Christopher Wheeldon is an English, 21st century ballet choreographer. He started his career as a dancer at the Royal Ballet in London when he graduated from the Royal Ballet School. Wheeldon moved to New York City at age 19 to dance with the New York City Ballet. After eight years, Wheeldon retired as a dancer and became the resident choreographer in 2001.
Wheeldon considers himself a classical ballet choreographer and is heavily influenced by Balanchine (Jacoby). Classical dance values technique, beauty and order. Unlike Balanchine, however, whose dance philosophy is based on being as exact and beautiful as possible with no regard to the story or feeling on the part of the dancer, Wheeldon is always pushing the boundaries of both himself as a choreographer and the bounds of traditional ballet.
When he choreographed Polyphonia, Wheeldon said he chose the most difficult music he could find, “jagged piano music of contemporary Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti,” in order to push himself (Porterfield). That dance ultimately was the beginning of a his professional career as a choreographer. Wheeldon choreographed while he continued his career as a dancer at the New York City Ballet before retiring from dancing, and became the company’s resident choreographer (Jacoby).
Wheeldon says he doesn’t like to quibble over whether he fits into the neo-classical or contemporary ballet category. “ ‘I also don’t like to be pigeon-holed or put into a box. I think I can do a lot of different things and I enjoy that. I enjoy exploring different ways to make the classical ballet vocabulary exciting and fresh,’ ” Wheeldon said in an video interview produced by Marquee Arts TV (Jacoby).
Wheeldon has expressed the purpose of his art and his expectation for his dances is not only produce art that entertains, but art that elicits an emotional response from the viewers as well. “… ‘[T]he primary goal that I have as a choreographer is to make work that’s entertaining and that transports people and makes them feel something,’ ” Wheeldon said (Jacoby).
Wheeldon’s creative process is similar to Balanchine’s in that he picks his music and needs dancers in the studio to try out his ideas. In contrast though, he asks his dancers to bring much of themselves to the dance. “ ‘I want dancers who can create in their mind an atmosphere or an environment for themselves,’ ” Wheeldon said, according to an article in Dance Magazine (Carman). Wheeldon says he owes much of his choreographer style to Wendy Whelan and their relationship (New York City Ballet, “Christopher Wheeldon…”). Wheeldon made several dances for Whelan. She was a principal dancer in Polyphonia and danced in seven of his ballets following.
Polyphonia is a single-act ballet with music by Gyorgy Ligeti (Craine). It premiered at the New York City Ballet January of 2001. Polyphonia is a piece for eight dancers set to ten piano compositions. This dance is very much focused on the geometry and clear concise lines the body creates. “ ‘All of the positions are etched in space very clearly. We’re not really ever making soft lines… When it’s really cut clearly in space, then we start to understand. Musically this is called disorder and you’re the order,’ ” Wheeldon said in a rehearsal video of the Royal Ballet’s production of the dance. Balanchine was also concerned with lines and the geometry of the dancer.
George Balanchine's dances are visual masterpieces of design, proportion, and form.
They progress fluidly from one elegant picture to the next. Each movement of the dance alludes to an ideal visual image–a geometrized shape the body can attain or a grouping of dancers can suggest by their arrangement in space. (Foster, 14)
This fluid progress gives the illusion of ease and gracefulness, which are two of the values of the classical dance philosophy. Wheeldon’s choreography seamlessly flows from one position to another. Christopher Porterfield said in an article for Time, “[Wheeldon] employs the traditional ballet steps and moves but adds blithely inventive twists, intricate turns and unusual lifts and balances, coaxing his dancers to use all surfaces of their bodies as points of connection.”
This is especially apparent in a solo between dancers Whelan and her partner Jared Angle (New York City Ballet, “Polyphonia”). This section of the ballet includes an odd lift similar to lifts introduced by Martha Graham, where the female dancer balances with her feet on the thighs of her partner (his knees bent), her arms around his neck and her body extended out from his. From this position, Angle thrusts Whelan completely above his head, held like a tilted X, her arms and legs fully extended at 45-degree angles from her torso. In line with the classical approach the transitions between each position are seamless and look effortless.