Wheeldon, Christopher

▪ 2000

      To many knowledgeable balletomanes the premiere of Scènes de ballet in 1999 by students of the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet, was just one more in a series of reasons to consider Christopher Wheeldon, a talented NYCB soloist, to be also one of the finest young choreographers on the current dance scene. He was, in addition, one of the few new choreographers who shunned trendiness and preferred a classical, lyrical style to a more modern one. He described himself as a contemporary romantic ballet choreographer. The romantic Scènes de ballet, set to music of Igor Stravinsky, featured more than 60 children in a classroom setting and for the most part was choreographed to give the illusion of dancers and their mirror images. One scene, however, depicted a rapturous fantasy pas de deux “imagined” by one of the children as she gazed into a mirror.

      Wheeldon had been making up dances almost as long as he had been performing them. He was born on March 22, 1973, in Yeovil, Somerset, Eng., and was first attracted to ballet when he saw the chicken dance in a production of La Fille mal gardée on television. A live performance of a ballet further whetted his interest, and he began taking classes, first in a local school and later at London's Royal Ballet School. There he began creating dances—and winning awards for them. At the age of 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne competition's gold medal with a program that included one of his pieces.

      In 1991 Wheeldon entered the corps de ballet of the Royal Ballet, where he spent two years. While on a trip to New York City during a company break, though, he was persuaded to take a class with NYCB and at the end of the class was offered a job with that company. In 1993, after he had finished his contract with the Royal Ballet, he entered the NYCB corps. He appeared in such ballets as Dances at a Gathering, The Four Temperaments, Chaconnne, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Nutcracker, The Concert, and The Goldberg Variations and originated roles in a number of other works, among them West Side Story Suite, La Stravaganza, Brandenburg, Reliquary, and Episodes and Sarcasms. Along the way, he was promoted to soloist.

      In the meantime, in 1994, Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins, having viewed videotapes of Wheeldon's student-years creations, asked him to choreograph for the School of American Ballet. Among the ballets that resulted were Le Voyage (1994) and Danses bohémiennes (1996). He continued choreographing for the Royal Ballet School, won more awards for his choreography, and in 1997 had his first work for NYCB, Slavonic Dances, presented—to wide acclaim. As his reputation grew, Wheeldon began receiving invitations from such other ballet troupes as the San Francisco Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and Boston Ballet, and in late 1999 it was announced that he had been appointed Boston Ballet's principal guest choreographer. He was also looking forward to the spring 2000 release of an as-yet-untitled motion picture about dance students, for which he supplied some of the original choreography.

Barbara Whitney

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