Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News

Following the phenomenal success of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by The National Ballet of Canada, and our fabulous backstage reporter Chelsy Meiss’ promotion to soloist, I am really pleased and a little sad to bring you the final installment of Chelsy’s backstage diaries.  Still, it must be done ! Here’s what happened on that opening World Premiere night…..

Chelsy Meiss Photograph : Aleksandar Antonijevic

Chelsy writes :

The magic of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has begun! The opening night performance at the Four Seasons for the Performing Arts was a huge hit!

Since I was dancing the role of Lorina, Alice’s older sister, I was onstage with Alice, Lewis Carroll / The White Rabbit and another sister as the orchestra tuned up and the curtain rose. There is a special moment right before the curtain goes up or before you step onstage to dance in any performance. It is kind of hard to explain but it is almost as though time stops for a moment. Your mind is racing, you’re excited and nervous because you want to perform your best and even though there may be other people onstage, you feel detached and completely absorbed in that moment with your thoughts and feelings. After taking a deep breath, the curtain was up, and before I knew it the lights were on us.

The audience has been so responsive (which we always love as performers) and it is their feedback that tells us they enjoyed this moment or thought that was funny. The special effects in the show are really mind blowing; they add so much magic to the production and we could tell the audience really appreciated this from their reaction.

When it was time for the curtain calls, we were blown away by just how many people were watching the show! We are very lucky to have a lot of support for the ballet in Toronto for all of our productions but it was truly amazing to look out into the audience and not see a single vacant seat. 

This has been such an amazing experience and I can’t wait for Alice to come back! 

Artists of the ballet in rehearsal for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Photograph : Bruce Zinger

Read part one of Chelsy’s backstage diary

Read part two of Chelsy’s backstage diary

Read part three of Chelsy’s backstage diary

Read part four of Chelsy’s backstage diary

Read part five of Chelsy’s backstage diary

Thank you Chelsy !