Evaluation of The Ballet Choreography of "Alice in Wonderland"

Ballet is a physical struggle to attain perfection on the stage. Swathes of fabric, sleepless choreographers, and a gaggle of well-trained performers gather together to create a fantastic production that is both artful and entertaining. Whether it is one of the great classical ballets of Petipa or the stunning recent production of Alice in Wonderland in ballet form, both are stories of love, better spectacles for the eyes, ears, and heart, rooted in classical ballet.

Analysis of the Choreography in "Alice in Wonderland" Ballet

While Petipa and Christopher Wheeldon, the choreographer of Alice in Wonderland, might have lived hundreds of years apart, both ballets are not overly dissimilar from one another (Royal Ballet, 2013). The choreography, theme, and the extravagant nature of each performance are deeply rooted in the same ballet tradition. One of the shared roots is that both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Pharaoh's Daughter are spectacles. However, they are spectacles in differing ways. While Wonderland uses technological wonders such as a movie of moving letters, Pharaoh provides a massive troupe of dancers with identically dressed women archers and other guardsmen, adding to the portrayal of ancient Egyptian times. In addition to the large number of performers, extravagant sets highlight the dancers and the production itself. “Petipa devised…his ballets” to “[use] backdrops painted in perspective, dancer” these “were arranged to give a false perception of stage recession, making the stage appear much deeper than it was" and the performers seem fantastical on larger-than-life (Scholl, 1994, p. 9).

Comparative Analysis of Ballet Techniques

Petipa’s ballets were reminiscent of the once-popular court spectacles in length and flamboyant style. Daughter of the Pharaoh (1862) was the first of Petipa’s grand ballets and remained the most ambitious, with three acts and nine scenes, including an epilogue and a prologue—a somewhat bloated runtime compared to Wonderland's condensed two-act, two-hour runtime (Scholl, 1994, p. 7). This extravagant runtime would continue to characterize his productions, which makes sense when you consider that “Petipa’s works are described as ‘bol’shoi balet’.....a translation of the French ballet a spectacle” (Scholl, 1994, p. 4).

Themes of Love and Social Class

Both productions, like most great stories, focus on love and desire, set in fantastical worlds. Alice, in love with a boy who works at her house, also happens to be the wonderland knave. In Pharaoh, the protagonist, English Lord Wilson, descends into a drug-induced fantasy and falls in love, wishing to marry the pharaoh's daughter Aspichia (Scholl, 1994, p. 7). These ballets share a similar base of technique in choreography and dance, with a classical sense in their dance style, particularly in their use of pointe, jumps, and lifts. However, differences exist; The Pharaoh's Daughter, while implementing pointe, does so sparingly, indicative of the pointe shoe technology Petipa had. In Alice, the actresses, particularly Alice, tend to be on pointe for longer durations, especially in scenes of great emotional stress, symbolizing the internal and external struggles faced by the characters.

Musicality and Choreographic Harmony

The musicality of both pieces differs, with Alice in Wonderland having a smoother transition between music and choreography than Petipa’s Pharaoh's Daughter. The score of Alice, originally composed by Joby Talbot specifically for this ballet (Royal Ballet, 2013), enhances its musicality. Every movement, whether Alice buries her head in her hands or performs a twirl, feels wonderfully nestled within each note of the music. The score of The Pharaoh's Daughter, while pleasing and generally in tune with the action on stage, does not feel as seamless as the score of the Wonderland ballet. This harmonious integration of choreography and music in Alice creates a more immersive experience for the audience.

Social Commentary and Modern Interpretation

Both ballets include themes centered on families of the upper class, illustrating how economic backgrounds grant privilege but also restrict choices in love. In Alice, a wealthy family’s garden party sets the stage for the heartache of a young boy from a lower class, shooed away by Alice's mother. Similarly, in Pharaoh, a wealthy English lord finds love in the embrace of Aspichia, the pharaoh’s daughter, only to awaken to the reality of social constraints. Despite their relative wealth, their loves seem beyond their grasp. However, Alice awakens as a modern woman, with her journey symbolizing the empowerment of women in contemporary society. Unlike The Pharaoh's Daughter, which portrays a male fantasy, Alice presents a young woman fighting for her desires, growing, and relying on herself within the fantastical real world.

Conclusion

Modern ballets have evolved since Petipa, both in style and in their approach to women and entertainment. Modern audiences crave innovative choreography, music, and sets, as well as strong female protagonists, enhanced by technological light and color displays to captivate us in a distraction-filled world. While both ballets are extravagant in their own ways, they represent an era of ballet that, while long past, is still worth performing today, perhaps with a small Alice-like twist. As long as there is an audience for beautiful human movement paired with music, there will be a place on stage for ballet, whether it be a classical performance like that of Petipa or a new approach to ballet based on pop culture, such as Alice in Wonderland.

References

• Royal Ballet. (2013). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. [Performance]. Royal Opera House, London.
• Scholl, T. (1994). From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernisation of Ballet. Routledge.