The National Ballet of Canada brought this spectacular production to Los Angeles, and I couldn't have been more excited. This is a brand new ballet, created in 2010/2011 by the Royal Ballet and NBOC. I followed the run up to each company's premier via various twitter feeds and desperately wanted to see it, but the chances of a show like this coming to LA are slim to none. So what a wonderful surprise it was to see this listed on the season's offerings at the Music Center!
The creators of this show are Christopher Wheeldon on choreography, Joby Talbott on music and Nicholas Wright on story. The scene starts in Victorian England at a tea party where Lewis Carroll is entertaining the Liddell sisters with stories. The action takes a turn for the surreal when Carroll turns into a rabbit and takes Alice Liddell down into the cake and an alternate world. The design of the sets, creating the sensations of Alice in this topsy-turvy world, really capture the various adventures she runs into and the characters are ingeniously created. All the costumes were wonderful, contributing to turning beautiful ballet dancers into rabbits, caterpillars and all of the other familiar creatures. Sonia Rodriguez danced Alice and she was on stage almost the entire show. She had some wonderful pas de deux with Guillaume Cote as the Knave and conveyed the gangliness of a teenager beautifully. Greta Hodginkinson as the Queen of Hearts had a hilarious variation that was a parody of the famous Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty. The music was perfectly evocative of each new twist and turn. The audience was clearly thrilled as they applauded each new scene and effect (the Cheshire Cat was particularly appreciated). A lot of kids were at the show and it was fun to see them at intermission jumping and dancing around, imitating their favourite scenes.
NBOC brought a huge cast, and I can't imagine how long it took to put these sets up. Bravo to the Music Center for bringing this to LA.
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