ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
(marqueetv.com) (Sadler’s Wells Facebook and Youtube, until Thursday)
WE ALL feel like we’ve gone down the rabbit hole recently. The Royal Ballet’s
is just the tonic, magic or otherwise.
The lead role was created around Lauren Cuthbertson. Luminous and light-footed, she is a giddy whirl of long limbs and feisty spirits as she leads us into author Lewis Caroll’s feverish vision. Federico Bonelli is typically strapping and swoonsome as her Knave Of Hearts and they are a dream together.
As with all adaptations, scenery is chewed by the terrible two: the Queen Of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. Laura Morera relishes every imperious snarl, ludicrous pose and pratfall as the former. A glorious solo spoofs Sleeping Beauty’s classic Rose Adagio with suitors kept on stage by axemen as they feed her cake and struggle to keep her en pointe. Fabulous.
Meanwhile, Steven Mccrae’s scenestealing scissor-sharp feet and trademark flair stitch together real magic as the mercurial milliner.
Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography and Bob Crowley’s designs deliver a widescreen romp in glorious technicolour with a psychedelic caterpillar and bodiless
Cheshire Cat, teapots, playing cards and
FULL OF WONDER: Alice (Lauren Cuthbertson) and the disembodied Cheshire Cat
flamingo croquet. You would be mad as you-know-who to miss it.
Israeli dancer and choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s Grand Finale launches Sadler’s Wells’s new season of artist takeovers, which also include online classes and a chance to learn the steps to show-stopping sections.
It opens on a darkened stage. Huge tombstone pillars pierce the shadows. Figures emerge, shambling in the gloom to an orchestral groan, like a track played too slowly. Slowly, so slowly, beats work their way in and the dancers come to life.
Chaotic convulsions are punctuated by moments of unity and order as figures line up with linked arms or raise hands to the heavens – the ecstasy and entropy of a single life or entire world ending. The music calms and couples embrace. The men realise their partners are no longer alive yet
continue to dance with them, at once tender and macabre.
As the piece progresses, heavy club beats mix in with the tribal percussion before the interval sees the chamber orchestra from the Titanic recreated on stage in dinner suits and life-jackets, a last gasp before eternal night.
Act Two whirls through a grand waltz, folk dances and more stomping, swaying defiance before music and movement fade for ever.
It’s a tad too long, motifs often repeating, but immersive and involving throughout.
Don’t miss this year’s English National Ballet Emerging Dancer competition which will be streamed live on Tuesday at 7.30pm (ballet.org.uk/emerging). It’s always a highlight of my year as six rising stars battle before the judges. Watch live and you can cast your own vote!