A Chilling Tale
Christopher Wheeldon's "A Winter's Tale" premieres at ABT
The large cast of Christopher Wheeldon's "The Winter's Tale," at its premiere at American Ballet Theatre last night (July 1). It is a sprawling and ambitious tale of violence and redemption, young love and love gone horribly awry, friendship lost and regained. As well as a very full night of dancing and dance gesture. Wheeldon effectively wrestles with Shakespeare's notoriously difficult play, with the help of Bob Crowley's imagistic set and Joby Talbot's cinematic score. It's a genre Wheeldon has developed since Alice in Wonderland, a sort of ballet-movie-continuous tableau vivant, very different from the old story ballets, without starts and stops and mostly without breaks. The story unfolds fluidly, as if across an unscrolling panorama, carrying us through time and space. It's not an easy night at the theater; Shakespeare's play is brutal, especially at the beginning. I was struck by similarities between Winter's Tale and the Greek 1st century CE romance "Callirhoe," with which it shares a similar story of jealousy and marital violence. (Unsurpising, since the Greek novels were known by and models for Shakespeare.) Is ballet suited to such stories? It's a question that crossed my mind as I watched WT last night. But Wheeldon's ballet is also full of dance, particularly the second act, which provides a kind of grand divertissement, full of balleticized, invented folk dances, with a whiff of dances from the Caucasus and the musicians (dulcimer, accordion, flute, drums) onstage. The magical transformation at the end, too, is well-suited to the wordless language of dance. Much to ponder. (I'll write more in The Hudson Review.) The strong cast included: Aran Bell, Devon Teuscher, Catherine Hurlin (absolutely astounding), Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Carlos Gonzalez (a real star turn for him), Takumi Miyake (who has a fabulous solo), Breanne Granlund, and, in a lovely cameo, the ballet master and former company dancer Carlos Lopez. It's nice to see them all together on one stage.
