Royal Ballet staging of Alice in Wonderland

The story of Alice was created by Lewis Carroll in 1865 in Oxford, England. The author was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832 and died at 66 in 1809. His Alice-related published literary works include:

The Royal Ballet website introduces the ballet thusly ...

Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford, and his wife are hosting a garden party. Alice is saddened to see her friend Jack, the gardener's boy, sent away in disgrace. Lewis Carroll, a lecturer in mathematics and friend of the family, consoles her by offering to take her photograph. He disappears beneath the camera cloth and, to Alice's surprise, emerges as a White Rabbit. When he bounds into his camera-bag and vanishes, Alice follows him, and falls… and falls… and falls…

Our Showing

Royal Ballet's 2011 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" DVD. Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon. Mr. Wheeldon created this ballet in 2011 in full acknowledgement that all previous attempts to create an Alice ballet have failed. Wheeldon accepted the challenge because of the rare alignment of era and talent. The Royal Ballet needed a new and exciting ballet to atract the attention of new and younger audiences -- it had been a long while (16 years) since the last fully new creation from the Royal Ballet. 2011 was the horizon of the right era. To his good luck, the company's then current principal ballerina was Lauren Cuthberson. Tall, attractive, athletic, poetic, maternal, funny. She had the right mixture of qualities around which Wheeldon could sculpt this modern masterpiece.

As already mentioned, Alice is danced by Lauren Cuthbertson. Lauren joined the Royal Ballet school at age 11 in 1995. In 2002, she joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet, promoted to soloist in 2003, first soloist in 2006 and principal in 2008. Still actively dancing at 42 and with two daughters at home, she also teaches at the Royal Ballet and she served as the principal judge for the 2026 Prix de Lausanne (if you are unfamiliar with this Swiss competition, please refer to the item below).

Other dancers

  • Sergei Polunin: Jack
  • Edward Watson: Lewis Carroll
  • Zenaida Yanowsky: Queen of Hearts
  • Stephen McRae: Magician/Mad Hatter
  • Eric Underwood: Rajah/Caterpillar

Mr. McRae stuns the ballet world by incorporating tap into his role.

Mr. Underwood gives a outstanding performance in the role of Caterpillar. Please refer to the Ballet Reign item, below, to enjoy that performance in detail.

Synopsis

Royal Ballet's synopsis from the DVD booklet.

Alice Novel

Here is the full text of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" including the original illustrations by John Tenniel. This text provides full preparation for approacing Christopher Wheeldon's ballet.

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and a life-long scholar in Oxford, specfically, Christ College. As a requirement of being a don at Christ College, he was also an Anglican deacon. His area of mathematics was logic, which he used in his literary work, though perhaps in an inverse manner.

It is left to the reader to learn more about the life of Lewis Carroll. Fair warning: Whereas his life details were acceptable in Victorian England, they are not now -- anywhere.






Ballet Reign Discussion

The Ballet Reign ladies express their delight with the character and dancer of the Caterpillar.

Portrait of a Dancer

Enjoy this short documentary on Royal Ballet's principal ballerina, Lauren Cuthbertson.

2026 Prix de Lausanne Winners

Enjoy the winning dances of the 2026 Prix de Lausanne. You can easily find coverage of each successive day. The host, Kathryn Morgan (formerly of the Miami Ballet) provides color commentary and analysis in English.

After witnessing these winning routines you will be assured that the future of ballet is in very good hands.