Christopher Wheeldon

Christopher Wheeldon could have remained in a comfortable niche with all major companies like The New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, or the Bolshoi, but has chosen instead to form his own trans-Atlantic ballet company, based in New York at City Center and in London at Sadler’s
Wells: Morphoses / The Wheeldon Company.
Alistair Spalding, the Wells’ supremo, has commissioned ballets from the 34- year-old, which will be seen in London and New York in annual seasons. This is an enterprise that will require injections of cash on a large scale.

The company will not be fully formed until around 2009 but in the meantime Wheeldon choreographs ballets in the neo-classical style as befits an heir of Ashton and Balanchine. The first outing at the Wells was a little subfusc – literally. The black box staging and weak lighting took the edge of many of the pieces on offer, which included Wheeldon’s “Morphoses” and “After the Rain,” Balanchine’s “Allegro Brilliante” and Forsythe’s “Slingerland” Pas de Deux among others. Wendy Whelan, Maria Kowroski, Gonzalo Garcia and Craig Hall from NYCB and Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg from The Royal Ballet are outstanding artists but were not always ...