NC DANCE: CLASSICAL
UNIT CODE: FH5W11
ROWAN MACGREGOR
ISLA MCMILLAN
WORD COUNT: 1,261 WORDS
In the 1300s ballet was just dancing in a ballroom that never had as much precise technique and sharp movements as it does modern day. Classical ballet originated in the 15th century in Italy and began to develop more after Catherine de Medici and King Henry 11 got married, who then introduced the style to France and it became more known. The first ever ballet performance was performed in 1573 during the Italian Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance (meaning rebirth). was a time period in history from the 14th to the 17th century. It was a very significant time where they all started to view philosophy more etc. More. The purpose of Ballet is to express and emote through the use of only movements. Ballet became very popular after King Louis XIV who was known as the “sun king” after his successful, famous role as a rising sun in a play- started to develop on the technique. The ballet master he engaged was Françoise d'Aubigné in the late 1600s. In the 1890s, The Nutcracker had its very first performance as well as many other phenomenal pieces that are still being used now in the 20th century. In the 1900s many great, well known ballet schools opened (eg. Royal Ballet and ABT America) as by this time ballet had started to be taken very seriously. Ballet nowadays includes very intricate and precise movements which still have to contain strong fluidity throughout which can be a very difficult thing to do. Many people have been influential towards the development of classical ballet and the growth of the style. Some examples of this include- Misty Copeland. Misty is a dancer who started at 13 years old, later than a lot of dancers. As she is an African- American, she knew her chances of making it into a good schools etc. Would be narrow. However, in the 2000s Copeland got into a very great school (The American Ballet Theatre company) and is now a huge inspiration to other black dancers out there to not give up on their dreams because they are a little different. Misty is very influential however only today and not so much in the previous 600 years ballet has been around. Another influential dancer is Marius Petipa who is known to be one of the worlds most influential ballet choreographers who has had a huge impact on the development of classical ballet. Petipa had such a huge success with his work and his pieces have become world wide phenomenons, for example. Petipa choreographed for the famous Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle etc. I believe Petipa was fully fundamental to the development of classical ballet and he was a great influence worldwide.
Swan Lake was directed by Matthew Bourne in 2012 and was based on the previous take of the piece which was previously directed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the late 1800s. The piece is very emotional, though humorous and involves a lot of risk taking throughout it. The piece is about a young boy who is gay, who throughout the story, is fighting for his freedom. The young princes parents don’t tend to give him the love and affection which he deserves and all of the swans throughout the piece hints more at the fact he is gay. Throughout the piece, the prince tries to come out to people and wants to fight for his right to freedom and being able to love whoever he wants. He just wants to be accepted but sometimes it can be really difficult. Bournes took a huge risk making the swans a male role but he succeeded and it has now become one of his largest achievements so far. Swan lake is structured as a natural build up and a series of events happen before the big ending. There is a wide variety of solos, duets, unison, canon etc. used. Many devices are highlighted throughout, making it the successful piece it is today. There is several use of Augmentation during it. This is a choreographic device where there is a build of of dancers on stage for example, they start with 1 dancer on and it gradually builds up to a full group performing together. For example in the piece, there starts with a group of 4 dancers on stage then another 4 come on making it 8, and eventually there ends up being a big group dancing on stage at once together. There are also a lot of motifs in the piece for example, the swans repetitively do stag leaps with their arms behind their backs and a lot of the arm movements appear to be repeated as well. The term unison which is a choreographic device also used in swan lake is when the dancers all do the same choreography at the same time and they are all dancing together. This is used at the very beginning of the triangle when the swans all come on at first. Everyone is all on the exact same leg using the exact same arms and on the exact same counts. Canons (the opposite to unison) are used quite regularly and this is where the dancers do the same choreography but at different times which creates a really cool effect on stage. Canon is used when the swans are dancing on stage together in a triangle and the man at the first starts and then everyone else joins in 2 counts later. There is also a lot of levels that are used in the piece, which is where some dancers dance down low and focus more on foot work whilst other dancers are dancing upright more doing movements such leaps. This can also highlight the different moods there is in the piece as if all the dancers are dancing down low with a low sense of gravity it can create a more intense, dark atmosphere to if they were dancing within a high level. There is a scene where the prince and the swan do choreography mirrored which is where they do the same choreography but on opposite sides for example, one dancer would kick their right leg and the other would kick their left. The characters and their relationships with other characters, personality etc. Are all shown through the movements they make. The character of the “prince” appears to be gay to me and I feel as though the use of males as the swans (when in the original production of swan lake used all females) really helped to convey this idea and emphasised it to the audience more. My perception of the royal family is that they are all very posh, very well mannered and its almost as if look down on people. Through the movement in the piece, this is clearly shown when they all dance with perfect posture, all upright and they are all very clean. When the prince and the queen dance I feel like the aren’t very close with each other, throughout the movement they don’t seem to be in contact with each other or have any connections on stage. This tells me that they don’t have a very good relationship with each other. The costuming of each character helps to convey the different classes of people, what they are like and from what time period it was set in. The royal family all wear really formal looking clothing, which helps with the setting of the piece and creates the older look. The women also tend to wear big poofy dresses a lot during it. When the male swans perform, they are all wearing white trousers which helps to signify the character of a swan as swans are white. The music from the original production of Swan Lake is very similar to Matthew Bournes version and they both have the same tempos etc. During the pieces. A really big difference between the 2 versions is that in the original, all of the swans were female and in Matthew Bournes version they are all male which says a lot because it’s not normally a male role so it shows that they are going against the odds and highlighting the “gay prince” character even more. The lighting throughout Swan Lakes is used to create a lot of cool effects and it reallt helps to create the mood/atmosphere and the specific times. For example, when the mood that they want to create is a dark, emotional mood, they would have a lot of black lights. Whereas, if a happy mood was wanting to be portrayed, bright lights, maybe coloured would be used. In the scene where the prince and the queen come on stage towards the end, the lights are shown in a way that silhouettes of all the dancers are created on the wall. This suggests that they think the prince has gone mad and it really highlights superiority. This makes everything seem much bigger and gives a way more dramatic effect to the audience.
Matthew Bournes has also created many other successful pieces of work throughout the years such as; my fair lady and Cinderella. These achievements Bournes managed to achieve have built up his reputation and made him the influential choreographer he is today.