Washington Ballet plunges down rabbit hole

It’s one thing to teach a group of preening pink flamingos to dance. Or even the piglets, hedgehogs and an unruly hand of playing cards.

It’s quite another to tell the Jabberwocky what to do.

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Fairy tales fill local theaters with pixie dust: Washington theaters are offering five fairy-tale shows for families this spring.

“I want him to come over and bite Alice in the [behind],” announces Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet. He’s leading a rehearsal of “Alice (in Wonderland),” his new ballet based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.” In Webre’s conception, the jaw-snapping flying dragon swoops onstage at the end of the ballet and wreaks havoc at a royal garden party.

That’s a reasonable expectation, but considering the Jabberwocky is a giant puppet the size of a hang glider — at full wingspan it nearly fills the rehearsal studio — maneuverability is tricky. Seven dancers carry the creature: one supporting each wing, three holding up the body, one swinging the tail around and another guiding the head. More versed in pirouettes than in puppeteering, they’re struggling to control the many-jointed bamboo-and-carbon-fiber behemoth looming over their heads.

“My hands are cramping,” laments one.

“Wings up! Wings up!” shouts Eric Van Wyk, the puppetmaker. “What’s the motivation for the head? It needs to go low, and then chomp-chomp-chomp.”

On cue, other cast members dive and pivot around the puppet as if they’re running for their lives as it flies toward them. But Webre, singing out the musical counts, has his eye on another set of wings — the curtains hanging on the sides of the stage. Gracefulness must be maintained, even in this melee:

“Guys, make sure you don’t hit the wings,” he cautions as the puppet pack swivels the beast around for its departure. “Ballerinas and Jabberwockies should never hit the wings on their exit.”

With all the outsize props and decor in this production — the psychedelic-Victorian costumes are a show in themselves — Webre is anxious to keep the action elegantly streamlined. It is, after all, a ballet. The world premiere is Thursday; performances will continue through April 15 at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

But overseeing such a multilayered creation is a bit like trying to control that Jabberwocky. Every element of the ballet is new. Matthew Pierce is composing the score, sending scenes to Webre on almost a day-by-day basis. It’s an eclectic piece: the Cheshire Cat scene is jazzy in a 1960s TV crime show way; the music for the Caterpillar was inspired by a visit Webre made last summer to a hookah bar in Instanbul. James Kronzer designed the all-white stage and bright, graphic backdrops.

Liz Vandal, whose work Cirque du Soleil fans know from the recent “Ovo” show, designed the costumes, 130 in all. They’re extravagantly theatrical, and more three-dimensional than you usually see on dancers. This is thanks to high-tech fabrics that are stiff but also lightweight and stretchy. Many are specially printed: There’s snakeskin for the villainous Red Queen, and a checkerboard of top hats for the Mad Hatter’s waistcoat.