TV REVIEWS : National Ballet of Canada Presents Tetley’s ‘Alice’

Far from being a children’s ballet, Glen Tetley’s “Alice” shapes a psycho-sexual nightmare from the familiar characters and events of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. Danced magnificently by National Ballet of Canada, it comes to U.S. television twice today (4 and 11 p.m.) on Bravo cable.

Tetley depicts the relationship between Carroll (Rex Harrington) and the little girl he calls Child Alice (Kimberly Glasco) as remembered years later by the mature Alice (Karen Kain), now a wife and mother. What does she recall of that afternoon so long ago when Wonderland was created right before her eyes? What does she still feel for its creator?

Memory and fiction merge in an atmosphere of painful longing, with Tetley’s mastery of many different dance idioms nearly matched by the fanciful designs of Nadine Baylis. In a mercurial style, “Alice” is one moment a love story, the next a knockabout farce, character-dance showpiece or costume spectacle.

Unfortunately, the music by David Del Tredici proves so insufferably bombastic that the whole project courts overkill. However, Norman Campbell’s 1989 TV production helps undercut the grandiose by emphasizing key relationships and, in particular, by keeping Kain’s performance dominant.

Kain dances powerfully and sustains the integrity of Tetley’s concept by refusing to glamorize the role--something that can’t be said about Harrington’s interpretation of Lewis Carroll. Glasco exemplifies lyric purity in the third major role of the ballet, while exceptional support comes from Peter Ottman, Owen Montague, Michael Greyeyes and a host of others.

Joanne Kolomyjec is the overworked, increasingly incomprehensible soprano. Ermanno Florio conducts.

The ballet runs slightly over an hour, and if it were shown on PBS, something like seven minutes would have to be cut--as with “The Hard Nut” earlier in the week and “La Bayadere” last Christmas. On Bravo, it is presented complete. Deck the halls.