Royal Ballet Analysis
Name of piece: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Company: The Royal Ballet, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.
Style: Ballet
As a company, the Royal Ballet is made up of approximately 100 dancers, so there are around 100 performers in this show. The roles of each cast member vary from principles, such as Alice, the white rabbit and the Hatter, to ensemble roles, for example different types of flowers, playing cards and wildlife such as birds and hedgehogs.
Use of space
I feel that this show used spacing in a way that was effective in helping to tell the story of Alice in Wonderland. The amount of space in which the dancers would use changed for specific parts of the show to help communicate meaning. For example, once Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole and was faced with a tiny door, a small rectangular frame of wood appeared in the center of the stage to show the contrast in size between Alice and the size of the door. The character of Alice then began trying to squeeze herself through the frame by putting the top half of her body through it whilst her legs were spread either side of the frame behind her. By using only a small amount of stage space here, it successfully created the illusion that Alice was too big for the room she was in.
Dynamics
The dynamics applied in this show were a vital part in portraying the mood and emotions of different scenes and characters - different characters used contrasting dynamics. For example, the character of Alice danced at a regular pace with a sense of fluidity for most of the performance to represent her youth and curiosity, however in contrast to Alice’s dynamics, the Mad Hatter moves to more of a staccato rhythm. He uses lots of sharp movements, such as pointing his finger and gesturing with his hands to represent the difference between Alice’s normality and his madness. The Hatter also dances a different style of dance to Alice – he dances tap. The dissimilarity between Alice’s ballet dancing and the Hatter’s tap dancing is significant in portraying the madness of the Hatter’s personality and Alice’s confusion.
Another example of differing dynamic between characters is the difference between the Red Queen and the cards that act as her servants. Where the Red Queen glides across the stage, the characters of the cards and queen’s men move quickly and cautiously. The difference in this dynamic helps to emphasize the relationship between the queen and the cards – the queen is the boss and the cards are scared of putting a foot out of line for fear of getting punished, so it shows the element of power that the Red Queen.
Timing
I observed that all the performers had good musicality – they were able to successfully execute routines in time with each other and the music during group numbers, such as the flower section where the dancers were performing duets before they transitioned into a group number. The timing of the dancers is important because it means that they are all in the right place at the right time, potentially preventing any collisions with each other on stage or with any set pieces that might move during scene changes.
Costume
The costumes in this production were immensely vibrant and detailed and, in my opinion, added so much to the piece. Each character’s costume was different yet exciting. For example, the character of Alice wore a purple dress that came just below the knee with pale pink tights and ballet shoes. This costume is different to what Alice wears in different version of the story, for example in the classic Disney film she wears a blue dress with a white apron, white tights and black shoes, and in the Tim Burton film, Alice wears a long blue dress. The choice to dress Alice in purple for this production is interesting as it is different to what has been done before, but the costume designer Bob Crawley may have done it to represent Alice’s social status. For centuries, the colour purple has been linked with power and wealth because purple dye used to be very rare and expensive, and in the book by Lewis Carroll that this production is based on, Alice is portrayed to be a middle-class Victorian girl, so the purple colour of her dress could be to represent her wealth.
From the simplicity of the dress that Alice wears, the costumes vary into more extravagant pieces, such as the Mad Hatter’s outfit. The Hatter is dressed in a pale green shirt, a light blue waistcoat with floral detail embroidered onto it, a long pink dinner jacket with more floral embroidery on the panels, tight fitting, aqua with dark blue striped trousers that flare at the bottom and pink and black tap shoes with a green top-hat. The eclectic colours of the Hatter’s costume symbolise the Hatter’s madness and frivolous personality.
The ensemble costumes were just as interesting as the principal roles. For example, the characters of the flowers weren’t dressed as literal flowers, they were dressed as people, but their costumes helped to portray the idea that they were flowers. The women were dressed in white dresses with different coloured tutus with white tights and a headpiece that matched the colour of their tutu. The different colours of tutu produced the idea of flower heads, and each colour represented a different flower. The men wore a white shirt and a long white coat with coloured ties and waistcoats that matched their duet partner’s tutu.
I particularly liked the female cards’ costumes; they were simple yet effective. They wore a white leotard and tights with white ballet shoes, but their tutu was in the shape of one of the four playing card suits, (black club and spade, red heart and diamond) and their headpiece was their card number.
Lighting
The lighting changed with every scene in the show, for instance, for the scenes with the caterpillar there would be a wash of blue light with spotlights on Alice and the head of the caterpillar. The blue light worked with the caterpillar scenes because the caterpillar was blue, so it helped to emphasise the character’s presence. In contrast to this idea, the lighting for the Red Queen’s scenes was a harsh white. This could be to contrast the Queen’s personality – white is generally seen as a colour of purity and innocence; however, the Red Queen is mean and selfish, punishing people for not doing things her way. During the flower scenes, the lighting has a gentle yellow tone to it, which could be to represent the glow of the sunshine. Most of the show is brightly lit, but the Cheshire Cat scenes only have a dim spotlight on Alice and the Cheshire Cat puppet. I think the lack of lighting here is effective because not being able to see the rest of the stage symbolises the mystery and wonder that the cat leaves Alice with every time they disappear.
Accompaniment
This production is accompanied by the Orchestra of The Royal Opera House. I liked the orchestra as an accompaniment because it was able to change its sound to fit around different scenes. For example, for the gentle scenes such as the flower garden, there was soft, gentle strings, but for one of the Red Queen scenes there was a sharp string section with woodwind and drums to create an intense, dramatic sound to represent what was happening in the scene.
Performer Relationships
The performer-to-performer relationships were strong as they were all aware of where they were in relation to others on stage, meaning that they didn’t collide with each other. This links with the performer/space relationship as the performers had to be aware of their spacing, both where they are on the stage and what’s around them, as when they are dancing and extending through their arms and legs they need to be aware of any set and other cast members that are around them. The relationship between audience and performer wasn’t really there, the performers looked out into the audience but there was no breaking of the 4th wall. The performers’ relationship with the accompaniment meant that they were all in time with each other and the orchestra as they knew their musical cues and timing for movements.
Themes
One of the main themes in this production was politics. This was shown particularly during the trial scene, where the Red Queen is trying to decide who stole the tarts. It shows the power that the Queen has over everybody else in Wonderland and the divide between those that have power and those that don’t. In this scene everyone is trying to prove themselves to the queen so that they can protect themselves and stay alive, making the power that the queen holds over the people seem very intense.
This production is based on the original book, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ written by Lewis Carroll. I feel that there are many similarities between the show and the book, such as when Alice falls down the hole and has to drink the potion and eat the cake. I like that it isn't too far-fetched from the classic story that everyone knows because it makes the performance easy to follow and enjoyable to watch.
In summary, I enjoyed the Royal Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I thought that the vibrant costumes made it interesting and engaging because they really helped to tell the story by making it easy to distinguish between characters. The orchestra was a good accompaniment to the piece because it fit the style of the dance and the story. The different sections of the orchestra, such as the strings and woodwind, were able to create a sound that fit the fantasy element of Alice in Wonderland. The set and lighting design also played a crucial part in creating the fantasy, dreamlike atmosphere by being abstract and non-naturalistic; there was lot of brightly coloured lighting and set pieces, such as a giant house of cards, which helped to portray the contrast between real life and wonderland because it was so out of the ordinary. In my opinion, I would rate this performance an 8/10.