Literature as Ballet

A number of ballets are based on literary works, so a class around literature, ballet, and the translation between them could be really interesting! This is an outline for the content of such a class; note that this will be far better with students who have reasonable familiarity with ballet and preferably know basic ballet history.

The ballets in the recommended list are all available on DVD. There are some ballets that would be good fits for a class like this (ex. John Cranko's Onegin) but have not been released on film. And of course, if there are ballets based on literary works being performed by nearby companies, go see them!

Works and Ballets
The six suggestions below are grouped; the first three are based on Shakespeare, the next three on fairy tales, and the last three are more varied.

• Romeo and Juliet. There are many ballet adaptations of R&J, and they're some of the best ballets at telling a story well. I really prefer the ballet to the play in this case. It's easiest to find good recordings of MacMillan's choreography, but I also know of versions on DVD by Lavrovsky and Nureyev. Any of those are good; Lavrovsky is the original that inspired the other major versions.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream. A lot of people regard this as one of Shakespeare's best comedies, and it's certainly a lot of fun. There are two well known ballet adaptations of Dream, one by Frederick Ashton and one by George Balanchine. Ashton's adaptation is one act long, so it could be interesting for looking at plot trimming. I'd also think about how dance lends itself well to some of the more slapstick-ish elements and how the costuming is done; the ballets tend to color-code the couples so that you can tell who ought to be together.
• The Winter's Tale. This is classified as a romance or tragicomedy. It's not one of Shakespeare's best-written plays. The value here is really more in seeing how Christopher Wheeldon translated this to ballet and brought out a strong story. (There's also a great bit of stage tech for "Exit, pursued by a bear.")
• Sleeping Beauty. You can read Perrault's version or the Grimms' version or both. Most ballet versions are based on Marius Petipa's choreography to some degree, so any film of a production by a well-known and large company will be a good example. This is one where the story in the ballet is going to be on the light side.
• Cinderella. Read a version or few of Cinderella! The ones most related to the ballet will again be Perrault's or Grimms' versions. This is another one based on a fairy tale, but the ballet is very different, so it's a good contrast to Sleeping Beauty. Most versions of this ballet were choreographed in the second half of the 20th century, so they have a much stronger story structure than the Imperial Russian ballets. I'd recommend Frederick Ashton's choreography; he choreographed the best stepsisters.
• The Little Mermaid. Read Hans Christian Andersen's story and watch John Neumeier's ballet. It's very modern, so this is going to be a very different story to ballet translation.
• Alice in Wonderland. Read Carroll, watch Christopher Wheeldon's incredible adaptation, which does wonderful things in terms of story, choreography, music, and stage tech. For most adaptations of Alice I would recommend reading both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. That's still a good idea because they do go together and both are a lot of fun, but Wheeldon's version is based solely off of Alice in Wonderland and not Through the Looking Glass. 
• Hugo's "Fantômes" and Giselle. Giselle isn't taken directly from one source, but the libretto was inspired by the poem "Fantômes" as well as a section in Heine's De l'Allemagne. Most productions are based on the choreographies of Coralli, Perrot, and Petipa, so again, a version by any major company will be good.
• Lady of the Camellias. Read the Dumas (fils) novel, and then watch John Neumeier's adaptation. If you can find Caniparoli's choreography, it's also good, but I don't know of a recording of it. Neumeier and Caniparoli's versions are full-length; if possible, also watch Ashton's shorter Marguerite and Armand. (This is on the Ashton Celebration DVD.) It could be interesting to compare this to opera adaptations of the same story like La Traviata. 

Examples of ballets that might be performed locally or other ballets on DVD that are based on literary works: Don Quixote, Dracula, Frankenstein, Peter Pan, Manon, Onegin, The Three Musketeers, The Taming of the Shrew, anything by Shakespeare, other fairy tales, Coppelia (loosely), The Nutracker (loosely), Ondine, The Great Gatsby. 

Questions to Ask about Literary Work vs Ballet:

• How present/important is the story in the ballet?
• How faithful is the ballet adaptation to the original work? In what ways was the story changed? Narrowed/focused? If so, why? Is the cast of characters changed?
• How are key moments in the story scored and danced?
• How are themes highlighted in the literary work vs in the ballet? Which themes are better highlighted in which medium? Are any of the themes different?
• If the story has a variety of settings, how are these transitions done in the ballet? Is there anything particularly interesting or unique in the stage tech?
• For plays, what are the key differences in how the play is staged versus the ballet?
• How is mime used, if at all?
• Are problematic elements in the original work deleted? Kept? Subverted? (This is a good question for something like Cranko's Taming of the Shrew, if you can find clips or see it live.)
• How are different types of work (play, novel, short story, poem, fairy tale) translated to ballet?