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‘Like Water for Chocolate’ brings food, magic, spice and lust to NY’s grandest ballet stage

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‘Like Water for Chocolate’ brings food, magic, spice and lust to NY’s grandest ballet stage

NEW YORK (AP) — How do you choreograph a scene of mass food poisoning? A young woman in an erotic frenzy? Or a couple whose passion is so intense, they literally catch fire?

These were just a few of the storytelling challenges awaiting choreographer Christopher Wheeldon — for decades one of the most inventive minds in ballet and more recently on Broadway, too — as he adapted the hugely popular 1989 novel “Like Water for Chocolate.” It gets a splashy New York premiere this week at American Ballet Theatre.

Wheeldon is no stranger to storytelling challenges, either in ballet, where he adapted Shakespeare’s vexing “The Winter’s Tale,” or in theater, where he’s won two Tonys, the latest for choreographing the hit “MJ: The Musical,” about Michael Jackson.

But Laura Esquivel’s sweeping tale of food, magic, lust and forbidden passion set in early 20th-century Mexico, which also inspired a hit movie, posed a different issue: How do you convey such a layered, hefty, multi-character story, spanning two decades, without words?

Wheeldon laughingly rejects the word “hefty,” preferring “meaty” or better yet, “epic.”

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“It’s both epic and intimate, you know?” he said in a recent interview. “It’s about a family, but the scale of the emotions within this family and then of course the time over which the story’s told — then you start adding the magical realism, and it’s an epic story.”

But, he adds, “My aim is always to try to find stories that are dynamic and exciting and theatrical and not get too worried about the practicalities … Can we manage it? Can we take the audience on a journey that they’re going to come out of feeling they’ve connected with these characters and been transported to a different world?”

The production arrives at the Metropolitan Opera House on Thursday to open ABT’s summer season, after earlier versions at London’s Royal Ballet, which co-produced, and in March during an ABT stint at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. It’s safe to say ABT has a lot riding on the production, and we don’t just mean when one character gallops off on horseback in the above-mentioned erotic frenzy.

The company hopes to attract fans of the book or film who might not be regular balletgoers. It’s presenting two full weeks of the ballet — double what beloved hits “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet” are getting.

But while most everybody knows the story of Juliet and her Romeo – and the basics about those swans, too — audiences who haven’t read Esquivel’s novel, and perhaps even those who have, may need a primer. Hence the very detailed program notes. Wheeldon says he’s seen audience members “furiously reading their programs at intermission” — which he says is a good thing.

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“It’s OK to need a synopsis,” he says. ”I know it’s widely said that if you’re making a narrative ballet, it should be clear and you shouldn’t need your notes. That’s true up to a point. There needs to be enough for the audience to hold onto and to be able to understand the relationships — but not necessarily catch every single nuance. This is a complex (story) and that’s what makes it dynamic and exciting.”

Esquivel’s novel, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, centers on Tita, daughter of the harsh Mama Elena and unfortunate victim of a family tradition that the youngest daughter may never marry, but rather must care for her mother until death. This dooms the great love of her life, with Pedro, who marries Tita’s sister just to be near her. Tita pours her grief into her cooking, which yields unexpected magical results.

The passion at points is steamy for a ballet, and ABT’s website includes the equivalent of a PG-13 movie advisory.

The opening night cast stars Cassandra Trenary and Herman Cornejo, who also opened in Costa Mesa. The pair have been continuing to rehearse and refine in New York, along with the rest of the ensemble.

A recent weekday rehearsal at ABT’s studios found the two going over some intricate pas de deux, or duets — navigating tricky lifts, smoothing over trouble spots, figuring out pacing. They launched into gravity-defying poses, then smiled and high-fived each other when a moment worked well. It was a striking example of how dancers continue to develop their roles even as they perform them.

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“We’re just deepening it each time we come back to it,” said Trenary, a fast-rising ABT star who became a principal dancer in 2020. “The difference might be our moods that day, or our experiences, or just how life has shifted.”

Added Cornejo, the dashing Argentine who’s been a principal for 20 years: “We’re finding more layers. Each day it’s something different.” And both dancers noted that Wheeldon had given them an effective mental map to navigate the rich storyline.

Wheeldon is a busy man these days. Four days after he took the stage in Costa Mesa for a curtain call with his dancers, he was on the Broadway stage of “MJ,” congratulating departing star Myles Frost. That show begins a national tour in August and a London transfer next March.

The choreographer has just turned 50, but was barely out of his teens when, in the early ’90s, he began his love affair with “Like Water for Chocolate.” He had just moved to New York from his native Britain to dance with New York City Ballet. On what he calls “a homesick Sunday afternoon,” he caught the movie at a theater near Lincoln Center, and was enchanted.

Years later, he approached Esquivel when an opportunity came up at the Royal Ballet, where he serves as Artistic Associate, to make a new story ballet. The author said: “Let’s talk.” He traveled to Mexico to meet her, along with set designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot.

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Wheeldon says his recent alternating work on Broadway and the dance stage has benefited him in both directions.

“As I’m learning how to dive deeper into character development, and emotional highs and lows of scenes, I take that to my work with dancers,” he said. “Certainly with ‘Like Water for Chocolate,’ we approached the rehearsals as much as actors as dancers, and I know the ABT dancers have really enjoyed that process.”

And Wheeldon hopes he can help broaden the audience for dance at a time when theaters are still struggling to catch up to pre-pandemic attendance.

“Maybe somebody may come and see ‘MJ: The Musical’ and love it and then see I’ve made a ballet and go, ‘OK, I’m not a balletgoer but perhaps I’ll go see it,’” he says.

“It’s harder to get people away from their computers and their phones and get bums in seats (these days),” he notes. “And so if I can be a part of encouraging people to come, that’s exciting and it makes me certainly feel like I have purpose.”

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COP29 Host Urges Collaboration as Deal Negotiations Enter Final Stage

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COP29 Host Urges Collaboration as Deal Negotiations Enter Final Stage
By Valerie Volcovici and Nailia Bagirova BAKU (Reuters) – COP29 climate summit host Azerbaijan urged participating countries to bridge their differences and come up with a finance deal on Friday, as negotiations at the two-week conference entered their final hours. World governments represented at …
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Man in India regains consciousness before his cremation on funeral pyre: reports

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Man in India regains consciousness before his cremation on funeral pyre: reports

A 25-year-old man who was declared dead and about to be cremated in India this week was found to be still alive by witnesses, according to reports. 

Rohitash Kumar, 25, who was deaf and mute, was declared dead at a hospital in the state of Rajasthan in the northwestern part of India without a post-mortem examination, according to The Times of India. 

Once it was clear Kumar was alive at his cremation on Thursday afternoon, his family reportedly took him back to a hospital where he died early Friday morning. 

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A crematorium in India.  (Rupak De Chowdhuri/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Three doctors involved in declaring Kumar dead at the Bhagwan Das Khetan district hospital have since been suspended, the newspaper reported. 

Kumar had suffered an epileptic seizure and was declared dead after he flatlined while doctors were performing CPR on him, the Daily Mail reported, citing the AFP news service. 

Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, in 2021.

Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, in 2021. (AP Photo/Amit Sharma, File)

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“The situation was nothing short of a miracle,” a witness at the funeral pyre told local news outlet ETV Bharat. “We all were in shock. He was declared dead, but there he was, breathing and alive.” 

Ramavtar Meena, a government official in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, called the incident “serious negligence.”

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Rajasthan, India

The state of Rajasthan in northwestern India.  (Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Action will be taken against those responsible. The working style of the doctors will also be thoroughly investigated,” he said. 

Meena added that a committee had been formed to investigate the incident. 

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Thousands march across Europe protesting violence against women

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Thousands march across Europe protesting violence against women

Violence against women and girls remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.

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Thousands marched across France and Italy protesting violence against women on Saturday – two days before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

Those demonstrating protested all forms of violence against women – whether it be sexual, physical, psychological and economic. 

The United Nations designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The goal is to raise awareness of the violence women are subjected to and the reality that the scale and nature of the issue is often hidden. 

Activists demonstrated partially naked in Rome, hooded in balaclavas to replicate the gesture of Iranian student Ahoo Daryaei, who stripped in front of a university in Tehran to protest the country’s regime. 

In France, demonstrations were planned in dozens of cities like Paris, Marseille and Lille. 

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More than 400 organisations reportedly called for demonstrations across the country amidst widespread shock caused by the Pelicot mass rape trial. 

Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world, according to the United Nations. Globally, almost one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life. 

For at least 51,100 women in 2023, the cycle of gender-based violence ended with their murder by partners or family members. That means a woman was killed every ten minutes. 

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