Cinderella in love. (New York Notebook).

"My aim is to take the classical world--its codes, its aesthetic, its dancers--and find a new approach," says Jean-Christophe Maillot, artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (see News, DANCE MAGAZINE, March, page 18). He believes in "evolution, not revolution." The repertoire of this major French company is eclectic, with Diaghilev-era classics and Balanchine "leotard" ballets happily coexisting with works by Twyla Tharp and William Forsythe. Maillot's own ballets combine twentieth-century music with sets that look like minimalist sculpture. His unconventional take on Cinderella, which opens April 29 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, replaces the cross-dressing stepsisters with a liberating psychological make-over and a glamorous mother. On a stage defined by Ernest Pignon-Ernest's luminous panels, Cinderella discovers the meaning of love. By reimagining the story, Maillot hopes to restore its traditional magic.