While it’s not unexpected that Christopher Wheeldon has chosen to end working with Morphoses, it is rather surprising the less than elegant way in which he and the business-side of the company parted ways - at least as surprising as when he first announced the formation of his company three years ago. Nevertheless, it is best that Wheeldon will again be focusing his energies on choreography alone.
The Royal Ballet has shown great courage and assumed great risk in awarding Wheeldon the commission for its new Alice in Wonderland due to premiere in 2011. In choosing Alice, the Royal Ballet has clearly defined its target as children and families. So, if Wheeldon creates a weirdo production that is designed to appeal to either dark, adult interests or children’s familiarity with two dimensional, flat screen video game characters, he will have wasted the greatest opportunity of his career.
What can we expect from Wheeldon for this new production? He has said in the past that he wants people to know that ballet doesn‘t have to be “a big, puffy, pink, glittery nightmare.” However, all that is pink is not necessarily stink.
To get in the right choreographic mood, Wheeldon might consider camping out at FAO Schwartz’s on Fifth Avenue in New York to watch the kids. The bigger and puffier the stuffed animal, the more attention it gets from the kids - and from adults who remember being kids. Offer a little kid a big, puffy, pink, glittery, stuffed dog or a framed Jackson Pollock paint splat print, the kid will choose the dog every time.
The Metropolitan Opera’s imaginative productions of Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Flute with the most incredible scenery and effects and powerful, hummable music have managed to draw major audiences of kids and adults. Both are productions that see kids and adults making return trips. Of course, Ashton's Tales of Beatrix Potter is genius for its spectacle and choreography that grabs kids' attention from the first note of music.
The Royal Ballet has shown great courage and assumed great risk in awarding Wheeldon the commission for its new Alice in Wonderland due to premiere in 2011. In choosing Alice, the Royal Ballet has clearly defined its target as children and families. So, if Wheeldon creates a weirdo production that is designed to appeal to either dark, adult interests or children’s familiarity with two dimensional, flat screen video game characters, he will have wasted the greatest opportunity of his career.
What can we expect from Wheeldon for this new production? He has said in the past that he wants people to know that ballet doesn‘t have to be “a big, puffy, pink, glittery nightmare.” However, all that is pink is not necessarily stink.
To get in the right choreographic mood, Wheeldon might consider camping out at FAO Schwartz’s on Fifth Avenue in New York to watch the kids. The bigger and puffier the stuffed animal, the more attention it gets from the kids - and from adults who remember being kids. Offer a little kid a big, puffy, pink, glittery, stuffed dog or a framed Jackson Pollock paint splat print, the kid will choose the dog every time.
The Metropolitan Opera’s imaginative productions of Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Flute with the most incredible scenery and effects and powerful, hummable music have managed to draw major audiences of kids and adults. Both are productions that see kids and adults making return trips. Of course, Ashton's Tales of Beatrix Potter is genius for its spectacle and choreography that grabs kids' attention from the first note of music.
Big, puffy, pink, and glittery works on kids - always has, always will. FAO Schwartz knows that. The Met Opera knows that. Ashton certainly knew it. Let’s hope Christopher Wheeldon remembers that it does. And good luck to him with Alice. We are all looking forward to it.
Have to say I never understood Wheeldon's comments about how ballet doesn't have to be pink and frilly and such. Um, doesn't he realize that some of us were raised on NYCB? Does he think that Apollo and Episodes were danced in pink tutus?
I wish him well but those comments were both ignorant and offputting.
Posted by: diana | February 27, 2010 at 04:57 PM
Hi Diana. I think you just echoed the feelings of many others.
Posted by: Haglund's Heel | February 27, 2010 at 08:39 PM
Further (I may be repeating myself here, but so what?), raised on Balanchine though I might have been, I would have welcomed a fresh new choreographic talent that went in the completely opposite direction: towards drama, plots, and character. When you've seen "zig" so long, give me "zag."
And it didn't have to be done in pink. The deep gray that Sasha Cohen wore at nationals was breathtaking. Too bad she fell on her tuchus.
Posted by: diana | February 28, 2010 at 08:05 PM
Quite agree.
Posted by: Haglund's Heel | March 01, 2010 at 09:37 AM