To Ballet at 4pm for eight-year-olds and upwards and the £20 price includes a ticket for the Cinderella show.

“We would like to offer the chance to children and students who either attend a ballet/dancing school, or simply have an interest in ballet in general, to see how a professional ballet company go about their daily routine,” says the company.

The children will learn how dancers prepare themselves and warm their muscles before the performance and they will see how the exercises at the barre build and lead to the displays of virtuosity in the centre.

After the warm-up, an informal chat will explain the origins of ballet and the story of the Cinderella ballet, and costumes and pointe shoes will be shown. The children can then ask questions and even try a shoulder lift or a pirouette with the dancers.

Cinderella is based on the traditional story, the ballet will surely touch and reach out to everyone’s heart, with its combination of pure classical dancing and a touch of pantomime.

  • Vienna Festival Ballet, Thursday May 29, 7.30pm. Pre Show Workshop at 4pm – £5.00 per person, book via the Box office. 0844 847 1664