Dance “The Winter’s Tale”

By Marina Harss

In this ballet, the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon—the man who brought “An American in Paris” to Broadway—manages to turn one of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays into a taut piece of dance theatre. Jealousy, brutality, exile, false identity, death, and a return to life are depicted through stylized choreography that captures, with bracing clarity, the mental state of each character. Even Shakespeare’s language—for example, his description of the spiderlike poison of jealousy—finds its way into the fabric of the dancing. This darkness is leavened by a second act full of ecstatic faux-folk dances, set to music performed onstage by a Balkan-influenced band. Starting on May 1, London’s Royal Ballet will broadcast a 2014 production of the work, starring Edward Watson—the company’s resident antihero—and Lauren Cuthbertson, on its YouTube channel.