Choreographer aims to provide a better sense of 'Cinderella'

James Kudelka brings something unusual to ''Cinderella": common sense.

The Canadian choreographer was in town last month rehearsing Boston Ballet dancers for the US premiere of his production, which opens the company's season Oct. 13 at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. First staged last year, during Kudelka's recently concluded tenure as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, his ''Cinderella" received rave reviews, and his description of it gives some hints as to why it's such a hit.

''I was trying to find little ways all the way through it that it begins to make sense," Kudelka says. Sergei Prokofiev wrote the music to include several scenes set in Cinderella's garden, for example, but ''it's very hard to figure out why they're there." So Kudelka has reimagined Cinderella as an outdoorsy, garden-loving girl. She's not just a miserable scullery maid but a tomboy who can't wait to finish her indoor chores and get out into the dirt.

''She's kind of earthy," he says. ''She's not just goodness. She's rejected by the sisters because she's different."

Oh, and about those stepsisters: In traditional stagings, they're danced by men in drag. ''I actually think that's a British tradition that doesn't translate here," Kudelka says, so he's tossed it. His sisters, one ridiculously myopic, have become a comic highlight. He also ditched the role of the father, because ''he's always just hanging around."

Kudelka's logic extends to the entire design. ''If she goes in a pumpkin," he asks, ''what season is it?" Fall, obviously -- so David Boechler's whole set design has an autumnal feel. That carries through nicely with Cinderella's nature-loving character, and it allows the choreographer to make a subtle but vital change in the story, in which wealthy Prince Charming rescues poor Cinderella from the ashes.

''The thing that bugged me most was the rags-to-riches," Kudelka says. In his version, it's a case of mutual transformation, in which Cinderella rescues the prince from an empty, artificial life as much as he rescues her from poverty. The finale sees them headed off together not into a happily-ever-after castle, but into an abundant, vital garden worthy of Candide.

And then there's the bit of illogic that always irked him: the shoes. Traditionally, Cinderella dances her pre-ball scenes in flat ballet shoes, then gets promoted to pointe shoes. But especially for a story so focused on shoes -- that glass slipper! -- Kudelka felt it made more sense for her to start out with nothing. So his Cinderella is barefoot until her fairy godmother comes along and puts her up on pointe. ''It's about transformation," he says.

It makes more emotional sense, and it also creates a visual metaphor of Cinderella's metamorphosis into an elegant creature at the ball. In Boechler's Art Deco costume design, the elongated line of a foot en pointe flows naturally from Cinderella's sleek Erte-inspired gown. ''The pointe shoe is a weird thing; it's an odd silhouette," Kudelka says. Here, ''it sort of creates this giraffe look."

Cinderella as a giraffe: Really, once you see it, it all makes perfect sense.