The Bard and the Ballet

This week we celebrated the birthday of William Shakespeare and at the ripe old age of 450 he’s still going strong. In fact in the world of ballet the Bard is enjoying a revival. From Crystal Pite’s interpretation of the Tempest (Tempest Replica) at the Sadler Wells Theatre this weekend; to the Northern Ballet’s tour of A Midsummer Nights Dream throughout May; to Jean-Christophe Maillot and the Bolshoi’s much anticipated production of the Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare is in vogue this season.

If you can’t make it to Covent Gardenhowever, you can still enjoy this Shakespearean resurgence for the Royal Opera House’s live cinema season has also adopted the Bard. On 28^th April at 7.15pm, Christopher Wheeldon’s ‘sad tale best for winter’ will be shown at 1,500 cinemas across 40 countries. Wheeldon’s The Winter Tale performed by the Royal Ballet opened on April 10^th at the Royal Opera House and has experienced significant success. Traditionally considered as one of Shakespeare’s undancable plays because of the rapid shifts in time and complicated characters, Christopher Wheeldon and the team behind the critically acclaimed production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have managed to bring this play ‘into the dance-Shakespeare canon’. Running until 8^th May, the Winter’s Tale features a star-studded cast with Lauren Cuthbertson, Zenaida Yanowsky, Sarah Lamb, Edward Watson, Federico Bonelli, Steven McRae and Valentino Zucchetti. As part of the Royal Opera House’s cinema screenings however, Wheeldon has also contributed to bringing both Shakespeare and the ballet to a wider audience. In the words of the Bard ‘when you do dance, I wish you a wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that’ and the ROH cinema season is certainly helping us to keep on dancing with productions of Giselle, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty alongside The Winter’s Tale.