2011 – Premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by The Royal Ballet

Christopher Wheeldon choreographed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for The Royal Ballet in 2011 to music by Joby Talbot. A co-production between The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, the ballet was designed by Bob Crowley and the original cast included Lauren Cuthbertson, Sergei Polunin, Edward Watson, Steven McRae and Zenaida Yanowsky.

Alice was the first new full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet since 1995. Wheeldon stated that because the company already had many darkly serious narrative ballets, he would attempt something ‘lighter and more friendly’. The ballet is based on Lewis Carroll’s famous story but is set against the background of a garden party in Oxford, in which Alice is older than she is in the book. She is in love with Jack, the gardener’s boy, who is wrongly accused of stealing a jam tart and is sacked by Alice’s mother. Alice is devastated. She leaves the party, begins to dream, and the story unfolds as expected, with Jack becoming the Knave of Hearts and the Queen of Hearts is Alice’s mother. Alice herself is, in Wheeldon’s own words, ‘natural, honest, fresh and to the point’, which is why he chose Lauren Cuthbertson for the role.

Wheeldon made some changes for the 2012 revival of Alice, turning it into three acts instead of the original two, and added a new pas de deux for Alice and the Knave. The ballet has been filmed and is regularly performed worldwide.