As ballet Like Water for Chocolate premieres in New York, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon talks a
But Laura Esquivel’s sweeping tale of food, magic, lust and forbidden passion set in early 20th-century Mexico, which also inspired a hit movie, posed a different issue: how do you convey such a layered, hefty, multi-character story, spanning two decades, without words?
Wheeldon laughingly rejects the word “hefty”, preferring “meaty” or better yet, “epic”.
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“It’s both epic and intimate, you know?” he says. “It’s about a family, but the scale of the emotions within this family and then of course the time over which the story’s told – then you start adding the magical realism, and it’s an epic story.”
But he adds: “My aim is always to try to find stories that are dynamic and exciting and theatrical and not get too worried about the practicalities … Can we manage it? Can we take the audience on a journey that they’re going to come out of feeling they’ve connected with these characters and been transported to a different world?”
The production debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House on June 22 to open ABT’s summer season, after earlier versions at London’s Royal Ballet, which co-produced, and in March during an ABT stint at the Segerstrom Centre for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.
The company hopes to attract fans of the book or film who might not be regular ballet-goers. It’s presenting two full weeks of the ballet – double what beloved hits Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet are getting.
But while most people know the story of Juliet and her Romeo – and the basics about those swans, too – audiences who haven’t read Esquivel’s novel, and perhaps even those who have, may need a primer.
The book, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, centres on Tita, daughter of the harsh Mama Elena and unfortunate victim of a family tradition that the youngest daughter may never marry, but rather must care for her mother until death.
This dooms the great love of her life, Pedro, who marries Tita’s sister just to be near her. Tita pours her grief into her cooking, which yields unexpected magical results.
Wheeldon is a busy man these days. Four days after he took the stage in Costa Mesa for a curtain call with his dancers, he was on the Broadway stage of MJ, congratulating departing star Myles Frost. That show begins a national tour in August and a London transfer in March 2024.
The choreographer has just turned 50, but was barely out of his teens when, in the early ’90s, he began his love affair with Like Water for Chocolate. He had just moved to New York from his native Britain to dance with New York City Ballet.
On what he calls “a homesick Sunday afternoon”, he went to see the movie at a cinema near Lincoln Centre – the home of the ballet company – and was enchanted.
Years later, he approached Esquivel when an opportunity came up at the Royal Ballet, where he serves as artistic associate, to make a new story ballet. The author said: “Let’s talk.”
He travelled to Mexico to meet her, along with set designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot.
Wheeldon says his recent alternating work on Broadway and the dance stage has benefited him in both directions.
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“As I’m learning how to dive deeper into character development, and emotional highs and lows of scenes, I take that to my work with dancers,” he says. “Certainly with Like Water for Chocolate, we approached the rehearsals as much as actors as dancers, and I know the ABT dancers have really enjoyed that process.”
And Wheeldon hopes he can help broaden the audience for dance at a time when theatres are still struggling to catch up to pre-pandemic attendance levels.
“Maybe somebody may come and see MJ: The Musical and love it and then see I’ve made a ballet and go, ‘OK, I’m not a ballet-goer but perhaps I’ll go see it,’” he says.
“It’s harder to get people away from their computers and their phones and get bums in seats [these days],” he adds. “And so if I can be a part of encouraging people to come, that’s exciting and it makes me certainly feel like I have purpose.”
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