Christopher Wheeldon, Impossible Dreams

One of the most industrious, clever, and revered choreographers working today, Christopher Wheeldon—he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016—has been on a balletic and Broadway tear for years. Indeed, since the British-born Wheeldon first donned ballet shoes and took to the barre as an eight-year old, the world has taken notice.

Training at the prestigious Royal Ballet School in London in 1991, Wheeldon snagged a gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne—dancing his own choreography, to boot. He then joined the Royal Ballet, where Kenneth MacMillan encouraged his dance-making endeavors, before joining New York City Ballet in 1993. Promoted to soloist in 1998, Wheeldon created his first work for City Ballet, “Slavonic Dances,” in 1997, and became the company’s first resident choreographer in 2001.

Christopher Wheeldon in rehearsal with the Australian Ballet for “Oscar.” Photograph by Christopher Rodgers-Wilson

His numerous works for that troupe include “Polyphonia” (2001), which won the London Critics’ Circle Award and Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and was described by then New York Times dance critic, Anna Kisselgoff, as, “rich and spare at the same time, familiar in tone but inventively unpredictable.”

Since then, Wheeldon has created and staged productions for many of the world’s major ballet companies, among them San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, and Hamburg Ballet.

Striking out on his own, Wheeldon founded Morphoses in 2007, presenting 33 works, including 15 by him, before stepping down as artistic director in 2010. Two years later, Wheeldon was named artistic associate of the Royal Ballet, continuing to make an array of dances for the troupe, such as a pair of evening-length works, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (2011), and “The Winter’s Tale” (2014), with Wheeldon winning both the Best Classical Choreography award and a Benois de la Danse in the choreographers’ category for the latter.

More story ballets followed: “The Nutcracker,” made for the Joffrey Ballet, premiered in 2016; and “Like Water for Chocolate,” bowed in London in 2022. Before those well-received works were first staged, though, the fiendishly busy Wheeldon directed and choreographed the Broadway musical version of “An American in Paris,” snagging his first Tony Award for choreography in 2015.

He then went on to direct and choreograph, “MJ The Musical,” winning his second Tony for choreography in 2022, as well as scoring a nomination for his direction of the play that, as of last month, had been performed more than 1,000 times and is currently on a multi-city tour through August of next year.

Fjord Review had a chance to catch up with the multi-hyphenate at the Paax/GNP Festival in Cancún, Mexico, where he had staged two evenings of dance, all set to live music and conducted by Alondra de la Parra, the festival’s director.

Christopher Wheeldon and cast of “Wheeldon's World” gala, Cancún, Mexico. Photograph by Santiago Lanzagorta

How did you get involved with the Paax Festival, which is now in its third year?

Alondra and I have been friends since Morphoses. When I had my company in New York, for our second season, her orchestra, the [Philharmonic] Orchestra of the Americas, was the accompanying orchestra. We were brought together by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. They were supporting me, and they were supporting her, and thought it would be a very good match. That’s how we became friends, first creatively, then we became great friends. I’m the godfather to her son.

I’ve been a part of this [festival] since the beginning. Alondra did a wonderful thing during the pandemic. She made a film called, The Impossible Orchestra. She brought all of these incredible, high-level musicians, like she brings here, together to make a film. We were all quarantining, so we couldn’t be together. I made a piece of choreography for it, and this festival was sort of born from that idea of bringing the “Impossibles” together.

For her, in a way, it’s more unusual, because these high-level soloists rarely play together as an ensemble, if ever. Our dance format is a bit more like a gala. These galas happen all the time, but I try to bring interesting combinations of people. Each year we’re doing more new choreography. This year we have two premieres, [and] next year we have to expand that, so we’re building as we go.

Last year you returned to City Ballet after six years to make a work on Sara Mearns, who was scheduled to appear at this festival, but had to bow out. What was that like for you?

We had Unity [Phelan] come down in her place. It was lovely to go back. The company is very different now; it’s a new generation. I love them, and really very much enjoyed working with them. It always feels a little bit like coming home, but the longer I go between new pieces there, the more the company changes. It’s old, but it’s new.

It feels very familiar yet very unfamiliar. But I enjoyed working with the new generation of dancers, and of course making something for Sara is always a very unique, exciting, [and] interesting experience. We have some history now together, too. I also wanted to make something for her, [because] she’s coming back from a really quite difficult, challenging period [of depression], so in making something that helped her come back to the stage was important to me, and I know to her, as well.

Switching tracks now, how were you tapped to direct and choreograph, “An American in Paris?”

“An American in Paris was not my first Broadway show. I actually choreographed a show, back in 1990—“The Sweet Smell of Success,” based on the movie [with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis]. Marvin Hamlisch wrote the music, John Guare wrote the book, and Nicholas Hytner directed, and I choreographed it. I was 28 or 29; it was not successful.

Something like Mark Morris’ Broadway debut as director of “The Capeman,” which ran for 68 performances in 1998 and had music by Paul Simon?

Yes, [but I think that] “Success” was actually a very good show. At some point, it should be revived.

So, after a run of 109 performances, with a great cast that included John Lithgow, Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara, it closed in 2002. But from that you got the Broadway bug?

I did, and then it was a very long time—it was almost 10 years, actually maybe even more [until “An American in Paris”].

What was that like, finally helming and choreographing your first Broadway show?

For me, very exciting. I grew up going to see musicals. My parents took me as a kid. That’s what I wanted to do. In some ways I would have preferred to have done musical theater. But I’m not a singer. My body was very suited to ballet. I had all the right parts in the right places—and arched feet. It made sense that I became a ballet dancer. I got to come around to [Broadway] later.

“MJ The Musical,” directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon

And who would have thought that you—a white, British artist from the world of ballet—would then be asked to direct and choreograph “MJ The Musical?” What a coup!

It came at me from very left field. I don’t think I was expecting that to land on my desk.

Exactly. I wouldn’t have thought of you first, either, if you don’t mind my saying.

Nobody did. Most people were like, “Well, that’s not going to work.” I think there was a lot of skepticism, which I understand. It was nice to sort of be able to prove everybody a little bit wrong—coming from a selfish perspective. My ego felt good once I was able to deliver the show, because there was pretty much, my husband [Ross Rayburn], my producer and my playwright [Pulitzer Prize winner, Lynn Nottage], and we’re all like, “We should do this, this is going to be good,” and everyone else was, “Run in the opposite direction, what are you thinking?”

So to have made a show, that, I think, [but] some may disagree, threads the needle in a way that enables it to be a joyful experience for the audience, but doesn’t completely turn its back on the complexities of the man, and places his body of work in a new context, and, actually, has a counter argument to cancel culture, which I don’t believe in, especially when it’s a body of work that is not going to go away. It’s not going to go away, [so] I understand how it can be difficult for people.

But, also, it’s not going to go away. It’s like, the Picassos aren’t coming down off the walls, the Rembrandts aren’t coming down off the walls. So, then it becomes that thing about, “can you separate the personality and deeds of the artist with the art?” I think we have to. It’s something we’re always going to come up against.

Agreed! What’s also not going to go away are story ballets. What’s your attraction to them?

I love telling a story. I love finding movement that conveys character. I think from now, having had the benefit of working both in the theater and the ballet, I love being able to apply some of the skills that I learned working with actors to dancers, and figuring out how one can high-five with the other, in a sense.

I think we, as humans, relate to stories, and I like that my work can connect with an audience and be relatable. I also love that sometimes I can make abstract work that connects with an audience, and is relatable. I think that at a time when we need our audiences to be putting their bums in the seats, we also have a responsibility as a generation of choreographers to make sure that we’re introducing people to the ballet, and making works that are inviting them to come, so that they fall in love with the art form and perhaps go to something a bit more challenging.

That said, how do story ballets fit into the state of contemporary ballet today?

I think story ballets, narrative ballets, have had a little, sort of, resurgence, in a way. There are a few of us that are making them, which is fantastic, and even some crossover contemporary choreographers who are now diving more into narrative, full-evening works. I love that. I’m excited by that. I’m happy to be a part of that generation. I suppose, as human beings, we need stories.

The Australian Ballet rehearse Christopher Wheeldon's “Oscar.” Photograph by Christopher Rodgers-Wilson

Now more than ever. And since the arc of your career has been rather spectacular, with so much more, it seems, to come, what advice do you have for aspiring choreographers and/or directors?

Being someone who loves the ballet, I would say, “Push yourself, don’t just choreograph in a flat shoe. Push yourself, if you can. If you have a love or a knowledge, or even if you don’t, of the ballet vocabulary and the pointe shoe, work a little bit in that. There are lots of ballet companies today who have wonderful dancers who’ve trained for years to be on pointe.

And more and more of the repertory is coming off pointe. People say in a very sort of drastic way and they catastrophize [that], “ballet’s dying.” It’s not dying. It does need cultivation. It does need to be respected and honored. These dancers are training in a very particular way, a meticulous, beautiful way, a detailed way, and, in our need or desire to make everything egalitarian, some of those slightly more specialized things are being frowned on.

I did an interview recently on whether the pointe shoe was relevant. I’m like, “Why are we even having this conversation? Why shouldn’t it be relevant? Why isn’t there room in the world for [this]. Let’s not erase something beautiful and poetic.”

We need more beauty and poetry, so let’s cultivate it. That’s how I feel. If a ballet choreographer is just creating flat shoe work, I’m like, “No, put them on pointe. Try.” You’ll get a lot of work. There are a lot of companies and a lot of directors that want pointe shoes ballets. Be inventive. Be off the wall with it. Use it.

Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years? I know that you’re premiering a new work, “Oscar,” based on the life and writings of Oscar Wilde, for the Australian Ballet in September.

I’m in the middle of making that, and I go back there at the end of this month. I know exactly where I’m going to be in the next five to 10 years, because my schedule is almost that far out. I’m restaging quite a lot of big works for companies. Vienna [State Ballet] and ABT are going to be doing a big work of mine.

Then I’ll be dabbling in some Broadway, and I even did a little bit of acting.

Let me guess: Étoile, the new streaming series about two fictional ballet companies that’s from Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, the pair who created The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?

Yes, that show!

How cool. And how cool was it for you to receive the OBE in 2016?

I was very honored. I got to take my mum to Buckingham Palace. It was the best; it was the best day. When she grew up as a child, she actually went to Elizabeth’s coronation [in 1953]. She was three or four years old, and so, for her to go into Buckingham Palace was very special.

With your insanely busy schedule, what do you do to relax?

While I’m here [at the Hotel Xcaret Arte], I eat this wonderful food and swim in the pools. My way of relaxing is having short periods of time in the midst of work to enjoy the places that I am. I try to enjoy everywhere—the culture of the place that I am. That helps me energize and stay working. And at the moment, I’m happy working.

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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