A Christmas Carol

I am a professional dancer, choreographer, and designer. This production is glorious, original, delicate, sensitive, and a total surprise. To hear the book, read by Sian Phillips, as the dance accompaniment, enhanced by an original score, was sublime. This is a beautiful and wonderfully creative telling of the much abused but loved Christmas Carol. It, unlike most every other production, is not bombastic or over produced. To hear Dickens' words, and not someone's idea of what they should be, spoken by the wonderful voice of Sian Phillips, is a rare treat. Granted, it takes a minute to get into it seeing that I is completely choreographed, but trust me, it's a treat!

Some rough reviews on here, and if you are looking for Jim Carrey's version, this will assuredly not check the boxes for you. This is the most faithful adaptation, dialogue wise, that I've seen, and I've seen most film and tv versions. True to the book almost entirely, it is more demanding in that respect.

Creatively, the dance paired with overlayed dialogue is an extremely compelling way to keep the story fresh. There have been many similar versions over the years, and a few wildly divisive ones (the 2019 FX version, for example), so a reset that stays true to the source material is a nice change of pace.

Lastly, Andy Serkis version of Marley is the creepiest I've seen. The fluid movements of the dancer and his vocal representation really nailed the horrific nature of the role in a way that I imagine Dickens wanted to convey.

So much potential and very different but fell flat. Lovely visuals but a storytelling narrative and tone to send you to sleep and Scrooge's voice wasn't much better - lacked intonation. Weird mixture of storytelling, theatre and dance where characters do not actually speak their words and only 'dance' which consisted simply of them constantly flailing their arms about and spinning around - not creative modern dance at all. How to ruin a Classic! Pretentious and boring.

How comes this is not on dvd yet not seen it anywhere.

Personally, I forced myself to watch, or should I say, experience this retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. None of the actors speak. They just dance. In opera, the story is sung by the players. Here, the players are mute, their roles conveyed through their very expressive movements - via contemporary dance - their "voices" coming from "behind the curtain" when needed, together with that of the narrator who controls this retelling.

Actually, this production would have been better on a stage. It would have made more sense, and would have had a more appreciative audience. As a movie, it soon became boring. One already knows the story so no need to hang on to find out what happens in the end.

I do like contemporary dance. I love the way it can convey emotion. However, those who want to experience this at its best, should look elsewhere. And choose one or more of the other A Christmas Carol movies to soothe that seasonal itch.