9, Lily, it’s finally here! This Saturday and Sunday we’re part of Washington Ballet Academy’s performance of Alice in Wonderland!
That’s my favorite story of all time!
Mine as well, though some of my benighted peers think it’s for children.
Me three! At the moment I have three different Alices in my personal library:
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass: I just happen to have a few copies of my own. . .
Also a deck of Alice in Wonderland Tarot cards, and a pair of Alice in Wonderland anklets.
You’re obsessed.
Who do we play?
That’s an excellent question, 9, reminiscent of the Caterpillar’s question to Alice “Who are you?” Our official title is Narrator. It’s our job to set the feeling of the show and make transitions between scenes through reading poems of Lewis Carroll from the Alice books.
So it’s not purely Wonderland, there are also selections from Through the Looking Glass?
Excellent observation, Lily. Among my recitations is well known “The Jabberwocky”; Alice aficionados know this one is from Through the Looking Glass. The dances represent specific chapters that form a blended story line. Ballet, modern and configuration are all employed to create different moods and exciting visual effects- -everything from falling down a rabbit hole to an amazing all-human articulating caterpillar.
Who are the humans, besides you?
The wonderful students of Washington Ballet Academy, ages from pretty darn young to older teens. Founder and director Caleb Leitch and faculty member/choreographer Katie Janis lead the project. Also, many dance parents support the production in many ways.
And we do this where and when?
At Walla Walla High School’s Black Box Theater, Saturday May 24 at 5 PM, and Sunday May 25 at 3 PM. As always, you two will be there with me. Other folks can learn more about it here:
https://www.washingtonballetacademy.org/2025-alice
The blend of dance and spoken text, plus simple black box production values remind me of my student acting days at Centrum Foundation.
When we worked with students from other schools, with Seattle area actors for faculty?
Alice in Wonderland, a Washington Ballet Academy production-being part of is like time traveling to my teenage performing years (clipping from 1976). . .
That’s it, Lily! We started in 1974 and did three more summer intensives through 1978.
Wow! I want to do that, too!
You’ll get your chance, 9, starting in Mrs. Swanson’s 6th grade.
1971: When 9 got her theatrical break that leads us to “Alice in Wonderland”. . .
It’s like time travel, working with kids and teens who are on that same journey. Performing with them, I feel like a teenager again- –
A teenager five times over.
That may be, Lily, because in Wonderland, anything can happen!
