Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol is returning to Melbourne for the festive season. Choreographer, dance maker and educator Jan Di Pietro is resident choreographer. Di Pietro has worked with Opera Australia and many touring music theatre productions as dancer and dance captain.
“My role is to teach cast members the choreography and movement elements of the story,” says Di Pietro. “There are some cast members who have been involved with this production in previous years, and some who are experiencing it for the first time, so another part of the role is to find a new version that works with and collaborates with this iteration of the cast. The Resident Choreographer above all else has to maintain the original form and intent from the creative team that first realised the story.”
Lizzie Gee, movement director at The Old Vic in London, created the original choreography for this production of A Christmas Carol. Di Pietro notes, “It feels good to do. This is always a hallmark of great choreography. Great work feels good in the body and works with the story, enhancing it wherever possible and appropriate. In this story, it adds an incredible amount of vibrancy and community energy which is at the heart of the show. Personally, as someone who started with tap dancing in my dance career, I love the percussive and tap elements. There are so many great rhythms that live in the choreography which marries so well with the orchestrations.”
Di Pietro notes that the choreography supports and enhances Scrooge’s journey through the narrative. “It also cues the audience into the conventions of the show, and at the start of the story, this is welcoming the audience into the spirit and time of the narrative. Later, the energy and intent of the movement takes Scrooge to his breaking point, where he ultimately changes the course of his life.”
This production of A Christmas Carol is conceived and directed by Matthew Warchus (Matilda the Musical) and adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and features Erik Thomson as Scrouge and Alison Whyte as the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“The whole company are great storytellers,” says Di Pietro. “The movement and choreography are first and foremost storytelling devices. This is the strength of the show.”
A Christmas Carol will play for a limited season at the Comedy Theatre from 22 November, with tickets on sale at christmascarolaustralia.com.au.
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