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English National BalletOctober 2006 Manchester, Palace Theatre by Ian Palmer |
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There are two stars of Derek Deane’s Alice in Wonderland which launched ENB’s winter tour at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on Thursday evening. The first is Sue Blane whose designs are a fantasy of magical craftsmanship - bewitchingly inventive, elegantly surreal, wittily enjoyable. It is six years since Alice last appeared, but it is a testament to her talent that they have not faded nor dated, but rather continue to blossom in their freshness and vitality. Blane’s gift is to make her passing nod to Sir John Tenniel, Mervyn Peake and the other illustrators of the Alice books whom we have known and adored but without losing her own individual creative voice and the production’s unique spirit. At times it proceeds as a fantastical Dali-esque vision, at other times it is an apotheosis of Classical ballet. The Madhatter’s Tea Party is a marvellous creation of fantasy and reality, the Garden of Living Flowers is a beautiful dreamscape rich in colour and classical purity, reminiscent of a similar scene in Le Corsaire. To Blane’s aid have come Wizzy Shawyer and her costume team, whose loving care is so clearly revealed in the costumes’ vibrancy and brilliant detail.
The second star is Maria Kochetkova, with whom I fell in love some years ago when she used to illuminate small parts in the Royal Ballet’s Manon with her unique interpretative gift and who with the ENB has continued to enchant us with her Clara, Princess Florine and Sugar Plum Fairy. As Alice (a part in which she was debuting on Thursday) she is delightful even more – shaping phrases with ravishing musicality, accomplishing steps with filigree precision. Her upper body maintains a softness, a kind of balletic gentility, whilst her feet, as sharp as pins, execute exquisite batterie. The Ashtonian sensibility of Deane’s choreography is entirely appropriate to her emploi and how remarkable she could be in the Ashton repertoire – what a Lise in the making! She also hints (as she does when performing Clara) at Alice’s growth, offering us an intelligent interpretation that charts her development from innocent girl to young woman and she is particularly poignant in the final scene in which the vision of Wonderland vanishes forever.
 © Bill Cooper
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