It’s one of Shakespeare’s most notoriously difficult plays to stage. The Winter’s Tale deals with themes of death and regeneration, aggression and resolution — with a statue coming to life thrown in for good measure. Still, in 2014 the acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon fashioned the work into a three-act ballet, originally co-produced by The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet. The American premiere at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., came two years later.
Southern California audiences will have the chance to experience the dance drama April 3–6, when Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents American Ballet Theatre in the company’s first performances of this adaptation that’s been hailed by critics worldwide.
But The Winter’s Tale is only one chapter in what Wheeldon has accomplished on his way to capturing the hearts of dance lovers around the globe. Hailing from Somerset, England, he trained at The Royal Ballet School and went on to snag a gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne for dancing a solo of his own creation. From there he joined The Royal Ballet, where Kenneth MacMillan encouraged Wheeldon’s dance-making endeavors, and then became a member of New York City Ballet in 1993 at age 19.
On the fast track, Wheeldon was promoted to soloist in 1998, and four years later, he was named NYCB’s first resident choreographer. His many works for that company include 1997’s Slavonic Dances and 2001’s Polyphonia, the latter of which, in its London staging, would go on to win Best New Dance Production at the Laurence Olivier Awards. Wheeldon has since created and staged works for many of the world’s foremost companies, among them San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet.
After leading his own troupe, Morphoses, from 2007 to 2010, Wheeldon was named artistic associate of The Royal Ballet in 2012. Soon after, the dancemaker directed and choreographed the Broadway musical version of An American in Paris, earning himself a Tony Award for Best Choreography in 2015. Wheeldon went on to spearhead MJ the Musical, copping his second Tony for choreography in 2022 as well as scoring a nomination for his stage direction.
SF Classical Voice caught up with the fiendishly busy Wheeldon from his home in New York. Topics ranged from The Winter’s Tale and the state of contemporary ballet to his unabashed love of story ballets. This conversation has been edited for clarity and concision.
First of all, what was the impetus to make The Winter’s Tale?
Originally, I was looking for a Shakespeare [play] that wasn’t Romeo and Juliet and wasn’t A Midsummer Night’s Dream [or] The Taming of the Shrew. I’d been back and forth with several other titles, but it was a conversation with [theater and film director] Nicholas Hytner, where he identified problems [in The Winter’s Tale] that have plagued theater directors over the centuries [but would] actually be quite a benefit to a ballet’s structure.
The pastoral scenes of Act 2 can be quite challenging to stage in a play but offer great opportunities for the corps de ballet. The comic-tragic elements of The Winter’s Tale also provide grand-scale emotion, which is, of course, very beneficial when you’re turning emotion into movement. The bigger the emotion, the more it offers physically for a dancer to embody.
The play is a shattering portrayal of jealousy that ends in redemption, as well as a changeling’s story that moves from bliss to calamity and back again. What are some of the themes that you relate to personally? Jealousy? Love?
Jealousy is a common human emotion, but on this scale, when it turns to rage and near-psychotic behavior, I’m not sure I relate to those extreme feelings personally. I do relate to the kind of general human condition [where] it is possible to do wrong and be remorseful and to change and be forgiven.
Those are themes that are most appealing to me, especially in this day and age, where we’re all making mistakes all the time. And I’m not talking about just us as individuals. I’m talking about us as countries, as societies. I don’t think there can be any hope unless we believe in people’s capacities for change. And I think that’s a very, very strong central theme in The Winter’s Tale.
Over the years you’ve collaborated with a regular team: composer Joby Talbot, set and costume designer Bob Crowley, and puppeteer Basil Twist. What’s that process like?
It’s wonderful because we all know the pace at which each of us works. I know how they best respond to feedback now. They have an intense level of trust in me [and know] I like to shift direction in the room sometimes. I [may] change my mind on, perhaps, a piece of music that has been specifically written to depict [a certain] moment emotionally, feeling it [could better fit] another moment.
There is a great deal of freedom in that kind of intimate collaboration when you know each other. There’s no wasted energy worrying about upsetting someone or sort of tiptoeing around certain issues because you’re not sure how your collaborator is going to respond.
What’s your attraction to story ballets? You’ve previously choreographed The Nutcracker for The Joffrey Ballet and your own adaptation of the novel Like Water for Chocolate for The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, among other works.
I love a story. I love to go to the theater and be taken on a journey and lose myself in characters that are so completely the opposite of me or find myself in characters that I relate to. It’s a very magical space, [and] it’s how theater began.
I think audiences also enjoy a complex story in dance, not necessarily [just] boy meets girl. I think we can delve into more challenging topics and themes and emotional journeys in dance. I know there are a lot of people that don’t feel that way, but I do.
Today’s story ballets also push the art form forward. What do you think of the state of contemporary ballet?
I think it’s great. There’s a lot of really good work going on. Personally, I’m very proud of the fact — and I don’t mean to take credit for this by any means — that a lot of choreographers have decided to tell more stories. [My ballets exist] alongside [choreographer] Alexei [Ratmansky’s], for example, in the storytelling-through-dance genre.
I don’t in any way want to take away from the power of the abstract because that is where we as audience members find our own imaginative ways to connect with the work of the choreographer. But I love that story ballets are being made by young choreographers. And that is in part because we connect. We spend our lives telling stories.
Last year you connected in a big way with Oscar, which you made for The Australian Ballet and which is based on the life of Oscar Wilde. Male-male partnering in dance has been around for a while, but I’m wondering if ballet is becoming more openly gay, so to speak.
No, it’s really [wasn’t about that] to be honest with you. I know that it meant a lot to a lot of gay performers, gay dancers, and also to the public. For years, we’ve been ridiculed as being in a gay art form [while] actually not being able to portray gay characters ourselves [and instead] asked to portray the heteronormative sort of prince. I think for a lot of the gay dancers in The Australian Ballet, it meant a lot to be able to represent something onstage that they connected with as people.
But the point was not to make a gay ballet to make a statement. I actually have [just] loved the life of Oscar Wilde for a long time and was fascinated by him and his stories. It just seemed like a really good idea, so I was like, “Hell yeah, let’s make this piece.”
The new ballet TV series Étoile premieres on Amazon Prime next month. Will we see you in the series, and what kind of impact — if any — will this kind of show have on ballet today?
I think we all hope it will have a positive impact, and if it’s good, it will drive audiences to see ballet in the theater, which is what we need and want. [Everyone] from the dance world hopes it will be good and finally break the [perception] of ballet-focused TV shows not being that great.
Yes, you will see me in it. I was flattered to actually play myself. I think I’m in the last two episodes. They’re short appearances, but I had an absolute blast being on the other side of the script. I’ve been directing actors for about 10 years, and to understand what it feels like to connect with another actor, to connect with the text and make it real and emotional, is something I ask of my actors all the time but haven’t actually experienced. So this was very good — and eye-opening — for me.
In June, you’re returning to the Festival Paax GNP on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. What makes it special for you, besides the music and dance, the people, the food, and the atmosphere?
You just said it, Victoria. It’s really good to be around that caliber of artist in such density as well. All of those players are so magnificent. And it gives me a chance to bring dancers together and sort of do what I was doing with my brief stint running Morphoses. Putting together a company for 10 days, having that experience, and then letting them all go at the end of it — and not having to worry about how we’re going to raise money for the next year — it’s the best of both worlds in a way.
And of course, getting to do it in such a beautiful, hospitable place. I mean, I just love Mexico, and it drives me insane with embarrassment at how we are treating that country at this moment.
