Christopher Wheeldon Choreographs New Alice for Royal Ballet

News has leaked out that The Royal Ballet has asked Christopher Wheeldon to choreographer a new Alice in Wonderland for the company’s 2010/11 season. Few details are available – the composer and designer have not been announced and it’s not know if the ballet will be a one-act or evening-length adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story. Nor has The Royal Ballet indicated if it will be aimed at families, like the version danced by English National Ballet, or if it will be geared to an older audience, like Tim Burton’s new film adaptation of Alice.

Either way, it will be a rare “story” ballet for the Royal – most of its recent new commissions have been plotless works. It’s also be a rare story ballet for Wheeldon. The Royal Ballet-trained choreographer, who spent several years with New York City Ballet before forming his own company, has tended to created plotless works, such as Polyphonia, which has been performed to great acclaim by the Royal.