On a call from Hamburg, where he’s restaging his Tony-winning choreography for MJ: The Musical, Christopher Wheeldon reflects on the absence of gay love stories in ballet: “Sir Matthew Bourne was a pioneer when he did his Swan Lake”—a 1995 reimagining replacing female swans with men—“but his company isn’t classical, and that was nearly 30 […]
If a dancer is very lucky, and very prepared, one performance can transform their career. Lonnie Weeks was that dancer on the opening night of San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound Festival in April. Chosen by Christopher Wheeldon for the emotionally wrenching final solo in Bound To, Weeks, 27, went onstage as a superb but largely unsung […]
When we go to the Nutcracker, we expect to be transported to a world that’s both magical and familiar: the timeless Tchaikovsky music, the classic tale of a little girl and her Nutcracker prince, the sugary Land of Sweets. Yet when the Joffrey Ballet presented the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s new Nutcracker last year, […]
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any ballet company worth its sugar plums must have a production of Nutcracker as part of its holiday season repertoire. And for nearly three decades, through its final performance at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre in December 2015, the Joffrey Ballet was well served by its uniquely Victorian-American setting of the […]
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any ballet company worth its sugar plums must have a production of Nutcracker as part of its holiday season repertoire. And for nearly three decades, through its final performance at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre in December 2015, the Joffrey Ballet was well served by its uniquely Victorian-American setting of the […]
Assucena and Alberto Velazquez rehearse Christopher Wheeldon’s new Nutcracker. Photo by Cheryl Mann, Courtesy Joffrey Ballet. Though it’s not quite fall, the Joffrey Ballet is in full holiday mode, prepping for the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Nutcracker. In fact, you can catch a live-streamed rehearsal with Wheeldon and the company tomorrow (Thursday, September 8, 11:30 am to […]
Christopher Wheeldon rehearsing Leanne Cope in An American in Paris. Photo by Matt Trent via the Wall Street Journal. If you had plans for Sunday night, you may want to cancel. This week on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” host Lesley Stahl will interview Christopher Wheeldon. This master choreographer’s career—which has given us stunning story ballets and […]
This story originally appeared in the February/March 2016 issue of Pointe. Biographical ballets are having a moment, finding success in the real-life stories of famous women. Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, which premiered at The Royal Ballet last May, and John Neumeier’s Duse, which premiered at Hamburg Ballet in December, were both explorations of complex personal […]