KEY POINTS:
Forget squeezing into a glass slipper. To play Cinderella, young Emma Forbes just had to fit into the fairytale heroine's drab grey dress.
The budding ballerina, who lives in Royal Oak, will play the young Cinderella in five Auckland shows by the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Emma, 10, pictured here with "ugly sisters" Shiraz Lose, 7, and Zoe Bedford, 10, said her dance teacher chose her for the part because she was the right height for the costume.
Choreographer Christopher Hampson's new version of the much-loved fairytale will open in Auckland tonight, after playing to packed audiences around New Zealand.
In each city, five local children have been chosen to play the young Cinderella, her two ugly sisters, and two page boys.
The children appear in the opening scene, in which young Cinderella places a rose on her mother's grave.
Emma told the Herald she was excited about her first night as Cinderella, though she would only be on stage for a few minutes. "I really love ballet."
Reviewers have described the production as original and compelling, with sets and costumes by Aucklander Tracy Grant Lord a highlight.
Cinderella premiered as a ballet in 1944 by the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. After the Auckland shows, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's 32 adult dancers will go to China to perform the show early next month.
