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Date/Time
Date(s) - 10 Feb 2017
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Location
Columbia University Faculty House

Category(ies) No Categories


Iska Alter (Hofstra), will give a paper titled “‘To Dance Featly’:  Christopher Wheeldon Choreographs The Winter’s Tale.”
Abstract: This essay is the first part of an examination of Christopher Wheeldon’s three-act dance adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale during which I will be discussing  Wheeldon’s Prologue and Act I.  In order to maintain the narrative integrity of the Shakespearean source as words become dance, Wheeldon collapses three acts of 1370 lines into a single act of about fifty minutes organized into five episodes defined by blackouts or a shift of scene, following the usual literary pattern of romance, the most frequent designation assigned to The Winter’s Tale.

This compression not only means that some characters are eliminated, but also that Wheeldon develops the relationship between Antigonus and Paulina:  he is more clearly his wife’s protector; together they rescue the infant from Leontes’ destructive madness; and their parting pas de deux enacts a loving relationship as they become. briefly, a model of faith in marriage. The effect of these changes serves to dissolve or at least to diminish the political context and cosmic design in which the original play is embedded, creating a decidedly personal, intensely domestic drama of individual and familial disintegration and renewal.

The event will be held in Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive. As always social hour will be from 5-6, dinner 6-7, and the talk 7-8:30.  The cost for dinner, payable by check only, is now $30. Please email Alexander Lash to request a copy of the evite and, if you plan to attend dinner, RSVP by Tuesday January 31.