“To keep in a three-act ballet such a tone,” the critic Edwin Denby wrote in a review of 1949, “to sustain it without affectation or banality, shows Ashton’s power, and he shows this in doing it as simply as possible, by keeping the dancing sweet.” Denby is writing about the first full-length classical ballet created by a British choreographer: Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella. It premiered at the Royal Ballet in 1948 with Moira Shearer in the title role; Margot Fonteyn would also dance the role indelibly. Prokoviev’s score is brilliant and poignant, and Ashton answers with invention and, yes, a sweetness of feeling that is often witty and always humane. Even the jealous stepsisters—danced en travesti by Ashton and Robert Helpmann—draw our empathy. A showcase of Ashton’s unique choreographic gifts, this beautiful ballet makes a wonderful holiday treat. You’ll never forget Cinderella’s crystalline entrace to the ball, descending the stairs delicately en pointe as if floating into a dream. —Laura Jacobs