Interview with Christopher Wheeldon
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In 2014, he transformed William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale into a captivating and visually stunning narrative ballet for the Royal Ballet London to a commissioned composition by Joby Talbot. The production is now celebrating its Austrian premiere with the Vienna State Ballet: a dance drama about friendship and love, destructive mistrust and jealousy, but also the power of transformation and the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation.
AdP You are one of the few choreographers who have succeeded in breathing new life into narrative ballet with new material such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011), The Winter's Tale (2014) or Like Water for Chocolate (2022). What appeals to you about storytelling through dance?
CW It's about my relationship with the audience. How can I create a work that creates a connection with them. Audiences are fascinated by the poetic, abstract form of symphonic one-acts, but as humans we love stories. I like the challenge of creating a dance language that clearly conveys emotion and action, dances that carry a character through a story arc. As a choreographer, I look for these challenges. I want to take the audience on a journey.
AdP As far as we know, William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale has never been choreographed before. How did you come up with the idea of turning it into a ballet?
CW My friend Sir Nicholas Hytner, a brilliant Shakespeare director, suggested the play to me. At first I was a little apprehensive because of the demanding and dense plot. But at heart, The Winter's Tale is a very human story in its complexity, full of jealousy, terror and ultimately forgiveness - emotions we can relate to in one way or another. I love Shakespeare's play of light and dark and that The Winter's Tale shows us that there is still hope for people who have caused pain to others through their actions. Emotions can often blind us to reality, but forgiveness is much stronger than hate.
AdP You not only choose unused pieces for the ballet stage, but also commission the music for them. What role does the music play for you?
CW The music is everything. Without music that penetrates deep into the story, there is no successful story ballet. The music must do more than just describe the action. It must strike at the heart of the emotions.
AdP How did you come across the composer Joby Talbot?
CW Joby and I collaborated very successfully on a one-act play for my company Morphoses in 2009. There was so much magic in his composing that a whole drama unfolded in the abstract world I created. It was then that I realized he was the perfect partner to capture the crazy fantasy and beauty in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Thus began our extremely fruitful collaboration. Joby knows how to write situational, emotional and character-driven music. He has composed a number of film scores, as well as highly successful concert and beautiful choral works. He brings an incredible knowledge of world music and loves to include rare and exotic instruments in his orchestrations.
AdP How should we imagine your realization of Shakespeare's play? Have you translated the text into dance or do you work with a minutage in which the basic atmosphere and important pillars of a scene are outlined?
CW Both! Of course Shakespeare created great storylines, but you can also get a lot out of his poetry. There are numerous fantastic and very physical images in the text of the play and very direct references to movement. The challenge of staging Shakespeare in dance is not only to reduce him to the plot, but also to capture the richness of his language in the movement narrative.
AdP Your figures are very precise character studies. How would you describe the language of movement you use to draw the characters?
CW I can't describe my language as anything other than classical ballet, but inspired by other dance aesthetics. I tend to look for the form, for the step in which a certain moment or emotion is conveyed. I also try to find motifs that are recognizable as leitmotifs, as character traits. For example, Leontes has a spider-like hand, which I use to symbolize his infection by the inexplicable jealousy in his mind and body. In Act 2, the corps de ballet is the real star. The Bohemian Spring Festival is a joyful spectacle and one of the most exciting numbers an ensemble can dance.
AdP The stage design for The Winter's Tale is also very special. What must a stage be able to do for a ballet by Christopher Wheeldon?
CW Leave plenty of room to dance and take the audience on a magical journey. No one does this as well as the brilliant Bob Crowley. Bob captures the essence of a piece, the human and magical qualities, and then brings it into the present day without eliminating the classical elements. He doesn't update, he re-imagines. Suddenly you think: "Of course this is what Wonderland, Bohemia or Northern Mexico looks like", but in the Bob Crowley way.
The conversation is an excerpt from an interview that appears in full in the program booklet The Winter's Tale.
The interview was conducted by chief dramaturge Anne do Paço.
