Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

La Scala [ENA] Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is exactly the kind of ballet that reminds us why the art form can delight audiences of every age: it is witty, technically accomplished, visually generous, and full of theatrical invention. In the La Scala context, this production feels like a gift — a work that combines classical discipline with fantastical storytelling, connecting to Lewis Carroll’s world.

What makes the ballet so winning is its complete confidence in spectacle without sacrificing musical and choreographic substance. Joby Talbot’s score gives the action a clear pulse and a bright narrative shape, while Wheeldon’s choreography keeps the eye constantly engaged with movement that is at once playful and demanding. The result is a ballet that looks effortlessly entertaining but is in fact carefully built, with every scene contributing to a sense of momentum, discovery, and joy.

One of the greatest strengths of the work is its theatrical clarity. Rather than trying to turn Alice into an abstract or overly conceptual ballet, Wheeldon embraces the story’s eccentricity and humor, allowing the characters to remain instantly recognizable while still dancing with real style. The White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, and Alice herself are not merely illustrative figures; they are vivid theatrical personalities, shaped through movement with wit and precision. That directness makes the ballet especially rewarding for first-time viewers, while still offering enough sophistication to satisfy seasoned balletgoers.

At the center of the production stands Alice, a role that requires not only technique but sincerity, stamina, and an unfailing sense of wonder. The character must move through bewilderment, curiosity, fear, and delight without ever losing her sense of youthfulness, and when danced well she becomes the emotional anchor of the whole evening. In a successful performance, Alice is the thread that connects the ballet’s extraordinary episodes into a coherent emotional journey. That balance between innocence and courage is what gives the work its lasting charm.

The visual world of the ballet is another source of its appeal. The designs create a Wonderland that feels expansive, colorful, and constantly surprising, but never cluttered for its own sake. The production thrives on transformation: spaces open, characters appear in unexpected forms, and familiar objects take on a dreamlike scale. This richness of image is essential to the ballet’s success because it mirrors the logic of Carroll’s imagination, where nonsense is not disorder but a highly specific kind of fantasy.

Musically, the score is one of the work’s great assets. Talbot writes with a rare theatrical instinct, giving each scene a recognizable mood while supporting the dance with clarity and propulsion. His music does not merely accompany the action; it actively animates it, helping to define atmosphere, character, and pace. That symbiosis of sound and movement is what allows the ballet to feel so complete and so accessible.

What is especially admirable about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is its generosity. It does not treat ballet as an elite code to be deciphered, but as a living form of storytelling that can enchant, amuse, and move an audience in equal measure. There is genuine craft here, but also a spirit of delight that never becomes superficial. The ballet trusts the audience to enjoy beauty, comic exaggeration, and emotional clarity all at once.

In that sense, the La Scala production is more than just a colorful evening in the theatre. It is a reminder that ballet can be both sophisticated and openly pleasurable, both carefully made and wonderfully free. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland stands as a celebration of imagination, and at La Scala it shines as a production that invites us to believe in the magic of the stage with a smile.