Alice in Wonderland: Visual Documentation

I had to knew that the reviews of Alice were hitting on similar ideas, but I had to visualize. Click on each text and zoom to see what has been highlighted and color coded.

By pulling out really basic ideas, I found that all three reviews brought up the idea of the story ballet in the 21st century. Only Judith Mackrell saw Alice as a modern-day story ballet. Sulcas and Jennings both thought that Wheeldon's version was quite traditional. They also explained why it was traditional. Mackrell, however, quickly moved on. She seemed to chalk-it-up to the music. Jennings and Sulcas both said the music and stage design saved the ballet, but the choreography was what kept it from becoming a classic ballet for modern times. No one gave a completely specific example of how Wheeldon's choreography was 'dated,' but Sulcas and Jennings did mention the allusion to Sleeping Beauty and how closely he stuck to the original story.

I thought that all three reviews missed out on an opportunity to talk more about the story ballet — it's history and why it's such a big deal for ballet companies. It was only Sulcas of the New York Times who touched on this idea...and the ballet wasn't even performed in New York. Also, I wondered why there were so many descriptions in each piece (notated by pink brackets) since all of the performances were sold out before they even began AND the Royal Ballet filmed Alice to air on BBC. It seemed that word count could have been more wisely used.

What does it take to put together a brand new, full length, classical ballet. Unfortunately, we only find out what it actually takes in the Royal Ballet's own coverage on itself in a 30-minute documentary that aired on iPlayer. This, though, is not reflective or critical. It's rather celebratory. It would be helpful and interesting for those who read the dance section to know about the numbers (economics, time, energy, people) who devote themselves to something like this. I mean, it could have been "The Design Of a New Ballet." How cool would that have been? Do dance sections have no money? I can't figure it out.