Jasmin Vardimon Company, ALiCE, Sadler's Wells

Jasmin Vardimon is a dancemaker of unusual imagination. Her abundant back catalogue includes work for a huge variety of international houses, including the Royal Opera House, London, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Suzanne Dellal Centre in her native Israel, to mention but a few in her three packed decades of work, and, of course, many dance pieces for her own Jasmin Vardimon Company.

She says she likes to tell stories, and through them build an awareness of the contemporary subjects she wants to highlight. In the case of her latest work, ALiCE, Vardimon wants to look at adolescence, inspired by her own daughter, and more widely by the well-loved children's book Alice in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll's book has provided inspiration to artists ranging from film-makers and theatre directors to choreographers: Christopher Wheeldon's 2011 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has proved an instant hit for The Royal Ballet, where it remains in repertoire.

But while Wheeldon's colourful adaptation is fairly faithful to the original book, Vardimon's is anything but. Here's a taster:


Vardimon's ALiCE is a woman, or perhaps a child, looking for her own self in a world that proves interesting, intriguing, confusing and at times totally incomprehensible. It's a story of transformation, of becoming.

Fuelled by the choreographer's ability to create arresting images, ALiCE is a colourful, inventive, entertaining and thought-provoking work, suitable for children of seven or more, with the warning to their adults that it contains adult themes.

Age Guidance: 7+