The positive influence of the Royal Opera House: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on children and young people in regards to its surrealist and feminist principles.

The Royal Ballet production of Alice’s Adventures in wonderland was created in 2011 and was “the first full-evening ballet created on the Company in 16 years” (roh.org.uk, 2014). It is an original three act ballet, lasting 2hrs 55 mins, choreographed by Chistopher Wheeldon and composed by Joby Talbot. The ballet is based on Lewis Carroll’s first children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is very true to the original source capturing not only the imagery of the original illustrations by John Tenniel but also the fundamental “Curioser and Curiouser” (Carroll, 1865:44) spirit of the story. The ballet does not include all aspects of wonderland such as the chapters: The rabbit sends in a little bill, The mock turtles story or The lobster quadrille. However this is probably due to the difficulty of capturing these especially surreal events visually.

Like many works based on Alice, the production plays with the storyline. The Scenario (a story based on Lewis Carroll’s book) written by Nicholas Wright allows the ballet to keep a narrative and flow throughout that fits the structure of “A classical production [which] is divided into three sections: the opening pas de deux (dance for two), or adagio; variations or individual performances by the partners, first by the male and then by the female; and the final pas de deux, or coda.” (Britannica, 2017). The ballet opens with a prologue in “Oxford, 1862. A summer afternoon… a garden party” (roh.org.uk, 2014) with Alice, her family and friends, who are later to be seen as characters in wonderland. This includes Jack/The Knave of Hearts an addition to the original storyline him “and Alice are friends. He gives her the discarded red rose and in return she gives him a jam tart” (roh.org.uk, 2014). Later Alice spots The knave of hearts in wonderland, they get into trouble with the red queen and she knocks the house down. The ballet ends more than a century later, with Alice waking on a bench, Lewis Carroll’s book in her hand, to see Jack outside a tea shop.

As it is a ballet, the plot is altered to suit the choreography. Christopher Wheeldon started the choreography with the style for each dancer because he “wanted to take the characters from the book and make them come to life” (Dance Styles in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013). He took direct inspiration from the book as “they’re very physical even on the page all these little situations, the mad hatter, the caterpillar, they all already suggest characters with movement” (Dance Styles in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013). From having to adapt the choreography to the characters he merges dance styles and updates the ballet, Steven McRae (the original Mad Hatter) said “I think perhaps he had in his mind that the production was a real celebration of dance. I think it’s a celebration of dance when you look throughout the whole production he’s really tapped into so many techniques and styles.” This attitude to embracing everything is a continuation of the Alice message. Including other styles such as the old Hollywood inspired flower waltz appeal to a wider audience and introduces a younger audience and children to ballet.

The most significantly unusual dance style being The mad Hatter for which ballet is combined with tap the “two styles and techniques fighting each other but obviously it creates a unique routine and a unique number for the ballet”(Darcey Bussell and Steven McRae discuss tap dancing and the role of the Mad Hatter (The Royal Ballet), 2017).

 For The Red Queen the classical becomes comical as Zenaida Yanowsky (the original red queen) says “the spoof Rose Adagio is my favourite bit of Alice in Wonderland, I never got to do aurora in sleeping beauty and obviously that’s one of the most renowned parties the Rose Adagio when she gets to dance with all the kings” (Watch: The artists talk about the ballet, 2013). In wonderland the queen attempts the Rose Adagio from sleeping beauty with the help of her terrified cards but it ends in her embarrassment.

Wheeldon “take[s] the mysterious element of the caterpillar but also make[s] him kind of sexy and a little slinky” (Dance Styles in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013) again he combines a different style of dance with ballet. To create a rippling caterpillar with “his upper body [that] is opposite to what he’s been trained in the classical studio” (Dance Styles in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013) contrasting styles to create something unique to the dance. One which leaves a strong impression on people Eric underwood (the original Caterpillar) “remember[s] a child coming up to [him] in a freed store and just going (demonstrates dance step with arms) and remember[s] thinking oh ok right this transmits more than just watching the show he remembers the steps” (Dance Styles in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013). This demonstrates the strength of the ballet’s effect on young audiences as it engages them enough that they want to try themselves.

The strength of these characters comes first and foremost from the book and the visual language of the characters in John Tenniel’s Illustrations. Bob Crowley took direct inspiration from these when he designed the costumes and set for the ballet “to create stage magic sometimes in the simplest of ways” (Creating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013). His designs “involves all sorts of illusions” (Creating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013) to create solutions for turning dancers into animals and inanimate objects. Examples of this include: the caterpillar’s costume when he appears with his many legs created with eight dancers’ en pointe in crystal encrusted shoes joined by an oriental dragon style body; and the flamingos for the croquet game that are portrayed with dancers dressed cleverly in head to toe pink flamingo costume and also puppets that are easy to control and dance with. Crowley is consistent with his style which he said “I knew I wanted it to be quite childlike at times. Then when I heard Joby’s score the atmosphere of that began to really kind of work in my imagination a lot” (Creating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Royal Ballet, 2013). By taking direct inspiration from the Illustrations and original Score for the ballet he ties the elements together to create wonderland with all its illusion and wonder.

All of these elements of the ballet come from the surreal nature of wonderland. Surrealism is “A twentieth-century literary, philosophical and artistic movement that explored the workings of the mind, championing the irrational, the poetic and the revolutionary” (Tate Art Terms, 2017) although Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is not part of the Surrealist movement it has “come to be seen as a major proto-modernist text” (Irwin,M, 2001). The book explores areas of surrealism such as the mind, reality and “Carroll deals in philosophical and linguistic problems and sophisticated parody” (Michael Irwin,). Other surrealist artists have taken inspiration from Lewis Carroll including Mark Ernst with Alice in 1941 (above) and Salvador Dali with Alice in Wonderland Illustrations 5, 2 and 7: Advice from a caterpillar, the pool of tears and a mad Hatter tea Party from 1969 (right). This shows how the writing relates to surrealists ideals as it interests and inspires the artists of the movement. Through the ballet a wide audience is exposed to the surreal concepts of the writing and the surreal nature of wonderland. This is especially beneficial to the younger audience as the concepts of imagination and dreams broaden their minds and encourages children to question things more.

Alice’s adventures in wonderland is a ballet, that is for children, an imaginative and visually stimulating spectacle of dance which seems fitting to Carroll’s intensions with the book. However the importance of bringing Alice to children in a contemporary form is bigger than just pure entertainment. Despite being 152 years old Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the few positive gender representations aimed at children in this era.

The current message that is still consistently shown to children, that boys lead and girls follow raises the question “… why can’t girls be superheroes ?”(Why are girls' toys patronising and shit? The Russell Howard Hour, 2017) or “Why should male [children] be encouraged to be active and inquisitive while female [children] be trained in passivity?” ((Berg 31) Smith,K, 2017). Portrayals of stereotypes influence how children develop opinions of people and “many [children] first experience gender because societal differences between girls and boys are transferred through early teachings by family members...[they] dress them in gender-’appropriate’ colors, give them different toys, and decorate their bedrooms in different ways that tend to facilitate and enforce cisgendered behaviors” ((Shaw, 444) Smith,K, 2017) . The question “… why can’t girls be superheroes ?” develops from the biased environment that is largely constructed by the media which children grow up around. Russell Howard expands on this (in discussion of toys and advertisement for children) saying “They’re either princesses or witches, you can be pretty and win, or ugly and fail” (Why are girls' toys patronising and shit? The Russell Howard Hour, 2017). This unfair representation has also been in children’s literature for more than a century and "females' representations did not consistently improve from 1900 to 2000; in the mid part of the century it was actually more unequal. Books became more male dominated.".(The telegraph, 2011)

Alice does not acknowledge this concept. She is not a Princess or a witch she is neither pretty nor ugly and she both wins and fails throughout her adventures in wonderland. “There’s no chance of her dozing off for a long snooze while waiting for a prince to come and give her a kiss.”(roh.org.uk, 2014) as Alice’s main motivation is curiosity and shows her independent thinking. Unlike a lot of other children’s books or current media Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a broad representation of gender and would pass “The Bechdel Test … a litmus test for female presence in fictional media.”(tvtropes,2017) There is (at least two women) Alice, the Red queen, the duchess and several other female characters (who have at least one conversation about something other than a man) who discuss many things such as croquet and who stole the jam tarts. The introduction of jacks’ character could be seen as detracting from Alice’s journey and appear as if she is following him in wonderland. However his presence doesn’t overpower Alice’s as he becomes the Knave of hearts and part of wonderland. It is also clear that he is present due to the importance of a Pas des Deux (Step for two/ Duet) in the formation of a classical ballet and that he is someone to dance with Alice but not her motivation throughout the ballet. Alice’s defiance to the norm is portrayed in the ballet as she often goes against the crowd dancing independently to the groups and when meeting the queen “having found her match, she doesn’t then ingratiate herself into the established order of things; she literally topples the existing regime.” (roh.org.uk, 2014) Representation of gender that questions the norm such as this is important as it encourages children to question why they can’t be whatever they want and develops open mindedness.

Overall the ballet through its form and design expresses the surreal nature of the story and portrays the characters in the unbiased manner they are presented in the book. This creates a contemporary production that is appealing and relevant to a young audience in its spectacle that also provides a strong positive message of curiosity to children promoting independent thinking.