A ballet with dancing chickens and clog shoes where love wins. Sir Frederick said let them have chaos!
Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is one of the choreographer's most joyous and colourful creations. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the ballet is set on a farm and tells a story of love between Lise, the daughter of Widow Simone, and Colas, a young farmer. It contains some of Ashton's most stunning choreography, most strikingly in the series of energetic pas de deux that express the youthful passion of the young lovers, performed here by Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae. The ballet is laced with exuberant good humour, and elements of national folk dance, from dancing chickens and a maypole dance to a Lancashire clog dance for Widow Simone, performed by Philip Mosley.
Costume
That pink ribbon, that cockerel suit, iconic
Acting
Mosley's Widow Simone steals every clog-stomping second
Director
Ross MacGibbon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ashton grew up in Suffolk and filled the ballet with personal memories, including the famous windmill he could see from his childhood home.
Philip Mosley performed Widow Simone in drag for decades, making it one of ballet's most beloved pantomime traditions—originally the role was played by a woman in 1789.
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