Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Ballet for the 21st Century??
No efforts have been spared, sets-wise, dance-wise as well as money-wise to make this production worth owning for home viewing. I cannot say more than most others have said about the dancing. Excellently shot video as well. At the end of it, a very satisfying production, for a night that I would not miss... especially the second act, which 'saves' the production.

So why just 4 stars?

The Plus Points:

1. Almost all the characters in the ballet have a significant role to play dance-wise. The story offers such a bevy of diverse characters, and each have been portrayed rather competently, with something for everyone on the stage.

2. Nice innovations within the ballet, especially for the Tap Dancing Mad Hatter, a brilliant move that brings out the character of the Mad Hatter in to the dance form beautifully. The role of the Duchess has been performed by the 'imported' theater personality brilliantly. The Pax de Deux in the ballet are simply...

Glorious new ballet!
I have not been this captivated by a ballet in my memory. The choreography, costuming and set design are all exceptional, and Lauren Cuthbertson makes an extraordinary Alice. She basically never leaves the stage, and her dancing and acting remain consistently excellent. It also must be said that Zenaida Yanowsky is outrageous and fabulous as the Queen of Hearts. This is a ballet I will watch over and over again!

The first masterpiece of an emerging ballet genre
In Jennifer Homans' magisterial history of the ballet, "Apollo's Angels", she reaches the rather melancholy conclusion that dance as an art form is in its death throes. Ballet's creative essence seems no longer capable of sustaining the necessary energy or infrastructure needed to generate a stream of dance works that merit description as art. Terpsichorean jewels such as those created by the great choreographer George Balanchine, especially in collaboration with composer Igor Stravinsky, appear to be relegated to a poignant late-Romantic decadence, an early evening gloaming just before the eternal night of total artistic irrelevance. It is a sobering conclusion and her evidence is substantial if not ultimately convincing.

Since Balanchine's death in April 1983 no choreographer has emerged to unambiguously don the mantle of genius. That may weigh heavily in Homans' calculations of ballet's future prospects. What we have had are glimpses of new styles of dance, of pastiche...

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