charles osewalt's blog

This December there are two productions in Paris and in London with the choreography of Christopher Wheeldon, ‘An American in Paris and ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’

I have been fortunate to see each the past two weeks and what strikes me is how ‘All in’ Wheeldon’s work is. The sets of both productions, the, his, dancers’ steps, the café and club scenes all flash with rainbow colours and intense movement. It is seeing, moving and feeling at all the same moment. We as viewers move with the dancers, and become them. We are in their movements. their steps.

For example, the Mad Hatter in ‘Alice’ as a tap dancer who can’t stop tapping? Madness. The closing ballet scene in ‘An American in Paris’ with the black and white costumes for the imagined dancing scene amidst the colours of the on-going real ballet? Two ballets, one imagined by the lovers, the other a performance going on the same time? In different designs? Madness. But madness that works.

Christopher’s work implies the essence, the importance of being in step with ‘in’ the moment with the music. For him, it appears that Paris, London, NYC, his studio, Fire Island, his living spaces, are all places where he is totally present or ‘in.’

To be this, in, means then that every step, every moment is of importance. He chooses to recreate works by being in, by being part of them.

Nothing was is better than being in Christopher’s moments. Nothing. in.

Tags: Christopher Wheeldon, in