A Living Artwork Standing Ovations At The American Ballet Theater Performance Of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ At Segerstrom Center

April 6, 2025

By Lydia E. Ringwald

The American Ballet Theater performance of Christopher Wheeldon’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at Segerstrom Center was a living artwork, a luxury to behold.

The ballet choreography of the classic Shakespearean drama, exploring jealousy and compassion was told in dance with stunningly beautiful sets, luminous lighting, inspiring dancers in elegantly designed costumes accompanied by and Jody Talbot’s evolved musical composition

The lavish production of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ includes the luxury of multiple scenes with dance, art and music elegantly melded into an staged artwork.

In one iconic stunning scene, a giant blossoming tree with tangled roots, representing the fertility of nature, is in the center of the stage as the backdrop for dancers in the colorful springtime costumes. The luscious scene includes musicians on the stage performing sounds reminiscent of folk or native tunes.

In the opening scenes, more somber in tone, life size statues, frozen figurines, foreshadow the story where the pregnant Queen Hermione, the wife of the jealous King Leontes is ‘frozen out’ of their family life in a narrative where the emotional turmoil of jealousy and revenge results in their son’s death.

In the final scene, the statue of the abandoned wife Hermione comes back to life again when their family relationship thaws in compassion and forgiveness. But, true to the story, the son’s death is permanent and he remains as as a statue, symbolically forever frozen.

In another dramatic scene, a narrow staircase to the side of the stage hints of the cold castle interior and large painting in the middle, in dark coloration, reflects the inner emotional state of the characters. In a multi-media art experience, elegantly choreographed dancers perform within the frame of this staged artwork.

Several Shakespearean plays include sea voyages. In ‘The Winter’s Tale’, as in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, a sea voyage is also integrated into narrative in a stunning set that includes floating and billowing translucent scrims replicating the a voyage on tempestuous seas.

The series of scrim stage artworks are of great beauty and emotionality.

In the history of famous ballet and art compositions, the Christopher Wheeldon production of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ represents an evolution in the merger of art and ballet form.

The innovative compositions of Sergai Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe, now over a hundred years ago, explored unique opportunities to integrate art with ballet. In 1917, Picasso’s Cubist paintings were integrated into the costumes and sets for the Jean Cocteau inspired ballet ‘Parade, with music by Eric Satie.

In 1938, Salvador Dali contributed to the surrealist ballet ‘Triston Loco’ and again later

1939 -1941, collaborated with Leonard Massine to design the surrealist ballet trilogy ‘Bacanal-Liberinto-Sacrifcio’, intriguing productions merging dance and art.

The Joffrey Ballet’s multi-media production ‘Astarte’ in 1967 represents a later evolution where psychedelic art merges with rock music in a ballet narrative about the Goddess Astarte and her sexual consort Demuzi.

‘The Winter’s Tale’ production Christopher Wheeldon is yet another step again into the future where art, dance and music are harmoniously melded into a evolved stage composition, a narrative ballet that is also a living artwork, a treasure in ballet history.