During his time as artistic director, Derek Deane did a lot for English National Ballet and its finances, staging huge productions like Swan Lake, seen in the round at the Royal Albert Hall. But re-staging an existing work is a far cry from creating your own, and Alice in Wonderland, while enjoyable in its detail, shows us Deane's shortcomings as a creator of large dance-works.
This Alice closely follows Lewis Carroll's much-loved book, and we start with Alice following the White Rabbit (the excellent, as ever, Yat-Sen Chang) down the rabbit hole, but there is no sense of descent in Sue Blane's stolid designs. Onwards we go through all the prescribed adventures, a bit of fun here, a clever portrayal there, but the whole work plods rather than fizzes. This is partly the fault of the music. Carl Davis has assembled pieces by Tchaikovsky that were not written for ballet, many with slow tempi, giving little possibility of introducing any zing into the dancing.
Hoicked out of the corps de ballet, Maria Kochetkova, as Alice, holds the whole story together with great charm, and a light, clean technique that's a pleasure to watch. But given that this Alice is played by an adult, albeit young, why hand over the grand pas-de-deux in Alice's dream to another dancer? Daria Klimentov is one of this company's greatest blessings, but Kochetkova looks perfectly capable of performing it, and another dancer could easily be lying on the stage as the sleeping Alice. Klimentova was partnered by Dmitri Gruzdyev as the Knave of Hearts, who showed us surprising touches of humour from a premier danseur of the highest quality.
Other enjoyable performances came from Laurent Liotardo as The Caterpillar, Sarah McIlroy as the Queen of Hearts, and James Streeter as the Duchess - this character an amalgam of the two Ugly Sisters in Sir Frederick Ashton's Cinderella. And it's the genius of Ashton that this work cries out for - his charm, his lyricism, his inventiveness, his Englishness'. Having said that, Deane's faithful interpretation, with its many Petipa-like arrangements, may not touch the heights, but it does afford a good deal of pleasure all the same.
Alice in Wonderland continues at tonight and tomorrow.
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