Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland dazzles again in Tokyo

Yuri Kimura as the Queen of Hearts in Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Steven McRae (Mad Hatter )and Yuki Kaminaka (March Hare) in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Yui Yonezawa (Alice) and Takafumi Watanabe (Knave of Hearts) in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Yui Yonezawa (Alice) and Kosuke Okumura (White Rabbit) in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Yui Yonezawa (Alice) with the Cheshire Cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

By Naomi Mori, 17 June 2025

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“displayed his excellent musicality in his show-stopping tap dance”

Reviewed at New National Theatre, Tokyo: Opera House, Tokyo on 12 June 2025

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Christopher Wheeldon)

National Ballet of Japan

David Briskin, Conductor

Misato Tomita, Conductor

Bob Crowley, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Natasha Katz, Lighting Designer

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Yui Yonezawa, Dancer

Takafumi Watanabe, Dancer

Steven McRae, Dancer

Yuri Kimura, Dancer

Kosuke Okumura, Dancer

Contemporary escapism at New York City Ballet

Carla Escoda, 1st May

A longtime NYCB fan favorite, Concerto DSCH by Alexei Ratmansky, meets the New York premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's Continuum. But the evening belonged to corps dancer Ruby Lister in Edwaard Liang’s Distant Cries.

****1

Atlanta Ballet shines in a mixed contemporary program

Rebecca Ehrhardt, 3rd April

Atlanta Ballet's Golden Hour program featured two world premieres and the Atlanta premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour.

*****

NYCB: Ratmansky’s The Naked King is not satire, but good fun

Ivy Lin, 7th February

New York City Ballet presents a very entertaining quadruple bill which includes Alexei Ratmansky’s latest work, The Naked King, showing off the company’s comic talents.

****1

The Royal Ballet’s Like Water for Chocolate is sumptuous but complex

Amanda Jennings, 1st October

The Royal Ballet’s season opener, Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate, is visually tremendous, very well danced but the many principal and soloist characters are difficult to keep up with.

****1

Ballet Nights makes an impressive and unforgettable Scottish debut

Kathy Elgin, 4th July

Ballet Nights is more than an evening of party pieces: it showcases emerging talent alongside older favourites and, in the case of this first Scottish outing, has an eye to local tradition.

****1

ABT in Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale: CliffsNotes Shakespeare

Ivy Lin, 2nd July

Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale is a sumptuous looking production but on this occasion, it didn’t come to life emotionally.

***11

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Naomi Mori

Naomi is a blogger living in Tokyo and travels frequently to see ballet. She is a law graduate of Waseda University and a former film publicist, film critic and IT business researcher/strategist. She blogs at La Dolce Vita in Japanese. She tweets about ballet as @naomip_86. and takes ballet class regularly