Morphoses, The Christopher Wheeldon Dance Company, is a new venture and a new kind of experience. The artistic director likes to say, "Ballet is sexy."

After seeing the first season of his work in New York City at City Center, I can see why he would say that and what he's going for. He wants everybody to share his love of ballet and he wants ballet to be accessible to everyone. And right now using sexy sells.

I added the fairy because I think that like the world of fairy surprised me, it will surprise Mr. Wheeldon. It will be a revelation to choreographer and audiences alike. Faerie is magic that way, you know.

One thing I didn't know when faerie began its magic with me is that fairy can be as much about nature as it can be about lightening up, laughing, being playful, coming from and offering joy, and having fun. A powerful message for those of us who can fall into being serious 24 hours a day.

A great deal of Wheeldon's work carries the abstract sleek look of contemporary dance today. But if he delves into the stories he's telling abstractly and finds the fairy and story elements there, I believe that exploration will offer up the connection he dreams of in an even larger way than leaving out "fairy." And this season, I can't wait to see what he's done.

What do I mean by fairy elements? In yesteryears it was the old tried and true Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker, or the Lilac Fairy from Sleeping Beauty. We needed stories written out for us.

Today, young choreographers tend to drop the stories that were laid out so easily for us with the traditional story ballets like Swan Lake. No book's available to translate the ballet's meaning.

Morphoses, as the name of the company and the name of a ballet, is all about the shapeshifting, the changes, the transformation that occur with magical creatures and butterflies, and with us and the Earth.

Wheeldon's ballet, Fools' Paradise, literally swims with images of nature. Wheeldon paints sweeping landscapes into which he invites us. Falling leaves, rivers, waterfalls, snow cascading all about us... these are what he loves right now.

But he also offers those pas de deux, like the ones in his "After the Rain," that give us something for the heart; something more personal, more spiritual, something that moves us inside.

If you yearn for something different... if you're willing to follow as Wheeldon grows and this company evolves, Morphoses is the place for you to find something extraordinary.

Yes, ballet is sexy. But it is also, fairy. And no matter how you strip down the look, faerie will knock on the door to your heart if you're open and you allow it entry.

Read more about Christopher Wheeldon here: http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Sh-Z/Wheeldon-Christopher.html

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www.morphoses.org

La Sylphide is an old ballet from the romantic period. I have watched the Bournonville Danish version that features a young Nikolaj Hubbe and the Paris Opera Ballet that features a lovely pas de trois (trio) that I would add to any version of the ballet that I might produce.

The ballet is about a young man, a dreamer, who tries to be like everyone around him, marry the girl of his youth, and stay within the bounds of the town and country he is from. But as he is a dreamer, he dreams of other things, and specifically of a beautiful, coquettish sprite from the woods called a sylph.

James, as our ballet hero is called, is a rather serious fellow. The sylph is a fairy and being a fairy, she brings him joy, light, dancing, and frivolity... until he attempts to keep her earthbound and sad by refusing to go off with her to the enchanted forest where she lives.

The poor fellow has a lot that keeps dragging him back from his dreams and this soul connection, however, so you can't really blame him for being so serious and unable to see the forest for the trees. There's his mother with her views of the old country and the way things should be and have always been. There's his best friend, Gurn, always watching and criticizing him, who is also after Effie, the young lady with whom James is engaged.

And then there's the witch or sorceress or town psychic, the fortune teller, depending upon how this charcter is played. The witch gives fortunes that positively scare Effie and James, and James doesn't treat her nicely so she is out for revenge as the woman scorned.

I'm not going to relay any more of the story because the experience that you have is so important. I will say that I believe this ballet is about connecting to your soul, whether we see the sylph as art and artists, as the Beloved of the spiritual realms, the road not taken or pursuing your dreams and heartfelt desires over remaining on the mind plane only.

Today, a modern version with spiritual insight might offer a different point of view and a different ending. I have worked with both in several screenplays, a dance drama called, Encore, and an urban fantasy that adds the idea of an enlightened roundtable called, Kissed By A Fairy.

La Sylphide and the tales of Merlin, King Arthur and the Holy Grail or Chalice are also behind my line of wearable art blessed with good vibrations. I create this art to inspire us to be on the earth plane in our human bodies while connecting to the divine through our heartfelt desires, dreams, and aspirations.