Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights gets a ballet spin in Tokyo as classical dance meets comedy

British choreographer Alastair Marriott never expected to turn his childhood love of Charlie Chaplin films into a full-scale production in Tokyo with the National Ballet of Japan. Ballet is often seen as high art: formal and reserved. Chaplin, by contrast, built his comedy on slapstick and mime. During the pandemic, Marriott, who was developing a new production at the time, decided to revisit City Lights, Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece. In the film, Chaplin’s character, Little Tramp, falls in love...