Hong Kong Arts Festival – Alice In Wonderland

The English National Ballet’s staging of Alice in Wonderland was a pure delight. Winsome, captivating and inventive, this adaptation took all the strengths of the story and combined them with some really sharp and clever staging and costume design.

In fact, the costumes were one of the consistent joys of the night. Each character’s main outfit was a riot of (true to the original) colour and form and some of the ensemble outfits, especially the woolly and fuzzy square tutus of the cards were stunning.

Compared to other touring ballets we have seen in Hong Kong, we were treated not just to great stars in the main roles, but also to a strong troupe all the way down to the smaller and supporting roles. For a ballet with so much movement and such a diversity of styles in the larger set pieces this really does make a huge difference.

It was great to see a full house who moved quickly to their seats and lots of younger kinds who (certainly around us) were enthralled with the show. Alice is a great story, but also a great introduction to staged dance for younger audiences (and a nice change from the typical choices for younger kids – Nutcracker and Swan Lake).

The big disappointment of the night was the lighting. It seems to be an issue with the design of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, but the follow spots could not track the soloists in the back corners of the stage. This let down what was otherwise a first class performance.

[tags] Hong Kong Arts Festival, Alice In Wonderland, Ballet [/tags]