SBC dancer Jamie Melendy has a new favorite dance DVD and review to share with us! If you're in search of some inspiration or good sources to honor and celebrate National Dance Week this week, this is a great place to start!
Alice’s Adventure in
Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's most widely recognized work, has inspired numerous live performances, including plays, operas, ballets, and traditional English pantomimes. In February of 2011 The
Royal Ballet brought to life the novel in a most beautiful performance! The
ballet is based very closely to novel, from the unfortunate run in with the
duchess and her peppered crazed chef to the hookah smoking caterpillar.
As always, The Royal
Ballet’s dancers never let the audience down. Rising star Lauren Cuthbertson,
took on the role of 15 year old Alice, and she portrayed Alice’s childlike curiosity with charm and excitement. The ballet begins with Alice tumbling into a strange world and chasing a white rabbit in a waistcoat (Edward Watson) through the rabbit hole and into Wonderland. Once in Wonderland,
she is almost trampled by the Queen of Hearts (Zenaida Yanowsky) and her guards
chasing the handsome Knave of Hearts (Sergei Polunin), who is accused of
eating the Queen’s tarts. This was my favorite scene by far! All the citizens of wonderland are giving their testimonies in the Queens court about the Knave and who ate her tarts. There is one crazy coda and the queen has a fiery solo set to a very monstrous violin filled tango, and a hilarious spoof on the Rose Adagio. Sparks fly between the Knave and Alice (What is a ballet without a love interest?), and as Alice watches the Queen chase the Knave away she knows she must help! She ventures
across Wonderland in search of the Knave but finds there are many other enchantments in Wonderland to distract her. She races in the “Caucus-Race” with
strange animals, helps toads deliver an invitation to the Queen’s croquet
game to the Duchess (Simon Russell Beale), gets lost with the cheshire cat, enjoys tea with the tapping Mad Hatter (Steven McRae), eating strange things
with the mischievous caterpillar (Eric Underwood) and dancing with a group of flowers.
If you grew up
on the Disney Adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (like I did), this version might be a bit confusing, but reading Lewis Carroll’s novel helped shed light on the plot, actions and intentions of the story. Carroll's story was brought to life not only by the dancers, but with the help of Christopher
Wheeldon’s fiery choreography, Joey Talbot’s provoking score, and Bob Crowley's
marvelous costumes.
It is now available
on DVD through the Royal Ballet’s website! I see a movie night in the near
future for Sonoma Ballet Conservatory!
