Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

About the Ballet

North American Premiere
A co-production of The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet

The premiere of a new full-length story ballet is a special occasion for any ballet company. When the work is by a choreographer such as Christopher Wheeldon the anticipation is that much greater.

Wheeldon's unique synthesis of neo-classical and modern dance vocabularies has established him as one of the most important – and sought-after – choreographic artists at work today. National Ballet of Canada audiences who have seen performances of Wheeldon's breathtaking Polyphonia will have some sense of the range, subtlety and instinctive authority he brings to his ballets.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a co-production between The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet and is, of course, based on the famous Lewis Carroll book of the same name. The Alice stories have long fascinated and attracted other artists, including choreographers, both for their fantastic effects and the rich psychological and emotional terrain they present. Wheeldon’s ballet, however, seeks to restore the book's fundamental appeal: its brilliantly anarchic and unfettered evocation of the imaginative world of childhood, a world that, having lived it once, we all carry within us.

"I think the characters cry out for movement – it's a very physical story, which was what attracted me."

- Christopher Wheeldon, London Evening Standard, 2009