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parkerparts · 4 years

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i’d like to be my old self again (but i’m still trying to find it)

5 Times Peter Parker Dances for Someone Else + 1 Time He Dances for Himself (AO3 here)

O N E

They tell him dancing is in his blood. They say it in high-pitched voices with a smile and a pat on the back, like they can give him talent and technique by patting it into his body and pushing him into a studio with a dozen girls and three other boys who already know that plie means “bent.” The next day at school, Peter trips and falls, skinning his knee. The teacher and his classmates crowd around him, asking if he’s okay, but he’s too busy examining the red liquid gushing out of the scrapes to answer.

“What do you mean when you say ‘dancing is in my blood?’” Peter asks May and Ben on the way home from school. “I thought it would look like pink and glitter, but my blood’s just red. I checked.”

Through the rearview mirror, Peter watches his aunt and uncle smile. “Not literally,” Ben tells him, turning around to pat his knee. “Your mom was a dancer. She was an amazing dancer, Peter. Your mom was planning on enrolling you in classes when you reached this age, and we thought you might want to try it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll become a star like your mom one day. You might be even better.”

“What if I’m not good at dancing at all?” Peter asks, looking up into Ben’s eyes with more fear and insecurity than a child his age should be able to feel. “What if I’m not like my mom?”

“You’re only six. You’ll get there.” Ben smiles at him, full of warmth and hope, and for a moment, Peter lets himself believe that he can dance, that one day he’ll be a star. One day, he promises himself, he’ll make his mom proud.

At class later that day, his hope crumbles into pieces like sand from the playground that’s just not wet enough to be molded into something useful, something beautiful. He can’t make his legs do that move, can’t move his head and his arms in a circle at the same time, can’t keep his back straight at all. He’s so close to quitting, to going home and telling May and Ben, “I don’t think I want to do it anymore,” but they pick him up after class, and while May orders dinner, Ben shows him a video of his mom dancing the final pas de deux from Manon.

She’s beautiful.

Week after week, Peter goes back to class, and he tries to make his body move like the dancers in the video, like his mom, who used to dance with an otherworldly grace. Peter’s still not sure he has an ounce of that grace in his blood, despite the constant assurances that he’ll get there one day, but he tries anyway. He points his feet and holds his head up high. He smiles as he dances until the teacher begins to compliment him for his stage presence as well as his technique.

Peter is six years old when he performs onstage for the first time. The music ends, and the crowd politely claps, and somewhere out there, May and Ben are sitting, probably wiping away each other’s tears. Peter takes his classmates’ hands as they bow, and as they come up, Peter squints at the bright spotlight. If he stares long enough, he can pretend it’s his mom, watching him dance.

This is for you, he thinks. I can’t dance, but I’ll dance for you.

T W O

The day after Ben’s funeral is sunny, like the world is healing and mocking Peter for his inability to stop hurting.

There’s a knock on Peter’s door, and he hastily shoves the scissors scraps of fabric in his closet as he goes to open it. May, her red-rimmed eyes magnified by her glasses, stares at Peter’s face like all she wants to do is hold him close. It’s suffocating. It’s comforting. It’s painful. It’s sad. “Are you going back to dance today?”

Peter shrugs. He hasn’t gone to the studio since Ben died, but it’s been a little over a week, and people are going to expect him back, especially with their performance a month away. “I don’t know.”

“You should,” May says with a strained smile. “He’d want you to.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Peter whispers, voice hoarse from unforgotten tears. “Not without him.”

It’s true. Peter doesn’t know how he’s supposed to continue dancing without Ben, who helped Peter sew all of his costumes, who drove Peter to the studio every day, who volunteered to help tech all of the shows, who took countless photos and videos from backstage, who cried every time he saw his nephew perform, who believed in Peter, even - or especially - when Peter didn’t believe in himself.

May breathes in, sharp and full of pain, and she reaches out, folds Peter into her arms and whispers in his ear, “You can. You have to.”

As it turns out, Peter can’t. He walks into the studio and sets his bag down, only to realize that he left his ballet shoes at home, so he walks right out and blinks back tears at the thought that Ben would have come running after him with his shoes in hand seconds after he left the house.

May is waiting when he gets home, curled up on the sofa in Ben’s favorite blanket. She takes one look at his face, wind-bitten and scrunched up from his efforts not to cry, and she calls in sick to work and makes him macaroni from a box.

“Do you think he’d be disappointed in me?” Peter asks, mouth full of macaroni.

May clicks her tongue, softly chiding. “I think he’d be proud of you. I think you’ll make him proud.”

“He always believed in me. I can’t even believe in myself, but he always did.”

“I believe in you.” Peter looks up from his empty bowl and catches May wiping away her tears, the heartbreak on her face so raw, so overwhelming that he forgets how to breathe for a moment. “You just keep dancing, baby. I’ll believe in you enough for the three of us.”

Peter goes to dance the next day, and his muscles, reborn with spider DNA, still remember how to dance, even if his foggy, grief-stricken brain cannot. For the first time, Peter lets himself coast through class on autopilot, lets his body take over while his brain crumbles, and somehow, by the end of class, he’s built his brain back up again.

His soul was still shattered, shards of it scattered to the winds like ashes from an overturned urn, but that was a problem for another day.

By the time the show rolls around, Peter has collected nearly all the pieces of his soul. Some of him is lost forever, left behind in a time before the spider bite, the time before Ben’s death, but he’s somewhat whole again, whole enough to dance off autopilot, to dance with a semblance of emotion and depth. His body processes the emotions that his brain can’t.

The last piece in the show - a contemporary showcase of student-choreographed pieces - is one that Peter worked on himself, along with the senior boy who taught him how to do a la seconde turns. The dance ends with Peter falling off stage as the lights turn black. The music builds, and dancers leap across the stage in time to the flickering lights, and Peter runs, sprints to the edge of the stage, holds out his arms, and when the music suddenly fades, he takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and falls backwards.

A strong pair of arms catches him before he hits the ground. The audience is still and silent, and the theater is dark, and in the few seconds after the dance ends when the world comes to a stop, Peter thinks Ben is back, here to catch him as he always promised he would.

Then the audience begins clapping, a standing ovation that ripples through the crowd, and Peter has to open his eyes and thank the tech guy who caught him, the guy that would have been Ben if Ben had still been alive. Peter boosts himself back onstage to bow, and as he turns to face the audience, he catches sight of May in the second row, clapping furiously with tears streaming down her face.

He would be so proud of you, she mouths, half-whispering the words, and Peter’s super-hearing picks up the sound.

I know, he mouths back, not caring if the director will call him unprofessional. I know he would.

He’s doing it for Ben, after all. He’s dancing for Ben and for May, for believing in him and challenging him to never stop dancing, even when the memories and legacies in it are too much to bear.

T H R E E

Peter should have known better to try to hide something from Tony Stark. If the man had been able to find out he was Spider-Man, his best kept secret of all time, then of course he’d find out about Peter’s senior recital.

“I should have known you’re a dancer,” Tony told him, draping an arm around his shoulders as they walked. “I thought those flips and that agility came from the spider DNA, but I guess you’ve got your own DNA to account for that. Mary Parker is your mother, am I correct?”

“Principal dancer of New York City Ballet at only twenty-one years old,” Peter said with a smile. Since first hearing of his mother’s career as a dancer, he’s done his research, and he’s proud of being part of her legacy. “Did you know her?”

“Not personally, but I’ve seen her perform as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was drunk at the time, probably, or maybe high on something, but I remember parts of it vividly. She was a beautiful dancer, your mother. I think watching her when I was in my early thirties was part of the reason why I love ballets and dance now. It just manifested itself twenty years later.”

Peter wants to ask more about his mom, wants to listen to Tony talk about her forever, but the man ushers him through a door, and he’s inside a glittering studio with barres lining the walls and mirrors stretching from the floor to the ceiling. Skylights bathe the room in bright morning light, shining on a sleek sound system that Peter instantly recognizes as Stark tech.

“What’s this?” Peter asks, stepping out of his shoes to reverently slide across the marley panels in his socks. “Is this for me?”

“Technically it’s Natasha’s. I had it built for her when we built the Compound. Barnes uses it too sometimes, which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did the first time FRIDAY told me he was here. But yes, it’s for you too.”

“Why?” Peter turns to face Tony with a wide-eyed stare.

Behind his tinted glasses, Tony blinks slowly, fishing for words in a way that makes Peter nervous with anticipation. “I want you to feel included here. I know you don’t live here, but this is your space too, regardless of whether or not you choose to use it. Your studio is fiercely competitive, and when I last spoke with the director, private studio time was fully booked. This is yours to use if you want to practice a little extra or if you just want a space to dance in. I was also thinking you could talk to Natasha or Barnes if you really want to. They’d probably be interested in teaching you a few things about dance, both in the studio and out fighting on the streets.”

Peter’s overwhelmed by the thought Tony put into this, even though the man plays it off with an air of nonchalance. However, the subtle undertone of heavy expectations weighs him down, and he does his best not to panic in front of his mentor. “Thank you, Mr. Stark, but you really didn’t have to.”

“I know. I don’t do things because I have to. I do them because I want to,” Tony says, the corner of his mouth curled up in an affectionate smirk.

“Thanks,” Peter whispers again, feeling small and scared and stressed for no reason at all. He’s never been very good at receiving gifts, never been very good at receiving expectations. “Thank you so much.”

Tony just hums and flashes him a smile. “You’re welcome, kid. You want to stay here for a little bit? If not, I can have Happy drive you back and you can catch your afternoon rehearsals.”

“I think I’ll stay here, if that’s okay with you?”

“Sure thing. Team dinner is at five. Don’t be late.” Tony closed the door behind him as he left, and in the grandeur of a studio, his very own studio for the rest of the day, for as long as he wanted, Peter lets out a slow, shaky breath.

An hour later, after changing into tights and his warm-ups and doing a quick barre, he’s working on choreographing his senior solo. Something Old and Something New, he calls it, writing out counts in quick strokes as he marks his thoughts on the floor with his feet. There’s a video of his mother in NYCB’s studio, working on a piece set to the same music Peter chose, a piece she never got to debut because she fell in love and got married and had a child, and by the time she was able to return to dancing, she had already forgotten about the piece.

Peter, however, picks up where she left off. He’s adapted the pointe work and made it more contemporary, filled in the gaps of choreo the video doesn’t show, and now he has this piece that’s mostly his, but there’s something about it that’s also not his own, a part of his dancing that never really belonged to him anyway.

Every other weekend, Peter begins spending nights at the Compound, having Happy drive him straight over Saturday after rehearsal ends and driving back late Sunday morning to get to the city in time for Sunday afternoon rehearsals. Even though he’s exhausted, he works hard on these weekends, training and choreographing and working on his technique late at night and early in the morning. He takes up Tony’s offer and asks Natasha for help, who ropes Bucky into the deal, despite Peter being too scared to ask. Some days, they’ll help him refine his art, give corrections on his classical technique, and offer opinions about his choreography. Other days, they’ll train him, teach him to use his body and his art as a weapon.

As a result of spending more time at the Compound, Peter meets the rest of the team and gets to know them. Among the new faces is a boy Peter’s age named Harley Keener, who dropped out of high school when they wouldn’t let him graduate early and drove up to New York, calling in a favor with Tony Stark. He’s a genius, Peter discovers, but not in the naturally gifted way that he seems at first. He works hard, harder than anyone Peter had ever met before, and he loves what he does. He lets Peter talk about anything, about the latest high school gossip, about chemistry and thermodynamics, about dance. Anytime Peter is at the Compound and he’s not in the studio, he’s with Harley, either hanging out or working in the labs.

“Do you like him?” Tony asks one day as Peter warms up in the studio. Sometimes Tony asks to sit with his work in the studio while Peter dances, and sometimes Peter lets him.

“I don’t know,” Peter says in between sautes. “If I think about it too much, I get anxious, so I just stopped thinking about it at all. With him, I don’t have to think anyway. I just get to be, you know? It’s sort of like dancing. I just get to be and do what feels right.”

Tony hums knowingly, and Peter fights the urge to blush. He’s pretty sure he fails by the way Tony looks at him over the edge of his glasses. “That’s how Pepper makes me feel,” he says, and he leaves it at that, the seeds of implications left hanging unsaid in the air.

Peter swats at them as he presses play, and by the time the song ends, the seeds have mostly dispersed, but some of them have taken root in his heart, and Peter has no choice but to let them grow.

All of Peter’s extra training at the Compound has made him an excellent dancer. He’s no match for the natural talent at the studio, but his hard work has paid off, and he’s rising in the ranks, slowly but surely.

It’s also made him a better fighter out on the streets, just as Tony had said. He could dance circles around Big Man and his men, and he had defeated Kingpin single-handedly with tricks he learned from Natasha and Bucky.

One night, about a month before his senior recital, a month before he graduates high school, Peter goes out on patrol in the precious two hours between school and dance. He’s exhausted, burned-out, and he’s close to calling it quits after thirty minutes, but when Karen alerts him of Kraven the Hunter’s presence in Central Park, Flushing Meadows, Peter swings his ass there with little more than a sigh.

“Spider-Man,” the villain greets, but Peter’s not there to banter with his words. Instead, he banters with his body, dancing past charges and blows and landing a few of his own. He falters once when Kraven pulls out a blowgun, and it’s his own demise because seconds later, he feels the poisonous dart find a home in his thigh.

But Peter’s used to fighting through pain, through injuries. He once sprained his ankle during an adagio and had to dance through his subsequent variation on the ankle. It was relatively healed by the end of the coda, but he knows the feeling of pain, knows how to fight through it and do what needs to be done, knows how to do it with art.

He wishes he could say defeating Kraven was as easy as plie, but it’s more like petite allegro, seemingly quick and seemingly easy but surprisingly hard and requiring more energy and control than any sane person should have at that point in a class. It hardly matters. The fight lasts no more than half an hour, by which time Kraven is webbed up in a Queens Zoo enclosure and Peter is at last felled by the poison in his blood.

Tony finally arrives, flying in with an urgency that makes Peter laugh because it’s a little too late, but he’s grateful for the help that Karen apparently called because his vision is going fuzzy.

“You did good, kid,” Tony says, and the way it makes Peter go warm feels like an antidote in its own right.

“Did it for you,” he mumbles into Tony’s shoulder. “I danced it for you.”

Peter awakes hours later to the sound of a door opening. Tony and May walk in as he slowly becomes more aware of his surroundings. He’s in a hospital bed in the medical ward of the Compound, and there’s a warm pressure on his hand.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” Harley says, squeezing his hand lightly. “Guess you don’t need a true love’s kiss to wake you up after all.”

“It wouldn’t go amiss,” Peter snarks back, and even though it doesn’t actually earn him a kiss from the other boy, he gets a laugh, so he calls it a win in his book.

F O U R

“The whole point of college is to try new things,” Ned tells Peter, dragging him through the door of whoever’s house the party of the night is being held. The two of them are in their freshman year together at NYU, inseparable to the very end. Besides, with Peter’s whole Spider-Man thing, Ned was the logical choice for a roommate. “Yeah, we’re not really party people, but we could be, right?”

“I don’t know, Ned. I’ve got, you know, spidery things to do tonight, and I have a super important lab write-up due Monday,” Peter replies, but the point is probably moot because he’s already dressed up and there, so he might as well stay. Ned must realize that too because he grins at Peter and hands him a beer.

“Even superheroes need a break. Come on, Peter. Live a little, okay? Partying is self-care.” The notion is so ridiculous it makes even Ned laugh, but as always, Peter’s best friend is able to lift his spirits and make him feel more comfortable in a situation that’s anything but comfortable.

By the time Peter has had his seventh beer, his spider metabolism finally gives in, and he feels drunk enough not to care. Ned ditched him for a group of kids in his computer science class, and they’re doing shots by the bar. Peter’s dancing with a few girls from his composition class, cheering with them when the music changes to a remix of a song they improvved to last week.

“You can really dance,” someone tells him, voice low and far too close to his ear. Peter whips around, ready to tell some creep to back off, but he’s blown away by windswept, blond curls and a glimmering smile.

His eyes are the wrong color, he thinks, and he immediately hates himself for the thought. Harley is probably batting his deep green eyes at his latest hook-up, whose name is Eugene, and Peter shudders at the thought that it might be Eugene Thompson.

“Thanks,” Peter says, staring into steel grey eyes instead. “I’m a dance major, so it’s kind of my thing.”

The not-Harley stranger laughs, and he smiles at Peter in a way that makes him feel appreciated in a way he hasn’t felt in months, maybe years. “So will you dance for me?”

“Only if you dance with me too.” Not-Harley lets Peter drape his arms around his neck as they swayed to the music, some early 2000’s pop song with dirty lyrics and a dirtier beat.

Not-Harley dances even dirtier, and after one song, Peter is more than uncomfortable and ready to deck the guy and leave, but then he offers Peter a drink, and it’s strong and smells good, so Peter drinks it and lets the guy lead him out to the dance floor again. It takes two more drinks for Peter to start dancing back, to lose himself in the rhythm and the feel of human contact, no matter how dubious it may be.

Then the guy kisses Peter, slams his mouth against his in a sloppy move that makes Peter moan anyway because he’s riled up on touch and taste and alcohol. “Harley,” he murmurs into the kiss, barely registering the guy pull away. “Harley, please.”

“I’m not Harley,” the guy says, and Peter’s eyes snap open, the world rushing back to him in overwhelming waves. “My name is Hayes.”

“I’m so sorry,” Peter mumbles, and although his voice is soft, he feels like screaming.

The guy, Hayes, just smiles at him with a look disguised as kindness as he says, “It’s okay. If you dance like that, I’ll let you call me any name you want in bed.”

In an instant, Peter feels shame and guilt crawl over his skin like bacteria, like parasites come to leech away all the good things in him, if there’s anything left. “I should go.”

“I don’t think you should,” Hayes says, tightening his grip on Peter’s waist, and in a flash of panic, Peter rips himself away with a bit of his super strength, tipping Hayes to the floor.

“Sorry,” he says half-heartedly. It’s all he can manage before the urge to sprint out of the party overtakes him, and it’s only when he’s in the cool night hair that he breathes, a deep shuddering exhale that leaves him feeling empty.

Is this what dance is for? he asks, looking up to the sky and spinning in slow circles. He knows it’s not. He knows dance is an art form, not some party trick to get into people’s pants, but Hayes’ cologne lingers on his skin, whispering that he’s nothing more than an object programmed for people’s pleasure.

Will you dance for me? say the demons in his head. Is dance really as sacred as you think, or will you dance for anyone who asks?

Not just anyone, he tells himself. Just my parents and my aunt and uncle and family of superheroes I’ve somehow found. Just for my classmates and my teachers and boys in clubs who look like Harley Keener and smile at me like I mean something to them.

F I V E

A scream rips unbidden from Peter’s throat as he hits the ground. They always say that beauty is pain, but he’s feeling decidedly unpretty as he cradles his sprained ankle, weak from years of never letting it heal properly, ever since that first pas de deux. Admittedly, it doesn’t hurt that bad. His body is already working on stitching itself back together again, but it feels good to scream, so he does it again, letting it taper off into a dry sob. The tears he needs to cry never come, and he wonders if he’s broken or just accustomed to this feeling.

The door to the studio in the Compound slams open, and in runs a sleep-rumpled Harley Keener, wide-eyed in confusion of the sight of Peter on the ground. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Peter grits out, sitting up. “Just panicked when I fell, that’s all. Did I wake you up? Did I wake anyone else up?”

“Just me, I think,” Harley says softly, slipping on the marley in his woolen socks to fall gracefully to the floor beside Peter. “And I was already awake.”

“I’m sorry,” Peter whispers.

Harley’s gaze turns sharp. “For what? Falling?”

Yes, Peter thinks, fighting a sarcastic grin. Sorry for falling in love with you. “No. Yes? Sort of. I’m feeling kind of like a failure tonight. And every night, really, but that’s trauma we don’t have time to unpack right now.”

“It’s only one a.m.,” Harley says. “We have all the time in the world, if you want it.”

Peter, who knows how short life truly is, wants to take Harley’s offer, to cherish his promise of more time, of all the time in the world, but he’s tired and in pain, and he can hardly form coherent thoughts, let alone words. “Another day,” he says. “When it’s actually daytime, not some stupid hour of the night.”

Harley laughs, soft and sweet and reverberating around the room. Peter melts at the sound. He wants to dance to it, almost gets up and does. “What were you working on anyway? It’s winter break.”

“The latest piece for my composition class. It’s due when right after break because we have a showcase coming up.”

“Send me the dates. I love watching you dance,” Harley says, and the words make Peter sad rather than happy, and he doesn’t know why.

“I don’t know why you do. I mean, I don’t even like watching myself dance.”

Harley’s quiet for a moment, and Peter wishes he could take the words back. “I wish I could show you what you look like. You’re normally a swan, or some old cliche of grace, but when you dance? You turn into an angel. It’s breathtaking.”

Peter’s breath hitches, feels the warm glow of praise flow through his veins and lighten his heart. “Oh, Harley,” he says, and all the words he wishes he could say hang in the air. He’s never been very good at saying what he really means with words, fickle and fleeting. Dance, on the other hand, is emotional and eternal, and it’s his way of saying without speaking, of conveying the emotions that linger in his heart.

Harley cups his face in his hands, frozen fingertips leaving burning trails of warmth in their path as they trace along his lips. “Try again,” Harley asks, though it feels more like a command. “For me?”

Peter has never been able to deny Harley. With surprisingly stable legs, despite a swollen ankle, he stands, limps to the center of the room, and breathes.

That’s all dancing is, after all. It’s easier than breathing, yet the hardest thing he has ever done.

Harley starts the music, and all Peter has to do is breathe. He’s lifting up and sinking down and running and twirling around, and a minute into the piece, he’s forgotten about the pain in his ankle, about the misery that weighs him down. He almost forgets about Harley, but it’s hard to ignore his gaze, burning bright trails against Peter’s skin.

Peter faces the mirror in a lull in the music, stares wild-eyed at his own reflection, battered, bruised, broken, and beautiful. Harley said that when he dances he turns into an angel, and Peter sees it now, the otherworldly glow that dancing gives him.

Then the music pushes on, pressing him forward and he falls on his knees, the counts of floorwork giving him an opportunity to center himself again before he stands, preps, and turns, spiralling his leg up in the air and down again.

He’s about to fouette into the second set of pirouettes, but on the plie, he catches Harley’s gaze, burning brighter than Peter has ever seen it before. He stumbles, his weak ankle gives out, something cracks, and he falls again to the floor, staring up at the ceiling, defeated.

“Do you still think I dance like an angel?” he asks, feeling Harley kneel next to him.

“The most beautiful angel of them all.” Harley places tender hands on his leg, carefully probing and watching Peter’s reactions. “I think your ankles broken.”

“You’re probably right.” For some reason, he begins crying, quiet sobs of vulnerability, which hurts more than the physical pain. “Do you mind leaving me alone?”

Harley falters. “You need help.”

“FRIDAY will call someone, but I need a moment alone. Please?” Peter looks up at Harley, reaches out a trembling hand to caress the other boy’s face.

At Peter’s touch, Harley concedes. “Okay,” he murmurs, getting to his feet. “I mean it, you know. Every word I said.”

“I know,” Peter replies, and he does. Some people are hard to read, but Harley’s truth is written all over his face. “Maybe one day I’ll believe it.”

“One day,” Harley echoes. “I’ll see you around, Peter.”

Peter says nothing, merely giving the boy a weak smile. Harley flashes one back before finally leaving, letting the door hiss shut behind him.

Alone in the studio, Peter breathes easier, but at the same time feels the oppressive weight of some grief settle on his shoulders. Remorse, regret, guilt, goodbyes: they all pile on him, pinning him under their burden.

Farewell. It feels like a farewell.

+ O N E

In many ways, it was a farewell. It’s been a year since the incident in the Compound’s studio when Peter broke his ankle. It’s been a year since Peter has talked to Harley any more than bland small talk at team dinners and the one time they ran into each other in the hallways of one of Tony’s charity galas. Peter doesn’t remember much about it, couldn’t say what they talked about, but he remembers the heartbreak that flashed across Harley’s face when he first laid eyes on him.

It’s been a year since Peter last danced.

At first, he took time off to heal, partly because a broken ankle healing in less than a week would look extremely suspicious, but also partly because he did need to heal, emotionally as well as physically. A two-month-long break turned into a six-month-long break, and when Peter returned to NYU for his sophomore year, he changed his major.

There’s more to his year-long sabbatical from dance than an injury. There’s a history of doubt, of self-loathing, of feeling like dance was simultaneously what he was meant to do and what he wasn’t born to do. There’s a history of dancing for other people instead of dancing for himself, and the moment he decided to do something for himself, he stopped dancing. For Peter, having danced nearly his entire life, not dancing feels like he’s missing a piece of himself, a piece of himself he’s been trying to grow back with limited success.

He wonders if he’ll ever be able to dance again. He doesn’t even know if he wants to dance again.

It’s winter in New York City. It’s cold and windy and snowing and cruel, but Peter finds himself walking through Times Square because he’s tired and numb and thinks that maybe if he stands in the brutally cold air in the middle of a crowd, he might feel a little less alone, a little less dead, might feel a little something at all.

Something at all comes in the form of a piano and a voice and hazy memories of a childhood spent dancing in his bedroom with the CD player on full volume. Peter walks through the crowds until he finds the source, a girl his age playing a keyboard and singing gently into a microphone as people passing by drop spare change in the cup on top of the keyboard. As people jostle him in their haste to keep up with the pace of the world turning, closes his eyes, Peter stands still, closes his eyes, and listens.

And then he begins to dance.

In his jeans and boots and knitted beanie, jacket and scarf discarded on the dirty city street, he dances. His body remembers what his mind wants to forget, so he lets himself move to sweet, sad chords and the voice of a girl who smiles at him once in between the chorus and the second verse. She knows what it feels like to fall out of love, out of love with yourself. She hopes he will fall back in love.

When the song ends, the small crowd that formed around them claps. The singer stands and takes Peter’s hand, her cold hand frigid enough to be felt through Peter’s glove. He squeezes it tightly as they bow, laughing and breathless, and Peter’s trying not to cry because the tears will freeze to his face.

The crowd disperses when they straighten up and the girl goes back to her piano with one last smile at Peter. One person remains, the bundle of Peter’s discarded clothing tucked under his arm as he claps a few more times. Peter watches him as lifetimes of repressed memories and emotions flood him, and when Harley catches his eye and smiles, that same smile Peter fell in love with in every lifetime before and will continue to love in every lifetime after, it’s impossible not to cry.

A familiar warmth envelopes Peter, as he sobs, and dimly he registers Harley’s own tears falling into his hair. “Harley,” he says. “Harley, it’s you.”

“It’s me.” Harley pulls back and cups Peter’s wind-bitten face in his warm, gloved hands. “And Peter, it’s you.”

There’s a story behind those words. It’s a story of a boy who loved to dance, who danced for others because it filled the holes in their hearts but ripped his own heart to shreds. It’s the story of a boy who, on a windy winter day danced in the middle of Times Square, who stitched together the remaining pieces of his heart with the chords of a forgotten song, who spun silk patches to fill in the gaps with the language of a forgotten art.

It’s a story that doesn’t end with a happy ending but a hopeful one because there, that day, with the wind and Harley’s arms encircling him, that boy was reborn.

#harley keener #peter parker #spider-man #parkner #harleypeter #dancer peter parker #may parker #ben parker #tony stark #ned leeds #ballet #angst #hurt/comfort #5+1 #5+1 fic #bella writes

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swanlake1998 · 4 years

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(cw: blackface, racism, orientalism)

dance magazine article - article author: dana nichols

“On Instagram this week, Misty Copeland reposted a picture of two Russian ballerinas covered head to toe in black, exposing the Bolshoi's practice of using black face in the classical ballet La Bayadère.

The post has already received over 60,000 likes and 2,000 comments, starting a long overdue conversation.

Comments have been pouring in from every angle imaginable: from history lessons on blackface, to people outside of the ballet world expressing disbelief that this happens in 2019, to castigations of Copeland for exposing these young girls to the line of fire for what is ultimately the Bolshoi's costuming choice, to the accusations that the girls—no matter their cultural competence—should have known better.

I am a black dancer, and in 2003, when I was 11 years old, I was dressed up in blackface to perform in the Mariinsky Ballet's production of La Bayadère.

I fell in love with ballet at an early age. I remember watching my cousin's ballet class transfixed by the effortlessness of a grand allegro combination.

This was my first exposure: seeing the art form capture and elevate the beauty of my cousin's black body.

I spent the next 12 years studying classical Russian ballet at the Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet in Los Angeles.

Because our teacher refused to speak English, I grew accustomed to having a feel for what was being said, but at the same time, no idea. I really learned ballet, abstracted from the context of American history and culture.

All importance was placed on movement quality and the technique. The wall that separated ballet from the real world in my mind began to crumble when I was selected to be a child extra in the Mariinsky's performance of La Bayadère.

When ballet companies tour, they can't bring minors with them, so they find young dancers locally to fill roles in their ballets. When the Mariinsky came to Los Angeles, they tapped our studio to participate.

As students secluded in the world of Russian ballet, the chance to dance in La Bayadère was a dream came true.

We would be feet away from superstars like Diana Vishneva, watching from backstage as they danced under the stage lights and amidst the most intricate sets and costumes our hearts could imagine!

Somewhere deep in the Hollywood complex of the Kodak Theatre, we learned an angular dance in second position.

We hopped around with flexed feet, waived our arms and periodically folded into kowtows. In hindsight, it's obvious that we were performing caricatures of the "Orient." I don't even think it occurred to me that La Bayadère was set in South Asia because everyone was white—until dress rehearsal. Our preparations were overseen by women designated to coordinate the child extras and interpret for us.

Our parents were not allowed backstage. They fitted us in dark unitards with hoods to cover everything except our faces. Later, the makeup artist instructed us on how to apply our makeup. She handed each of us a palette of dark brown grease paint, pausing to do a double take after she handed me mine. It wasn't until I received all of the pieces of my costume—a mahogany colored bodysuit, dark brown face paint and bright red lipstick—that I discovered I was to wear blackface.

I must have been the only dark-skinned person to have been in a Mariinsky production. The women in charge weren't sure what to do with me. I saw the white dancers around me covering themselves in the brown paint and distinctly remember being at a loss for words because it was so bizarre. It was especially the red lipstick traced around the mouth that disturbed me. I remember looking down at the paints and trying to figure out what they had to do with me. All I could manage to say was, "Do I need this?"

I became that thing in the room that no one had ever had to confront.Our chaperones exchanged glances and finally responded with an uncomfortable "Yes." One woman laughed nervously as she indicated that I still had to wear the makeup because my brown skin was many shades lighter than the color of the bodysuit and the paint selected to cover our skin.

Of course, it was quickly forgotten in a production of this magnitude involving hundreds of people. During dress rehearsal, I found out that we were not the only characters that had been darkened. Many had on light brown paint on their arms and faces. The experience was jarring, but I compartmentalized it a way even later that night as I scrubbed my face raw trying to get the paint off.

Only years later did it dawn on me that I had played a primitive Indian caricature. I don't think any of us really understood. Even as a black girl who grew up in a segregated Los Angeles, with some cultural awareness, I didn't do much better than the girls in Copeland's post. I had even seen the movie Bamboozled, but my real racial awakening and then subsequent outrage, began much later, around age 15 after reading Assata. Until then, I lived in ignorance, accepting the discomforts in exchange for access to the art form I loved.

Around the age of 17, by the time my dance peers were beginning to commit to conservatory programs and full-time pre-professional tracks in ballet, I was fully immersed in issues of diversity and social justice. Ballet had my heart, but by then I knew that the magic couldn't cover up its ugly contortions of body, beauty and culture.

I watched as dancers of all kinds were silenced and diminished. In my 20s I found refuge in the world of black modern dance, a place where many fallen ballerinas can be found.

I understand Copeland's frustrations. This ballet, and many others, are set in mythical ballet worlds, where people of color are dehumanized into caricatures for white enjoyment, to be seen, made to dance, but not heard.

It could not be more ridiculous to have a young black girl (or anyone) wear blackface to depict dark South Asians, as they were imagined by nineteenth-century French, Russian and Georgian choreographers.

Yet the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky still use blackface in their productions today.

Even without the black and brown face in La Bayadère, the setting, the characters, their Indian "inspired" garb and much of the music and movement are prime examples of orientalism.

So many classic works of art, literature and performance are tainted by the attitudes of the era in which they were born—dance is particularly evocative as it is real-time reenactment.

So do we kiss the off-color ballets goodbye—including America's favorite, The Nutcracker? Or do we just modernize them, as many have already begun to do?

Truth be told, La Bayadère is one of my favorite ballets. The Shades act embodies the spirit of ballet.

In my opinion, the best part of ballet is its otherworldly qualities—the interpretations of spirits and reveries, the manifestations of creatures, swans, etc.

The more theatrical village and party scenes that are full of colorful caricatures serve as a contrast to make the ethereal that much more powerful, but they don't need to be offensive to accomplish that.

Nor does ballet need to exclude people of color in order to achieve the ethereal. In 2019, there is no need for a perfectly uniform lily-white corps de ballet.

We need new mythical worlds, new characters and stories—made of the imaginations of different kinds of people. Ballet is the same as any other field with institutional racism.

We can express outrage at the players: those two Russian girls, the makeup artists, the costume designer, or even me and any other complicit party.

But as Copeland's original caption guided us to do, we must be critical of the whole system, too. Petipa had a good run. Thank goodness Copeland is using her platform to begin the dismantling process.””

[ https://www.pointemagazine.com/i-am-a-black-dancer-and-was-dressed-up-in-black-face-to-perform-in-la-bayadere-2641583903.html - article date: december 12, 2019 ]

#article #dana nichols #ballet #dance magazine #dancemagazine #racism #blackface

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mysticseasons · 6 years

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IDC - SAM CHOUINARD: FROM DANCER TO CHOREOGRAPHER AND BEYOND

IDC: Introduce yourself to the skating fans – when did you start dancing? What styles of dances are you specialized in?

SC: Hi, my name is Samuel Chouinard. I’m from the south shore of Montréal and I’m 29 years old. I started as a dancer when I was 13-14 as I was very energetic, so I needed to find something that was going to keep me focused. I tried a bunch of sports like gymnastics, swimming, fencing, karate, and then I tried dance. I loved it so much, and it’s the only thing that kept me interested. I started with funk, jazz, and hip-hop. When I was starting to be the best in my dance studio and I wanted to have more formation and other teachers, I went to Montréal and started to train there. I got onto a dance team. We started to win a lot of competitions around the world, and then I wanted to be more known as Samuel the dancer and not someone within a group, so I detached myself from the dance crew and started to do some auditions as a solo dancer.

I did this wish list that I do for everything I work on in my life: dance with an artist, dance in a major arena, dance in different countries, dance in a movie, dance in a music video, dance in a television show… and I accomplished all of them. So after I checked off all my wish list as a dancer, I wanted to have another challenge and thought I’d like to choreograph. I went into the choreography world, started to do some shows, and did this wish list again: choreograph for an artist, choreograph for something different than dance, choreograph for something major, go to the Olympics. We won gold and I was super happy.

IDC: What projects outside skating are you involved in?

SC: One other things that was on my list was Cirque du Soleil and not long after, here I am, working on a show, and I’ve been proposed 2 new shows again. It’s really cool, I love it so much. The next thing I’d like to do is to have my own show, to have my own concept, and again in 4 years have 1, 2, 3 at the top of the podium at the Olympics.

I’m also working with some cheerleading and synchronized swimming teams. I also opened an escape room on the south shore and will soon open one in Québec. I teach hip-hop at the dance school where I started and I’m planning to buy it and make it so skaters can come and train in a dance studio.

IDC: Coming from the dance floor world, how did you become involved with figure skating, and with the Gadbois center in particular? Tell us about how your collaboration started and about your first steps on the ice.

SC: I was introduced to the figure skating world 5 years ago, with Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who were looking for a dance teacher outside of the ice who could teach some hip-hop moves to their skaters so they would have a better feel of the music and get more dynamic with their moves. Daria, who is a ballet teacher at Gadbois, was my ballet teacher as well and she referred them to me.

After this, I started to work with some of the teams and Marie really liked the work that I was doing with the skaters, so she asked me if I could help her with Battle of the Blades. At that time, Marie France and Mathieu Dandenault were competing there and they had a hip-hop week. This was the first time I was working on a bigger show for ice dance. This number brought them back to the top two, and after that, I worked with them in the following weeks. It was really cool. From there, Joannie Rochette saw the work I had done and called me to see if I could work with her for an upcoming tour in Japan. After Joannie, Tessa (Virtue) and Scott (Moir) called and asked me whether I wanted to work with them. I didn’t know who they were, so I Googled them and I was like, “WHAT! Yes, I want to!” I started to work with them and do some workshops and hip-hop off-ice, and they asked me to choreograph for their Stars on Ice performances. The last 4 years, I’ve been working with them preparing for the Olympics. I did the Prince program [2016-2017 short dance] with Marie-France and Moulin Rouge [2017-2018 free dance] this year. Now I’m choreographing with all the teams at Gadbois, from 9-10 countries, and I’m also teaching and choreographing for Les Suprèmes senior and junior teams in synchronized skating.

IDC: What’s the most challenging part about translating movements from the floor to the ice? How does what you plan off-ice change once you try to recreate the choreography on the ice?

SC: The biggest challenge I had was to understand inertia. In dance, we can just stop and turn and go to the other direction, so the first choreographies I was doing for skating had too many stops in them. I really figured out that the thing that looks best on ice is the glide and the flow and to go fast, so this was a challenge. Even though I wasn’t skater, I started to skate 5 years ago, so I was able to understand how I wanted them to move and I could show it with my fingers. The skaters were so professional that they could do it right away. I first choreograph the upper body and then we go on ice to play. I am on the ice following them and just trying to do what feels right. They know so much about their sport, so they were helping me a lot at the beginning as well. I learned so much. After I started to be at the higher level, I did my research. I knew I needed to learn about this world that wasn’t mine, so I watched the Olympics, all the other competitors and tried to know what was already done and who people were. I think now we are changing the game and making people understand that we can bring ice dance somewhere else and make it fresh and new. Dance and skating are two different worlds, but it’s the same thing at the same time, so that was the challenge for me.

IDC: What are the steps of the creation process for each program (from the first steps on the floor to what we see in competition), and how is the creative dynamic between you, the coaches, and the skaters?

SC: The first step is to select the song. Usually, the skaters suggest two to three song choices and we sit with Marie and decide what would be the best and also with the other teams, so that it doesn’t look all the same. But the skaters have to be happy with their choice, because they are going to be the ones doing it the entire season. After that, we create in our head the pattern of where all the elements should be with the music. Marie-France and Patrice imagine the music and say “this should be an element, this is where we should place this,” and then we know where the dance should fill between two elements. She creates the elements and I complete the elements to make it more dancey and to fit more with the music, and I work with the beginning and the ending. In the first steps after they select the song, we go in the dance studio and we throw a lot of moves, then we place them on ice, [but] they may not be all together. We may cut and place different parts, but it’s super easy with Marie-France. We have such a good dynamic. Like with Nathan Chen, he came for 3 days and after that, the program was done. Now it’s just fine-tuning it, but he has everything. When he’s going to come back, we’ll see how it has evolved and the speed and what can we take out and tighten up. The skaters trust us completely. They do what we ask them and if there is something uncomfortable, they manifest it, but we’re pretty good to see it, so if it doesn’t feel right, we change it.

IDC: Your influence is clearly visible on many of the programs from the Gadbois teams, yet you manage to create something unique and different for everyone. How do you manage to come up with original ideas every time and to adapt to the style of each team?

SC: First of all, it’s the music. The music tells me what to do, so it’s always different because the music has its own language. Also, all couples move so differently and have different energy and dynamics, so I feed off this, so they look the best doing what I give them. It all starts with my choreography on me, but after this I fix it on their body so it looks custom made for them. I don’t want to have the same moves. Sometimes you see when choreographers or coaches do many programs, some of the elements are the same, the patterns are the same. One thing that helps me is that each day I have to choreograph something new, so I’m always in this creative mood and it’s easy for me to deliver something new very quickly. I also have no problem to look at something and take it out if it doesn’t feel right. Some people sometimes stick with their first idea and I think it’s pretty stupid. You have to be flexible.

IDC: Which short dance pattern have you enjoyed working on so far, and what do you think of the tango for the next season?

SC: Of course the hip-hop was really my thing. It was so cool because I was taking the skaters out of their comfort zone and bringing them into my world a little bit more, but I think we did a pretty good job. I love tango, it’s one of my favourite dances to do off-ice. I took some classes and I think it’s going to be really cool. I love contemporary as well. I like that it’s different every year.

IDC: What are your favorite programs that you have choreographed so far?

SC: It’s really hard to say. I give my all to all the programs and they all have a special place in my heart and a special energy. That’s what I like the most. When I go to Gadbois and work with the skaters and I see the couples back to back, they are such different worlds. It’s really refreshing and inspiring for me. I love to do different stuff.

IDC: Virtue and Moir won the Olympics last season with the program you choreographed to music from Moulin Rouge. Did you imagine this happening and how did you feel?

SC: That’s just surreal. Watching the Olympics from Montréal and seeing your stuff on a worldwide television platform…it’s something very big. I was very proud, but so nervous at the same time, even though I wasn’t performing. I was sitting on the edge of my seat and I feel like I stopped breathing at some point. It was so close to Gabby and Guillaume, who are amazing as well, so we just didn’t know until the end. I love doing what I do and I enjoy it so much, we put so much love into it. This is just the perfect recipe to bring it to the best. Plus, they believe in us and we believe in them, and the energy at the rink is amazing. Perfect recipe, perfect family, perfect environment to work in to create. If people would have told me, “Would you think you one day would win the Olympics?” I would be like, “eh…,” but of course I like to think the best and aim high. I believe you can do anything when you focus and want it and put your energy into it.

I also went to Stars on Ice to see “You Rock My World” that I choreographed for Tessa and Scott. It’s a huge wave of love that they receive. They are very privileged and they know it. The first time they did the tour, they started to cry because they had a standing ovation at the beginning of Moulin Rouge. It’s crazy to see how much people love that piece. I receive a ton of messages on Instagram. People recreate the piece and send me the video of them doing it or people tell me that they stopped dancing before, but now they want to start dancing again because of that program, or they tell me that I gave them the passion for skating. It’s really special and inspiring. It makes me realize that I’m doing the right thing.

IDC: What are your plans for next season? Who are you going to choreograph with, and are you going to work with any of the new teams joining the school?

SC: At the moment I’ve been here at the Cirque a lot, but Marie left me a couple of spaces in the programs to come and work and play and add some stuff. I’m very excited to see the skaters because I miss them, but I invited them to see the Cirque show and I’m excited for this. I’m going to work with the new couples and all the couples from last year—Madi and Zach, Caro and Shane, Marjorie and Zachary, etc.

My next on-ice project is that Marie-France and I are artistic directors and choreographers for the Thank You Canada tour. It’s not like Stars on Ice. It’s going to be very different and fun, involving live musicians, dancers on a platform, off-ice, etc.

IDC: You also choreographed for pairs and men (Stephen Gogolev, Nathan Chen). Tell us about those experiences and what you found different from ice dance.

SC: This year, Nathan Chen wanted to work with us, which is amazing, because he’s really cool. He’s a hard worker and he is a good technician. He’s good artist too, but he’s missing some more dance stuff, so I think it’s a good combination with me and Marie-France. The program is done and it looks really cool. I’m excited. It’s something that people are going to talk about for a long time.

With Stephen Gogolev, I did his show program. Also, Shoma Uno came last year and I’m going to work with him again this year. It’s a completely different vibe with a singles skater. You need to be able to keep the attention on you and make it interesting and dance big. They are so good, so it’s easy to make them look good. That’s something I liked because it’s a different playground.

For the pairs, we need to work more. I don’t like that they have a long preparation for the elements, I hate to see 3-4 seconds. Can’t we cut it a little? The pairs are also very rigid, they have less flow in the upper body and are very square. That’s some work we need to do, but we can do anything when we train and when we want it. I love new challenges. I need to do different stuff and that’s why I’m invested in so many projects, so that there’s no day that it’s the same. I need to keep it fresh to keep it exciting. Everyday I’m super excited to start my day, because I couldn’t ask for a better job than this. It’s actually not a job, it’s just fun.

IDC: If you were a skater, what discipline would you skate and what music/routines would you choreograph for yourself?

SC: Ice dance for sure! It would be something contemporary and emotional. I love a good story. Moulin Rouge would have been something I’d loved to do for myself. I’m very into storytelling, so it would be for sure a story, something sung by a guy. Right now I’m listening to Dermot Kennedy a lot. It’s a good mix between the big hip-hop hits and something more melodic. I’d like to suggest it even just for a show or just for fun.

IDC: Which female skater would you pick as your partner?

SC: As for the partner… Oh man…

[silence…]

IDC: Marie-France?

SC: Marie-France is fun. We dance together some times. I love her so much and I’ve learned so much from her. Ah! It’s so hard. I don’t want to say it because it’s going to be written. They all have something special. but I would say Tessa because… because. And then Madi dances so well, and Olivia… Caro is so good as well, but I think with Madi, Olivia, and Tessa, we communicate well and it would be easy to work with. Right now, we are planning some dance things on- and off-ice with Madi, Gabriella, and I. We are going to do a little dance video in the city, and I’m going to choreograph something for them. I like to show that the skaters can do other stuff too. They can dance off-ice too.

IDC: Do you have anything else to add?

SC: I’m open and very excited to meet new dancers from other countries. I would encourage every skater if they want to bring me over there to give seminars. I would be interested because I want to share what I know for the next generation. I don’t like competition and I know it’s a very competitive world, but for me it would be so much better if everyone would be in the same community and share and be inspired by everybody. It’s better than it was before, the Nancy Kerrigan times. At Worlds, I felt like it was so cool to see all friendships coming from the same dance school. It was the first time you saw something like with Madi and Gabriella. I would encourage all the skaters to take dance classes. Sometimes I teach a seminar and ask if people took dance classes before and when I see people that don’t. It’s called “patinage artistique” for a reason: “patinage,” you do but “artistique,” it’s an even longer word and you don’t dance? Besides that, just Montréal rocks!

#Samuel Chouinard

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ellamishan · 3 years

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more research: BDD help targeted to dancers

This is an article I found on dancespirit.com called “Real Talk About How Body Dysmorphia Affects Dancers” and I thought the information was really interesting as well as beneficial for dancers to hear in a really non confronting but informative way, using well known dancers in the industry and their experiences to make the reader feel less isolated in this disorder:

What Is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, BDD is defined as "an obsession with an imaginary defect in physical appearance or an extreme concern with a slight physical blemish, which other individuals may not even recognize." As opposed to more general body image issues, BDD is characterized by a fixation on a specific part (or parts) of the body.

Body dysmorphia may manifest in different ways depending on the individual, but many, many dancers suffer from some version of it. In fact, a study conducted in 2012 found that BDD is more prevalent in dancers than the general population.

Why Are Dancers Specifically at Risk?

Josh Spell, a former dancer and a mental health consultant for Pacific Northwest Ballet, isn't surprised by those research findings. "This standard of the thin body as a dance ideal has been passed down from generation to generation," he says. "It's definitely the Balanchine model, those long legs."

Dancers spend hours every day scrutinizing their bodies in the mirror. Tights, leotards, and revealing costumes only increase the likelihood of fixation on "imperfect" body parts. The competitive spirit of the industry can exacerbate the situation, leaving dancers of all shapes and sizes—as BDD can affect everyone, regardless of weight—feeling like they'll never measure up.

How Can BDD Be Treated?

"With body dysmorphia, it's not something that you can take a magic pill for and it goes away," says choreographer, actor, and singer KayCee Stroh, known for playing Martha Cox in the High School Musical trilogy. "From a very early age, I remember looking in the mirror and then at the girls next to me and realizing, 'Oh, wow, they're all like knees and elbows and really gangling. Is that normal? Is that what I'm supposed to be?' "

As she continued to pursue dance, Stroh's battle with body dysmorphia worsened, as did her struggles with anorexia and bulimia. She became obsessive, constantly worrying about specific body features or trying to change them, whether through extreme dieting or exercise. It took Stroh many years to be able to identify what exactly she was battling.

Ultimately, for Stroh, the key to healing was therapy. And that's true for many dancers dealing with BDD. "Mental health professionals are trained in recognizing these maladaptive thoughts or negative thoughts," Spell says. "This is just part of your overall wellness. Just like we go to physical therapy, we can go to mental therapy. I want that to be normalized."

https://www.dancespirit.com/how-body-dysmorphia-affects-dancers-2647095659.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

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aclockworkfilmsnob · 6 years

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I went out with my droog and saw the stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange and it was really really gay and at first I thought it was because I was drunk but then Alex and Georgie started kissing and I was like "WHAAAAAAA" but yeah whatevs 6/10 it was alright, entertaining as fuck for clockwork orange fans but it doesn't re introduce a story in a way to be inviting for new audiences. Not even joking when I say Pete was one of the best parts because he was given so much flamboyancy and character, he was more energetic and animated than he was in either the book or film and the actor who played him was out of this world and hilarious. Georgie was the one who lacked any real character in this one and was only really used to push some kind of gay agenda that didn't have as effective a payoff as I wanted it to, but I guess I appreciated them doing stuff differently. Also he's heavily implied to have been in an abusive relationship with Alex, and this does SORT OF give him something of intrigue in the story, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel a little forced. Expand on it more and I think you have a great, and pretty provocative sub plot.

Mr. Deltoid was integreated in to the story well and he's given a lot of good comedic moments, but his introduction was forced and some lines of exposition he delivers is really out of place and kind of lazy. Believe it or not this play is actually MORE on the nose than the book and the film, and on one hand I appreciate that they had a sense of self awareness to them when adapting this story to the stage, but I feel as though it could have been presented in a more inspired and interesting way. The Prison Chaplain was alright but he didn't have that extra dimension of implied creepy pervert that made him so interesting originally, and Dr. Brodsky much like Deltoid came off as a bit too much of an exposition dump.

All of the F. Alexander stuff is pretty meh… the rape scene is very swift and isn't nearly as disturbing or uncomfortsble as it is in the film, nor is it even as funny or exciting, it just kind of happens. And his return in the third act also left me lukewarm, they sort of throw away his sympathy of being a crippled, broken man for the sake of a few jokes.

Dr. Branom was changed drastically by being in the story longer and even given something of a "character arc" which added to the idea of morality being an illusion very well. But Alex himself is really more of an unlikable punk than a well rounded character, the actor who played him was phenomenal (I just have to say it, every actor did a perfect job bringing this thing to life) but I could see first time viewers watching this and not really finding any reason to latch on to him emotionally.

It was interesting to have every actor be male, especially in playing female roles (which was not established well for people watching it for the first time, there were some characters I knew they were trying to portray as female but first time audiences could have easily missed) but it could be distracting when most of them are playing multiple roles with not much wardrobe change. It was an interesting Stylistic choice to have more than the droogs wear suspenders, but man I could see that confusing the fuck out of people who don't know the story by heart. Especially when the actors who played Pete, Georgie, and Dim are wearing an eerily similar getup, acting violently, and not given much set up in the scene, I can see people thinking that they were actually Alex's droogs. Also, a HELL of a missed opportunity to have actors play multiple roles, and not have the same actor play Deltoid and Frederick. The parallel is so clear in the film to the point where it's thematically brilliant.

I definetly have a big complaint in a lot of the balletic dance sequences. Of course I'm all for choreographing ultraviolence to look cool and stylistic, and for the most part they succeed at that, but my bog does it ever feel like it only exists to be showy and cool. They're so big, bombastic, and stylized, yet their purpose is so minimal in the plot and emotional flow. The billy-boy fight scene was good, and actually manifesting Alex's Dream in the hospital into one of these dance sequences was a brilliant idea but I don't think it was utilized to its full potential (I.E. having not much to do with what's actually going on in his gulliver for about 80% of it).

The music choice was rather odd. I liked it in concept, it's mostly very modern tackling a myriad of different music genres, all of which appeal to edgy teenagers and that kind of serve the overall ideals well. But I could see this dating very quickly. If this play was preformed 40 years from now with the exact same soundtrack I kind of get the feeling that it would be made fun of for how stuck in the 2010's it is, which is unfortunate for two source materials that are so timeless. The very few times Beethoven is utilized it harmonizes beautifully, it never feels forced or inserted just because it has to be there, it actually elevates the on stage action fantastically. But maybe they felt this had to stand on its own, and while I respect that greatly, I do feel it suffered in quality as a result.

Sound mixing on the other hand, phenomenal. I could slooshy the moans very realistic, like it was made in Hollywood. Speaking of which, the ludovico technique scene is pretty good, with Alex's glazzies being held open by human hands instead of lidlocks, it was very off putting in its own right and overall it worked, even though Alex's actual reactions could have been paced more smoothly.

The lighting was so beautiful and it manages to make every scene visually interesting, I was entranced by this aspect alone.

Honestly, as a hardcore fan of A Clockwork Orange, there was never a real dull moment for me in this play, I was laser focused the whole time and I was absolutely never bored. But that's because my love for the story is an obsession to put it lightly, and I will always be interested in different ways of interpreting it. More than a few beers with a good friend and nearly 100 dollars later, I'd say it was a night well spent, but this is NOT the next big thing for ACO, despite its popularity growing larger than I expected. It really doesn't push the envelope in the way the book and film did, besides the homosexuality stuff, which offered an admittedly interesting angle with some great ideas, but it never really stuck out by the second half. If for whatever reason the show returned to NYC in the future, I don't think I'd see it again, not unless I like won free tickets on a radio contest or something. But seeing a new take on one of your all time favorite stories is always interesting and overall I'd say it was worth seeing for curiosity sake.

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museemagazine · 7 years

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#WHM Rineke Dijkstra

We’ll be tapping our incredible archives in support of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day and posting interviews from our Women issue throughout the month of March.

Rineke Dijkstra rehearsals

For The Gymschool, you filmed students from a Russian Olympic School. When did you first learn of this school and what initially fascinated you about it?

In 2014, I was invited to participate in Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg and to create something new for it. A year earlier, I had worked on a project for the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. In collaboration with choreographer Ton Simons, I did a piece portraying dancers just before and just after a rehearsal. The video was incorporated into the choreography and became an integral part of the performance. That fueled my interest in working with dancers. So, the Manifesta invitation came at a good time. Russia has a long tradition of ballet. The idea of choosing rehearsals as my subject led me to a school for rhythmic gymnastics in St. Petersburg.

What do gymnastics and ballet represent to you?

Both gymnastics and ballet demand that you go to physical and mental extremes. Dancers and gymnasts have to keep pushing past their limits to reach a high degree of perfection. During a performance, everything has to look effortless, even though very often it isn’t effortless at all—both dancers and gymnasts have to suppress their true emotions. I wanted to make a portrait of a child rehearsing, to investigate the tension between ability and inability. For the video Marianna, also shot in St. Petersburg in the same period, I used three cameras to film a young girl rehearsing before an audition for a place at the prestigious Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, which focuses on training its students to perform in the Mariinsky Theatre. The girl has to keep rehearsing the same sequence over and over again. The teacher, who remains unseen, issues an uninterrupted flow of instructions, going on and on until it’s almost too much for the viewer to take: “Start over, one more time, smile, extend.” The film shows Marianna’s struggle with technique, but it also explores the question of whether she can still be herself under those circumstances. Is there really such a thing as a ‘self’ in the arts? That also makes the video a character sketch, a portrait. It was filmed with three cameras, so she’s often shown full length, but you can also see the telling details of her facial expressions.

In the video The Gymschool, I used two cameras simultaneously to film young gymnasts doing floor exercises. When I attended rehearsals at their school, it struck me that the children look almost like sculptures during certain movements—abstract sculptures, I mean, twisted into such strange positions that you can’t tell where the head is, or the arms. At the same time, those ‘sculptures’ look very different when you look at them from different angles. This installation was based on the idea of the human being as a sculpture—dehumanized in a sense, but also displaying very unusual aspects of being human.

How did you approach filming this project? Was it different from the way you approached your previous video works, The Krazyhouse and The Buzzclub?

For The Gymschool, I first attended a lot of lessons and rehearsals. Out of those experiences, I developed the idea, and then the form emerged in a more or less natural way. But new perspectives also presented themselves while I was filming. I like to make the process central to my work. If you make all the decisions in advance, it becomes tedious and predictable. For each of those projects—The Krazyhouse, The Buzzclub, and The Gymschool—I built a studio, a white box, where I could control the sound and light while I was filming. This approach also fosters a kind of concentration. The studios are always built on the location itself, so the subjects feel connected to their usual surroundings. By having them work inside this improvised studio, I create a space to open up possibilities—a place where things can happen.

Working on The Gymschool, I realized how I could use sound to emphasize their concentration. In The Gymschool, all you hear is the gymnasts themselves thumping, shuffling, and breathing. That heightens the sense of intensity.

Is there a connection between this work and The Krazyhouse and The Buzzclub, which are also about dance and performance? What kind of progression do these works represent?

For The Buzzclub and The Krazyhouse I did the same thing, building studios in the clubs, but I approached these projects from a different angle. For The Krazyhouse, I asked young people to dance to their favorite music. This led to a series of portraits of people surrendering to the music, losing themselves in it. In the process, they offer us glimpses of their personalities.

Showing the work in an exhibition space, The Krazyhouse takes the form of an installation. That’s a deliberate choice. Since the projected images move from wall to wall, the viewer becomes much more conscious of the space. You have to move along with the images. Meanwhile, the intensity mounts over time. The first girl, Megan, seems a little insecure as she moves along with music, while Philip, the next-to-last dancer, is effortlessly absorbed in the music for a full ten minutes, giving a stellar performance.

The Gymschool starts with an eight-year-old girl and ends with a twelve-year-old. What is the significance of their age?

The progression in age contributes to the structure of the film. Going from younger to older children, you can see their technique gradually improve. The video starts with an eight-year-old girl who has trouble keeping her balance as she lifts one leg out to the side. When she puts her foot back on the ground, it makes a loud thump. The video shows that by mastering their bodies and improving their technical skills, the girls achieve ever greater freedom, flexibility, and expressive capacity. The last girl is so accomplished that she’s painful to watch—almost like an insect shifting effortlessly and silently from one form to another.

How did you choose your subjects?

The process of casting is always fairly intuitive. I never choose the classical beauties. Instead, I look for personality and individuality.

To what extent did you direct your subjects in this project?

I try to work with what they do spontaneously and to give them as much freedom as I can. I like surprises, and in The Gymschool especially, they could do things with their bodies that I could never have imagined. You have to know in advance more or less where you're headed; but at the same time, you have to give ideas a chance to grow and leave room for whatever happens in the moment. Things never work when I have a fixed idea before starting a project. It’s always better to observe, to improvise, and to see what kind of possibilities show up.

What surprised you during the filming process? What did you learn from the time you spent filming these girls?

Their discipline and their physical capabilities. The seemingly laconic way they do exercises you didn’t even realize the human body was capable of.

Comparisons have been made between these works and your Beach Portraits, which also explore the confidence and vulnerability of youth. How do you feel you have evolved in these new works stylistically, conceptually, or otherwise?

In the Beach photos, The Gymschool, and Marianna, I paid very close attention to the poses and forms they adopted—the sculptural quality. In the case of the Beach Portraits, I always felt you should be able to walk around them. My special interests include abstract forms—the things people express with their bodies and isolation always plays a major role. When you keep the background simple, everything you show the viewer becomes important. You draw more attention to details that might go unnoticed in everyday life. But at the same time, your subjects become more abstract because you remove them from their everyday context.

Are there particular moments you look for that you try to emphasize with editing? What is your editing process like?

I used two cameras for filming, which recorded the same thing—one in a wide shot and the other in close-up. The basic idea of the project was to film the exercises from various angles—as if the children were sculptures—which you can view from different perspectives and in different manifestations. That makes the order of the images very important. The temporal sequence can help you build up a very special kind of suspense. There are eleven children in the film, shown roughly from youngest to oldest. It’s as if each one passes the torch to the next one, in a kind of relay race. You usually see the same girl on two or three screens at once, but sometimes there are two different girls. I edited the videos so that the difference is not always visible at first. There’s the tension between the moments when the girls seem almost drained of personality and the moments when they’re highly individual and strikingly unique. That tension is central to this work.

#whm #Womens History Month #Rineke Dijkstra

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talebearerqueen · 6 years

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Spanish Film Festival: Dancing Beethoven

Dancing Beethoven is a documentary about the preparation and hardworking process of ballet dancers and musicians for a unique spectacle in Tokyo that Maurice Béjart choreographed with the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. Béjart Ballet Lausanne dances with Tokyo Ballet and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Isreal. A marvellous combination of dancers’ movement and expression of different feelings along the four movements of the symphony with absolute elegance and strength.

Maurice Béjart originally choreographed with the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven 50 years ago and Gil Roman who danced in the original production with Béjart is leading Tokyo Ballet and Béjart Baller Lausanne with choreography and sets out to reimagine the monumental work for a new generation. Arantxa Aguirre documents the history of the piece, the dedication of the current dancers, and the complexity of a daunting multicultural collaboration between Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the Tokyo Ballet, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. The result is an exhilarating blend of music and dance.

Maurice Béjart’s compelling staging of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been enchanting audiences worldwide since its inception and its idea of universal brotherhood remains highly topical. “All men will be brothers” is the powerful message communicated by the unforgettable music and choreography. “It is the ‘manifestation’, in the deepest sense of the world.”

Dancing Beethoven is a very relatable documentary to performers of all kinds: musicians, dancers, directors and etc. It shows the hard work and effort that each dancers and choreographers put in the performance and rehearsals. Even with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel’s rehearsal. CONTROL was a big part on their side of the performance. No sound of instrument should stand out, all of the sound must blend with each other. Same instance with the choir of how they release their vocals during the performance, it should also be controlled. The coordination of the music and the dancers is extraordinary because dancing with live music is not easy. The dancers must time their movements with the music as well as the music who has to be perfect in the performance because every movement of the ballet relies heavily on the music that is played.

Malya Roman the one interviewing in the film asked Zubin Mehta “Since Beethoven was nearly deaf when he composed this, is this production sort of how Beethoven could’ve listened to the music he composed? By watching the dancer’s movements?” Zubin Mehta answered “That’s a great question, because yes it could be.”

Other than this film showing the work of performers and musicians, it also shows the story of how the performance came to be and the history of every movement and every note of the music. It shows the vision of Maurice Béjart on how the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven came life as a dance production. Every formation in the dance had a meaning, even the movements had meaning behind them. It takes so much artistic talent to choreograph based from music and have a whole production’s theme come from the music itself, because you have to dig deeper that what we just see in the surface, Furthermore, this version of the production displayed different cultures, and not just with the dancers but also with the musicians: French, Israeli, Japanese and there were also Colombians, Indians and etc. This production showed diversity in its cast and its performance.

Documentaries are beautiful in a way that it shows real life problems and raw emotions of people. This film was able to show exactly what they needed the story behind the success of their production, the behind the scenes of how the director directs his/her performers same goes with the conductor who conducts the music. This documentary can make dancers and musicians relate to what they’ve gone though just for a performance. Same goes with former dancers and former musicians. They show and tell you their thought process and how it comes alive. Through the performance it’s like they were trying to say “Listen with your eyes.” Because the true star in this performance is the music, even though Béjart had a different interpretation, it was his own version of how he saw Beethoven’s music. It makes you think about everything in the performance and that’s how everyone should truly look and reflect a performance. It takes an artist and an intellectual to form this kinds of art it is just beautiful and extraordinary.

Sources:

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6194934

https://www.filmlinc.org/films/dancing-beethoven/

https://www.euroarts.com/tv-license/6087-ninth-symphony-maurice-bejart

#beethoven #dance #dancing beethoven #béjart #art #review #spanish film festival

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traversetheatre · 6 years

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10 Questions – Tony Mills, Without a Hitch

This week, we welcome Room 2 Manoeuvre’s hip-hop dance theatre show Without a Hitch, which follows the downward spiral of a four-man breakdancing crew as ambition, jealousy and frustration manifest in a group struggling to move in the same direction.

Presented as part of a weekend of dance from 3 – 4 November by Dance Base and Traverse Theatre, Without a Hitch, features an international cast from Finland, Sweden and the UK. Ahead of the performance, we speak to Room 2 Manoeuvre’s Artistic Director Tony Mills about the performance...

(Photo: Tony Mills by Jorg Letz)

Tony Mills is Artistic Director of Room 2 Manoeuvre, and founding member of Edinburgh based dance companies Random Aspekts B-Boy crew and Cypher Dance. He is a keen ambassador for the breakdance scene in Scotland and, alongside an extensive portfolio that includes working with organisations such as Scottish Ballet, Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre and The Arches, has been involved in hosting dance events and touring work internationally.

(Image: Without a Hitch. Simon Beyer-Pederesen)

1) Starting with the obvious thing to ask, can you tell us a little bit about Without A Hitch?

Without a Hitch is the story of a fictional breakdance crew called the Rhythm Rascals. They are on the brink of winning a major competition, which could take things to the next level, but not everyone is happy with the direction they are taking. The show examines relationships and differing agendas with hip-hop dance, physical theatre and a funky soundtrack. It's the largest production we have done to date working with a bigger team of creatives including dramaturg Candice Edmunds, set designer Karen Tennent, Composer Danny Krass, lighting designer Grant Anderson and costume designer Megan Baker.

2) Can you tell us about how you got into break dancing? I studied at Edinburgh University and during my time there I started taking breakdance classes at Dance Base when it was at the Assembly Rooms under the tutelage of Allan Irvine. I got hooked immediately and ended forming a crew in 2001 called Random Aspekts.

3) Who had the greatest impact on your decision to become a dancer/choreographer? I think I can attribute it to a guy called Edward Kendall. I grew up in Orkney and had to stay in a hostel in Kirkwall when I started doing standard grades. We lived in dorms and the guy next to me was Edward. He was the first dude I saw do the running man at a school disco. I was like...’What's that?’ I started copying him and we ended up having this silent competition over a while where we would keep trying to come up with different variations of the move. We ended up getting circles going at school discos and that was really when the seed was planted. After I graduated from University, I was offered a job with a company called Freshmess and I began to see that you could earn a living from dance.

(Image: Without a Hitch. Brian Hartley)

4) Would you say your performances have a house style? If so, is that important for the storytelling? I would say that most of my work, so far, has been of the tragic comedy type. There is generally always a journey that the dancers/characters undergo. There is a feeling that they are somehow different at the end than at the beginning. This idea of journey is important to the storytelling. I like the audience to feel that they have gone somewhere or been through something also.

5) Do you let people have a lot of freedom in interpreting roles? To a degree, yes. As long as the motives of the character or point of the scene come across without too much delay, indulgence or anything that’s not really essential. I do try to encourage the performers to put a something of themselves into the role. If a performer is somehow invested and has some ownership of the role, it can create a stronger performance.

6) What’s been the most useful piece of dancing advice you’ve been given? The first is to have persistence. Whether you're trying to get a move down or sell a show, this is one of the most important traits to have. A lot of great artists have given up far too early and a lot of mediocre artists have gone on to achieve great things because they stuck at it. You gain experience, you get better and opportunities do eventually come your way but you have to keep doing it. The second is where is the joy? You can only stick at something if you enjoy it or if you think the rewards are going to be big enough. For me, the reward is the act of creating it, doing it, promoting it, touring it and giving people an experience. Every now and then you've got to ask yourself ‘where's the joy?’

(Image: Without a Hitch. Brian Hartley)

7) Do you have a favourite Edinburgh haunt?

When I'm not busy with a project, these days I can mostly be found training at Cross Combat gym in Tollcross. Like breaking, I've become hooked on jiujitsu and it's nice to find something new that is physically and mentally challenging. Under The Stairs is a favourite spot for meeting up for drinks and Spoon Cafe is my choice for working out of the home or office.

8) What’s been your most memorable dance or theatre experience?

When I was touring my first solo Watch iT! There was a scene where I did a duet with a TV (aye). The TV was set behind a cupboard on stage and I would disappear behind the cupboard. When we did a show at the Arches the technician misplaced setting the TV behind the cupboard, so the moment arrived where I’d use it in my piece and I was fiddling around behind the cupboard in the darkness trying to find this TV that isn't there. There was nothing to it but to improvise a 6/7 min solo that would have normally culminated in a very iconic image for the show. For that whole time, I felt like I was skating on thin ice, but nobody in the audience was any the wiser. This taught me a couple of things. If you don't look like you're having a problem on stage, then nobody really knows you're having a problem. Secondly, always check your own props no matter how many folk you have working for you. On the flipside, performing sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House was also pretty cool.

(Image: Without a Hitch. Brian Hartley)

9) What does your choreographic process look like?

Most projects will have a research phase developing broad strokes for the piece. This helps with direction when we get into the final creation phase. I always start a project with some improvisation and partnering work in the studio. This lets me get to know how the dancers move, what they like to do and allow them to get familiar with each other. After that, it will depend entirely on the project. I do have my toolbox of choreographic ideas that I’ve picked up and developed over the years. I'll either teach material or developed it through tasks and improvisation. This will lead to developing scenes or sections of movement. I'll then try to knit the sections together in a linear way that has a flow or follows a narrative structure. For Without A Hitch, I tried to incorporate the other creative aspects (set, sound, light, costume) much earlier in the process so they would feed into and influence the development of the work. A new project I’m working on, The Death of a Leaf, is about trying to break creative habits where I’m starting from zero with little to no plan and relying on instinct.

10) Finally, can you describe Without a Hitch in three words?

Worth watching twice.

Without a Hitch Fri 3 Nov, 7.30pm BOOK NOW

youtube

#Without a Hitch #Room 2 Manouevre #Dance Base #Traverse Theatre #Dance #hip-hop

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jill-chew-blog · 7 years

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Week 4

1. Isadora Duncan believed that the human soul is housed in the solar plexus, the spot between our ribcage. When we dance, the soul must project outwards to reach the audience, which in return will affect them in ways that they do not even realize. Isadora's movements are always projected from the chest, always wide and open. It stays true to her theory of dance being the manifestation of the soul. Her choreography is a kinesthetic experience, a sense of awareness of the body.

In my opinion, modern day contemporary choreographies are lacking soul. In a dance competition, choreographers emphasizes on tricks, the number of pirouettes, and flexibility to capture the audience and judge's attention. Choreographers mindlessly throw in aerials, backflips and scorpions to showcase a dancer's strength and flexibility, creating choreographies that look similar to each other. An example of a choreography that cleverly highlighted the dancers' strength without losing the essence of soul is 'If It Kills Me' choreographed by Travis Wall. Jeanine and Jason - If it kills me

2. In Hexentanz (Witch Dance), Wigman sits crossed legged and creates bizarre and eerie arm gestures which I think perfectly suits the title of the dance. After some research on the Net, I discovered that Wigman focused on bodily movement, and used minimal theatrical sets. She dances free from music, finding rhythm through the exploration of body movements before adding minimal music into her dance after. Therefore, in the Witch Dance, her movements led the music.

This was the same concept used by our group while choreographing the site-specific dance. We choreographed based on motifs and spatial awareness and chose our music after. However, we decided not to include any music in our end product as we felt that the music does not complement our movements.

3. In ballet terms, women are portrayed as feminine, graceful characters, with wide exploration of the dance space. In contrary to Graham's choreography, the sole dancer in the video was very immobile. The dancer was cladded from top to toe in a big piece of cloth while performing very abstract movements. Besides that, she was very immobile, only performing on a stool, which is another quality that differs significantly from ballet.

4. In The Green Table, Jooss made a clear of incorporating costumes and sets in the narrative, as is the case with ballet productions. However, most elements of ballet were eliminated, such as grace and elegance. Flexed wrists and feet, hyperextended arms and bending the body forward were uncommon steps in ballet, but in The Green table, they were used for its expressive value. Some dancers gestured with softer hand movements, which may symbolize a submissive politician. While on the contrary, some dancers made strong and clear arms movements, which may symbolize a dominant politician who headed most decision makings.

The political elements were made clear with the choice of music and choreography. When the politicians from both parties danced in unison, the music was softer and calmer, which I interpreted as a sense of mutual understanding and agreement. However, soon after, the politicians divided into their respective parties again and the choreography returned to its rougher movements and the music picked up pace to create intensity. The politicians may have conflicting and clashing opinions and are unable to settle with an agreement. This scene is realistic to modern day politicians.

5. Actions, repetitions and extensions were three key elements used in Passacaglia. I interpreted this dance piece as a story about authority, hierarchy and the Higher Power. When there is a contrasting action between a large number of dancers and the main dancers, it usually shows the differentiation between the leaders and followers. The followers were treated like slaves, always bowing to their leaders and even curling their bodies to form walkways for their leaders.

6. In Balanchine's modern pieces, he allowed bodies to move in ways that ballet wouldn't. Flexed feet, sway of the hips, different and unlimited arm movements were a few examples. His modern choreography is heavily influenced by ballet, but he always makes thing interesting by mixing it with modern steps.

In the video, one obvious example was the basic human mode of transportation - walking. However, the dancers walked in a very upright pose, with chin high in the air, which shows the aristocracy of ballet.

7. In Second Hand, the Cunningham played with directions. As quoted by Reynolds in the slide, Cunningham "attempted to radically erase and reconstruct movement memory". There was no sense of the 'front' in the piece (where most time is the audience). The dancers shifted directions mid-way through a phrase and focused on where their bodies were facing.

Most of the time, the dancers were dancing through the music, rather than in time with the tune of the piano. There were very subtle moments where the dancers were in time with the music. The dancers continued moving even though the music paused. Therefore, Cunningham may have adopted the Wigman's technique, of choreographing first and inserting a musical piece after. It is an idea where the dance and music can work independently while co-existing in the same time and space. The movements and music does not interrupt each other.

8. In Rainer's choreography, the quality of the movements are very stagnant. There is a lack of dynamic movements. The movements were not very technical as well. My interpretation on this choreography is about everyday life routines and everyday life people. The dancers were dressed in very casual wear and the movements weren't very technical.

9. The stage adopted a minimal setting, with just the bodies of the dancers occupying the space. I think that was suited for the dance from a storytelling point of view as the dancers moved frenziedly in the vast and unknown space. A red cloth was used to give a better understanding of the story. The dancer that had the red cloth was the chosen one, however not in a good way as the audience are so often told. The dancers threw the red cloth around, trying to get rid of it. At the end, a group of male dancers entered the stage and surrounded the chosen one, as she desperately tried to escape.

The lighting of the stage was constant throughout the piece. It casted shadows over the dancers' faces and bodies, creating a solemn look while accentuating the dancers' physique.

The movements were repetitive, all the while being in sync with the music. The dancers picked up pace as the music intensified and danced in unison when the music was strong and loud. The choreography and music were working together, in contrast with Wigman and Cunningham's choreography.

10. The speed of the choreography looks improvised, but in fact the patterns are meticulously planned out. Therefore, the choreography may seem very relaxed and comes easy and natural to the dancers. Every joint of the body is very connected in this piece. A dip of the shoulder would lead to a ripple in the torso and a swing in the arms or legs.

11. Lock's choreography is fearless and full of dynamics. The dancers leap in gravity-defying heights, twisting mid-air and crashing into the floor. Only to get back up and continue dancing with the same initial energy. There were gender-bending qualities in the dance as well. The female dancer was topless and even performed roles a male dancer are typically given. She lifted her partner, spun him around and tossed him in the air which requires a lot of power and strength.

12. Forsythe's choreography is the deconstructing of ballet. He challenges the notion of structure and correct usage by twisting and pulling the geometry of ballet. I saw influences of physical/experimental theatre as the dancers were physically challenged to create big and heavy movements.

This art work includes gender bending qualities as well. Instead of being a mere accessory to support his fellow partner, the male dancer was highlighted throughout the dance even when his partner was present on stage. Male dancers are often used as tools to accentuate his partners, and not given much time to shine during partner works. This common approach to choreography is being challenged and broken down as choreographers allow men to be expressive dancers and female to showcase their strength.

13. Hofesch Schecter - His choreography shares similarity with Pina Bausch's choreography. The subdued tone/lighting on stage, minimal settings, repetitive movements and group choreography as the music intensifies were common qualities in both choreographies.

Crystal Pite - Strong Language - NDT 1 - Crystal Pite was tutored under Forsythe and it comes as no surprise that her choreography is greatly influenced by Forsythe. Forsythe's use of physical/experimental movements were evident through the heaviness of each movement. The eerie and dark choreography also reminded me of Wigman's Witch Dance.

Emanuel Gat - The formation of the choreography is very similar to Trisha Brown's dance piece. A group of dancers would be on stage performing their own sequence of steps at a slow and relaxed pace.

Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (long version) - I could find influences of Forsythe in Wayne McGregor's choreography. Ballet is deconstructed into more bold and heavy movements. The body is in constant movement and is seldom at rest. McGregor and Forsythe both play with lighting and visual arts to enhance their choreography.

Anouk Van Dijk - A group of dancers were placed into a 'greenhouse' made out of clear windows. Therefore, they did not have a clear 'front' as they were surrounded by audience members, which is similar to Cunningham's choreography. Van Dijk's choreography was physically demanding in terms of strength and stamina, evidently portrayed through the dancers wildly swinging their arms around, climbing up pillars and increasing the intensity of their movements in time with the music. This could be a nod towards Lock's choreography.

Garry Stewart - 'Be Yourself' had the musicality from Graham's choreography, demands of strength and technique from Lock's dance piece and the bizarre and eerie gestures from Wigman's Witch dance. These 3 elements combined made up a very interesting and abstract dance piece. It was also a piece that explored the human body in unimagined ways as the dancers flopped, flipped and tumbled across the stage. The dance piece proved to be ambitious and complex.

14. For this question, I have chosen Garry Stewart's 'Be Yourself'.

'Be Yourself' is a physically demanding dance work. Dancers are required to have the strength and agility of a gymnast, acrobat, break dancer and contemporary dancer gelled together. The sounds that accompanied the dancers such as creaks, moans, taps, sawing, breaking, screeching and panting provided a humorous theme amidst the chaos.

Motifs were frequently used in this piece. Each dancer repeated different motifs under the spotlight. It remains unclear what the motifs represent from the video which only showcased highlighted clips from the whole production. Difference in speed was another key choreographic element. At one point, the dancers were dancing at a stop-start pace which coincided really well with the music.

The key motifs were the intense never-before-seen flips and tricks. The isolations of limbs and joints at a stop-start pace is also constant throughout the choreography.

Stewart took Lock's level of intensity and physical demand from the dancers' bodies to a whole new level because Stewart created flips and tricks that was never deemed possible until today. Besides that, the dancers in 'Be Yourself' were required to be musically precise in order for the choreography to take effect.

15. Throughout the years, the expectations of a dancer has been increased significantly. In the 21st century, dancers have a training routine that is every bit as rigorous as an athletes'. Besides that, dancers don’t just stick to dance. They are required to perform tricks like an acrobat or gymnast.

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warlordess · 7 years

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Champselyseeshipping (hope I spell right. If not: MistyxSerena) and prompt 52.

Just thought I’d point out (in case you haven’t noticed it yet) that I clearly don’t know wtf a drabble is. This shit ended up being almost 1500 words long. Wtf wtf wtf... I’m so dumb. But I wanted to do this adorable crack!ship justice!

OoO

Champselyseeshipping drabble:“Can I kiss you?”

“So you’re from Kalos, huh?” thered-haired gym leader asked curiously from the Cerulean Gym pool.“And you came here at the advice of your mentor to meet mysisters?”

“Ah, yeah! I was told it had alreadybeen pre-arranged between them that I would be able to come watchsome of the rehearsals for the latest underwater ballet that’sbeing produced here at the gym,” the petite honey-haired girlvisitor responded from just beyond the tile and cement rim, “I wastold it would be good training for me.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Misty said with anagitated huff, wiping a drenched tress of hair out of her eyelinebefore continuing, “Listen, uh, I’m sorry, what was your name?”

“Oh, sorry, I guess I forgot tointroduce myself to you. I… I was a little distracted by your, um…”the girl paused and nodded towards Misty’s odd(ly attractive)choice of swimwear; a red beaded necklace and bejeweled earrings,violet seashell bra, amethyst pearl hairband, and flowing emeraldgreen mermaid’s tail trailing behind her and floating in the water,complete with an ornate decorative starfish patch affixed on her leftthigh, before continuing, “… Anyway, my name is Serena,” sherevealed with a charming flush to her cheeks, “I guess, with anoutfit like that, you must be in the ballet too?”

“Yeah, my sisters always somehowconvince me to help them out with things like this. They’re nothere right now though. They left a little while ago and said theywouldn’t be back until late in the afternoon. So… sorry but Ithink they forgot you were supposed to arrive today.”

[read more]

“Oh… um…” Clearly at a loss forwords, Serena kneeled stiffly over the side of the pool, biting herlower lip, gaze averting left and then right, trying to figure outwhat her next move in this case would be.

“Um, your name is Misty, right? Do…do you mind if I just watch you practice until your sisters comeback? The next Queen Showcase season begins a month from now backhome and I really wanted to take advantage of every opportunity tolearn something new that could help me win!”

“The next…?” the redheaded gymleader tapered off at the rather unfamiliar sounding career path.“Well, I guess you could but… I’m not going to be doinganything special…”

Misty, not having planned to have suchan intimately small and captive audience, felt overcome with a waveof anxiety. She’d waited specifically for her sisters to leave forthe day before deciding to take the opportunity to practice her roleand ballet techniques… and now…

“Well, anyway…” she muttered in aflustered tone of voice as Serena retreated to a nearby bench to takea seat. Then Misty dived swiftly down into the water and rejoined thePokemon who were waiting for her to start them off.

Serena watched the redheaded trainertwirl around a Kanto Pokemon she loosely recognized as a Dewgong,grasping ahold of their front fins and drifting into a wide, sweepingbackwards dip, which ended in a floaty backflip.

By the time she’d righted herselfagain, her next dance partners had come to call. Two Luvdisc driftedover in her direction with lips locked and heart-shaped bodiesfluttering like a set of wings. They separated just as they finishedtheir introduction, swirling parallel around Misty, bubble streamsjetting out behind them and encircling the would-be mermaid in analmost ethereal, magical sequence.

Serena sat in awe for the next hour orso as the Kanto-based native went through the motions of her somewhatsolitary rehearsal. As unfamiliar as the Kalos performer was withone’s ability to act fluently underwater, she could still tell thatthe redhead was good at what she did. The most entrancing part of theentire private show was Misty’s ability to time her resurfacing forbreaths with multiple opportunities to engage with the audience.

When she was under the water, theredhead acted as though it were her own world, nothing else aroundher but murky blue depths and her Pokemon friends. Yet, when sheemerged, she would always catch Serena’s eye and perhaps wink,twirl under an aurora beam water arch combo that the Pokemon hadmanifested with their elemental prowess, and backflip underwater oncemore for another festive round with the other stars of her littleshow.

Serena was positively enthralled by themagnitude of the other girl’s skill, never mind that she’d madeit seem in the beginning as though she were going to endure a boorishchore.

“… Are you okay?” Misty begged ofher some time later between gulps of air.

Serena jumped as though she hadn’trealized the redhead had stopped performing and reappeared at theedge of the pool to stare out at her where she sat, then brushed offher own jerky reaction with a bashful giggle, only just thencomprehending that she’d been clasping both hands tightly to herchest and that her face felt uncomfortably toasty.

“I - I am!” the Kalos performerresponded in haste, leaping from her seat and cautiously edgingcloser to the water to take in the sight of her surrogate tutor,chest heaving slightly, cheeks full with a rosy flush, vibrant hairsomehow both limp from the weight of the water and full of thickwaves as it cascaded down her back, supple muscles in her arms andabdomen tightening as she finally grasped the cement swell of thepoolside wall and lifted herself with ease out of the water.

Misty sighed and stretched languidly,and Serena inched instinctively closer to her and took in the sight.

“Any - oh, sorry, I think I got somewater on you,” the Cerulean trainer said pointedly but herhoney-haired visitor shrugged and murmured something negligible underher breath so she shrugged it off and went on, “Uuh, okay…Anyway, I was going to say that I’m done. I don’t know - I mean,I doubt you learned anything from watching me. My sisters may beflakes as gym leaders but they’re actually really great atchoreographing these dances and scripting their shows.”

“No!” Serena exclaimed defiantly,fists clenched tightly before her, “I - uh - I actually learned alot! You… you’re really great too! I mean, next to your sisters…Well, I haven’t met them yet but…”

Misty quirked an eyebrow at the othergirl’s wild rambling but waited for her to try and pull her ownthoughts together as patiently as she could.

“… But I… feel that you must bejust as capable as them!”

“Oh, well, thanks. Of course, I’vebeen telling them that for years but at least someone sees mytalents!” Misty replied with a confident and flattered laugh.

Serena pursed her lips together, havingdifficulty trying to find the words to explain what she’d feltwhile watching the redheaded gym trainer’s performance. If she werebeing honest, she could admit to feeling similarly to how she hadalways felt towards Aria, and Miette… and Ash.

Aria, her greatest and final challengetowards accomplishing her goal. Miette, strong and stubborn andalways willing to give her best to motivate her into working as hardas she could. Ash, the boy she’d been so inspired by that he’dstolen her heart, hadn’t he?

“Can I kiss you?”

The question tumbled from between herlips before she could justify to herself the sense behind it. Inresponse, Misty paused amidst toweling herself dry, blinking rapidly,mind blown by the sudden invitation.

“I… I’m - what?”

“Oh, sorry,” the Kalos nativeblushed so red that she looked momentarily faint, hands up before heras if trying to brush off her previous outlandish request, “Ididn’t mean… I didn’t think… It was… in thanks. Youtaught me a lot… and I wanted to show my gratitude.”

“Oh… that’s all?” Misty asked,but Serena felt her heart jump at the realization that her advanceshadn’t been outright rejected.

“Well, maybe…”

“Or… maybe not…?”

The was the last exchange between thetwo young girls before the distance between them finished closing.Serena swore she could hear her own heart pounding, felt even moreempowered when a slightly calloused and pruny hand enveloped hers.Some blissful, hopeful part of her couldn’t help but think shecould feel Misty’s equally erratic pulse through the pads of herfingertips.

Serena couldn’t help sucking a breathin between her teeth as they both separated, trying her best todispel the stars behind her eyes and the heavy warmth in her chest.

“So…” Misty began, peeringintensely at her visitor with a glowing smile, “… that was nice.”She paused as Serena’s eyes lit up at the comment before continuingbravely onward, “So nice, in fact, that I think I should thank youtoo,” she finished, grin widening as she leaned in once more.

And so she did.

OoO

Thanks for sending me this request! I honestly adore the idea of these two girls together, I think that Serena would be really taken with Misty tbh. And Misty has always loved cute, French things so… Yuuuup!

Also, wow, I’m pretty sure that this is my first wlw/shoujo ai fanfic. I hope it came out okay. I’m so exhausted from working a 17 hour shift that I was in zombie mode typing this up. I’ll probably beta later after I get some sleep but, uh, enjoy my shitty raw skills as a writer! Lmao.

Also, I’d mentioned it earlier but here’s another heads up; progress has started on another prompt as well, one of the Pokeshipping ones! :-D I will try to finish hand-writing it up tonight and then I’ll type it up some time tomorrow since I’m off work!

#asks #anon #champselyseeshipping #misty x serena #pokemon #fan fiction #drabble #Anonymous

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btsvanessasdanceworld-blog · 7 years

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Lecture 4- Dance Video Session (weekend intensive)

Isadora Duncan

What qualities can you see in the movement?

All of the movement of the dancers is purely derived from the true luminous manifestation of the soul.

Where does she say the movement originates from in the body?

She believed that the human soul is housed in our solar plexus that mushy place where your rib cage begins to separate.

Is the movement more focused on visual effect or kinaesthetic experience?

the movement in the dance piece was all about the experience and feeling that the audiences gained, not the visual effect

Mary Wigman

How does Wigman use the rhythm to portray her dance?

The rhythm of the music and the dance is co-existing in a crashing manner

Is this musically led or does the movement dictate the timing and quality?

The movement in this dance piece is based on the bangs of a Japanese style symbol (instrument). The movement is very hard hitting with these crashes in the music, and in the silences the movement is suspenseful and flowing

Martha Graham

How does Martha Graham’s choreography differ from classical ballet in its qualities, portrayal of a woman dancing and relationship to space?

Martha graham has used a sense of heaviness in her choreography particularly for this piece. in classical ballet even when the movement is sad or heavy the dancers still have a feeling of being lifted and up out of the body, this is due to the affect of the pointe shoes. The woman dancing Is seen stretching in a long stretchy material worn over the body, this makes the character seem trapped. It is as if the dancer is trying to move in space although cannot move.

Kurt Jooss

How does gesture give a particular personality to each of the characters in the dance? How does Jooss portray the political elements through the movement?

the use of gestures in The Green Table helps to define the characters attitudes and personality. it separates each character from the other. the use of canon and hard struck movements or slapping of the table gives a sense of an argument, conversation or debate.

Doris Humphery

In this more abstract work, what are the choreographic elements that are used? How does Humphrey use these elements to convey balance in the choreography?

in this work there is a major used of walking/travelling, jumping and suspension. The use of balancing has been portrayed a number of times in this dance including standing on the backs of other dancers, the used of kicking and holding the leg out to 2nd position is used often, suspension of the body is what makes this movement look well balanced.

George Balanchine

What contrasts can you see in George Balanchine’s work between Modern Dance and Classical Ballet? How does he draw in references to both the everyday and the aristocratic qualities of ballet?

Merce Cuningham

What choreographic tools can you identify in this work by Merce Cunningham? What is the relationship to music?

in this piece it does not seem as if the music is connected with the music. The music and movements feel very random, as i they are hard to follow with a specific timing.

Yvonne Rainer

What is the performance quality in Yvonne Rainer’s work Trio A? Does the dance look skilled – can you see certain skills within it? What kind of feeling does it convey?

Video not avaliable... :(

Pina Bausc

What elements in the stage design does Pina Bausch use to build the dramatic qualities in the work? What qualities can you identify in the movement? Does it seem to have a narrative storyline?

the use of dirt flooring mixed with the dramatic music gives a heavy sense to the audiences. The movements appear to feel very earthy, this connects well to the set designs of the bloody cloth and the dirt. The story line in this dance seems to be close connecting with earthy elements, almost like a feeling of death or dying

Trisha Brown

In this video Trisha Brown is discussing her creative process in developing Set and Reset. When you watch the dance, what kind of movement qualities do you see? Does the choreography seem easy for the dancers or does it also have complexity within it?

The movements seen seem to be quick and choppy. The use of simple movements are used throughout although by being faster paced it can come across as seeming to have a complexity to it.

Edouard Lock

Edouard Lock’s work in La La La Human Steps was one of the forerunners of the ‘Eurocrash’ dance scene. How would you describe the quality of the movement, the gender relationships between the man and woman dancing and the sense of effort within the work? Do you see connections between this work and current Australian choreographers?

The connection between the dancers was clear and very strong. There was a large use of the feeling of catching and falling. it seems as though there is a harsh sense to the choreography and the dancers appear to be in a fight. this work is unlike majority of other works of Australian choreographers.

Willam Forsythe

How is ballet featured and incorporated in William Forsythe’s work? What is the relationship to music? How are gender roles portrayed in the partnering?

The use of beautiful lines and partnering that resembles ballet like movements are incorperated thoughout this dance, the dance and the music dont seem to be connected, they are more just playing at the same time.

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msrazzy · 7 years

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Blog #6- A Reflection

Kay, so It’s impossible for us to see ourselves the way others see us. That’s not an original idea, but please excuse the lack of citation. This fact, however, has always caused me to question my appearance; not just physically, either. I’ve occasionally wondered what people must think of my actions and their motives. I can’t honestly say that I’ve often cared or even given credence to the opinions of others, but that has never stopped me from being curious about them.

Looking into a mirror can give us some semblance of what we look like to others. I did read somewhere, though, that we view ourselves an average of 20% more attractive than we really are. While reading that, I became interested to know what the attractive scale was in that study. I also wondered what the implications are, then, for people with eating and/or body image disorders. Maybe the study was solely based on participants who did not have such lack of normalities ... I digress ... Anyhoo! the point I’m trying to make is that we can somewhat judge and be aware of our physical appearance. There.

But there’s no mirror for the other aspects of who we are. At least that’s what I used to believe. Until I realized that I do indeed have the best “mirror” in the world.

My mirror has shown me that I give the most powerful looks of disdain when I am compelled to react to something or someone displeasing to me. Try as I might to hide it, whoever has evoked this look can always clearly see that he or she has done so. Oh, is it insulting! My eyes narrow, brows furrow, and one cheek lifts slightly higher than the other. All of this uncontrolled by me, mind you. The viewer of this visage immediately realizes that something has gone awry in the current communication and either becomes offended or tries to rectify the offense. Either way, there is an awkward scramble for words to address the situation on their part. Accompanied by the necessity to rewind the previous event to identify the culprit statement or action. It’s actually quite rude of me.

Then there’s the oh-so-condescending manner in which I accompany my respectful words and actions with disrespectful gestures and body language. Unrecognizably so, to most. It’s a carefully choreographed ballet designed to acquiesce and pacify while still expressing my defiance. A “yes, ma'am” paired with a blank stare. An aggravated sigh followed by a cajoling smile. A rude quip just before feigned words of adoration. My favorite, by far, is the innocent look of confusion in reply to what I believe to be a stupid request or statement. That one usually comes with a long blink.

I’ve also been privied to the display of my own rebellious nature thanks to my wonderful little mirror. It goes past angst really; it’s a general mistrust of and agitation at those in authority. The need for autonomy hand-in-hand with the resentment for the lack thereof. How dare my judgment be questioned? How dare my behavior be dictated? Who are “they” to tell ME? What gives “them” the right? Where do “they” get off? I’ll do what I want when I want, and woe to anyone who tries to tell me differently! I refuse to cower to “their” punishments, be they threat or reality.

For a long time, I never saw these traits in myself. When accused of them, I denied it vehemently. Then came my 7lbs. 15.3 oz. mirror--Shaun Gallagher.

I’d say it was about three years ago when this mirror began to show this clear reflection. So clear, in fact, that I had no idea what I was seeing. Being his sole parental influence, however, there was nowhere else to point the accusatory finger.

He is me. Though at times manifested differently, the motives and thought processes that boy have are all mine.

Now, of course, it’s up to me to bust out the Windex and clean that looking glass up. I want a better reflection for myself, and in his future, him, too. Dust and specks should be removed. Shine and clarity should be imparted. My mirror and I are up to the task: we pretty much don’t have any other choice.

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harryxshaw-blog · 7 years

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Ballet Research

Ballet has been around for a long time now, which is why it has developed by a lot of different practitioners over the years. Ballet first began in the 15th century, it was then later developed into a concert dance performed by a range of dancers and this was formed in the countries of France and Russia.

The Italian Renaissance was an early version of the manifestation of the general European Renaissance, this was a period of much great culture change and a lot of achievements that began in Italy during the 14th century and then ended around 1789.

The dance art of ballet and first began in Italy and then spread to France, it managed to do this transition with the help of a women called Catherine de’ Medici, this allowed ballet to be developed even further under Catherine’s aristocratic influence.

The first ever formal ‘court ballet’ was called ‘Ballet Comique de la reine, and this was performed in the year 1581, and this piece of court ballet was also know as ‘The Queens comic Ballet’.

Ballet dancers normally performed to more wealthy and upper class people, as performances such as the art of ballet dance cost quite a lot of money to go and watch, so you wouldn't see a lower class person watching a ballet performance. These ballet performances allowed the wealthy and upper class people to dress up very smart, which allowed them to show off to everyone else how much money they have.

Academie Royale de Musique was founded in the year 1669. It was originally founded by a milestone in history, this means that dancers themselves were incorporated into operas more often. The Academie Royale de Musique was also known as Academie d’opera.

The person who arranged the original five basic foot positions and the first rules of ballet technique was a man named ‘Pierre Beauchamps’, Beauchamps was also known by a lot of followers of his as a ‘ballet master’. He worked with another ballet dancer named Moliere, where they choreographed the dramatic parts for the ballet dancers for court ballet.

The court ballet performances were originally performed in gardens and rooms of the aristocracy and royalty. The first ever court ballet performance was was called ‘Ballet Comique de la reine, and this was performed in the year 1581.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/o/origins-of-ballet/

https://www.britannica.com/art/ballet

Between the 18th and the 19th century most choreographers began to slightly change the way that ballet was performed, such as the dancers been able to wear lighter attire when they are dancing and an exposed face and some make up, this allowed the art of ballet to be more expressive when being performed and the dancers were able to really play their character role if they had one when performing the dance piece. These specific changes in ballet had quite a big impact on the form of romantic ballet in the 19th century where these changes in ballet helped romantic ballet develop even further. During the 18th century the code of “Terpischore” was one the several book written by a choreographer, which was their to help educate dancers and choreographers which covered the theory and the history of dance.

During the mid 18th and 19th century a lot happened in the art of dance especially the social and historical backgrounds of dance. One of them been during the 17th century, professional choreographer who was called” Jean-Georges Noverre” wrote about his was of trying to expand the dance form of ballet into a form of art that incorporates the use of physical expressions on their face and bodies to help tell and story and covey the message to audience which allows the dancers to connect to the audience as well.

During the 1820s the pointe shoe was invented to be used in the dance art of ballet. This particular invention was used to help influence during the time of the period of the art form of romantic ballet. The invention of this pointe ballet shoe was used to help with the creation of “Prima Ballerina”. This pointe shoe has helped develop the art form of ballet a lot and has able to give the ballerinas the ability to flow across the stage in an angelic manor.

In the year of 1827 a famous dancer and choreographer named Marius Petipa became part of a Russian imperial of St Petersburg. He was one of the most famous dancers in his time period, he trained many dancers to help them perform in some of the most well known Ballet performances such as; Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

Their were a lot of choreographers in this time period, but some of the most famous ones were;

George Balanchine- 1904-1983

Jules Perrot- 1810-1892

During this time period there was a famous dance master called Carlo Blasis. He was an Italian choreographer, dancer and dance theoretician. He was born in the mid 1797 in Naples, Italy, he passed way in 1878. Carlo created the well known ballet position the ‘Attitude’, with inspiration from the famous Glambologna’s statue of Mercury, he was also the first person to introduce pirouettes in arabesque. Apart from been a famous choreographer and dancer, he was also the writer of ‘The Code of Terpsichore’.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-ballet

https://www.britannica.com/art/ballet

The romantic ballet era is defined by the young artists, writers, dancers and poets to wanted to be able to and also have a chance to express themselves and their feelings in anyway that they could. They wanted to do this by not using the classical and commonly used ideas of harmony, so they ended up turning turning to nature to see if that could help inspire them in anyway, shape or form. in this period of time a lot of people began to leave their factory work jobs and the country side, this meant that romantic vision of life was also a time of different people been able to experience a natural life, and it was time to escape all this loss and to have a normal life. Ballet dancers were normally made up of men, but in this instance of the romantic ballet the male dancer was not as equal in this era of ballet as the women. As time went on with this era of ballet, you didn’t see as many male dancers and you did with the women as it was seen to be an unacceptable career for men, they only seemed to appear in characterised roles. romantic ballet is called this by people as it was a specific time in life for fantasy and the idea of good vs evil yo be brought to life on a stage in the art form of dance (ballet).

Marie Taglioni was an Italian ballet dancer who actually helped influence the romantic ballet dance style. Marie was born in April 1804 and died in the year She became the dancer that everyone knew and inspired by being trained by her father, because of this she was able to make a debut in 1822 in Vienna. In the year 1832 she became one of the first ever female dance to dance the art form of ballet on the points of her toes, this dance form of ballet is now known as dance on pointe. From been such an incredible dancer, Marie was very well known in many different places such as, London, Paris and Vienna and many more. She was classed by a lot of people as been one of the greatest dancers to dance the art of ballet.

Over the years that romantic ballet has been around, the costumes worn have changed a lot over the many decades that this dance form has been around. The costumes went form been loose long gowns to then be a more fitted structure, which allowed the dancers to be upright and have god posture at all time. The costumes represented helped with the performance of the dance, rather than just the dancer trying to portray the story by itself.

The first costume of romantic ballet has the typical bell shape waist with the cap sleeve, this romantic ballet costume has been used since the early 1800’s, the traditional use of the ca sleeves is also still been sued today for other ballet costumes. This also includes a fitted upper body which is tight around the waist, which also includes the flowing tulle as the skirt.

The next costume includes and shows the evolution of the tutu to become above the knee, with a more boned fitted part of the tutu. There is also much more detail and art added to the overall romantic ballet costume. The knee cut also allowed the audience to see the dancers legs and knees when doing their movements and their jumps.

There were many different famous romantic bellets from the romantic ballet era period, such as:

Coppelia

LA Sylphide

Giselle

Giselle- One of the things that i really like about this performance of his is that the partner work between the two dancers shows a real connection between them both and that they trust each other. Another thing that i like about this performance is that the dance portrays a story and connects with the audience, but the lyrics and the music also do the same and help tell the story a long side the ballerinas. It also helps and compliments the dancers by helping show the true love between the two dancers and the unfortunate separation of not being able to be together.

British Ballet;

Britain took ballet too a much wider audience by a certain company by the name of ‘Ninette’s company. This company began touring round the country during the war time. The fit of them doing this helped boot moral during the war time and helped boost peoples spirits during these tragic events in history. Ninette de valois was the creator and founder of Sedler wells company which had a huge influence on ballet being shown to a much wider audience. Margrot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann were the main stars of Les Sylphides in 1939. In the year 1942 this company performed a very well performed performance of the well known play by Shakespeare ‘Hamlet’, with Robert and Margrot performing in it. One year later after performing Hamlet, in 1943 they also performed in the production performance of ‘Swan Lake’. Robert Helpmann was not just an American dancer, he was also a well known choreographer, theatre director and actor.

Marie Rambert;

Marie was born in the year 1888. She always for her whole life has wanted to be a professional dancer, but her parents didn’t approve of that and did not allow her to, so instead her parents sent her to study medicine in Paris, France in 1905. When the first world war broke out in Britain, Marie moved back to Britain and started to teach the art of dance in private homes and schools of London. Marie soon married an English play writer by the name of Alex Duke, who supported her work for their 41 years of been married together. After there marriage ended she went and opened up her own dance school in 1920, and then six years later after her dance school had been opened, Marie and her students performed in a short ballet dance performance made by one of her own students, Marie also owned and had her very own dance company called ‘Ballet Rambert’, this dance company is very well known to dancers and also has very well known appearances and performances at festivals. This company is still been followed today and has performed in many different places and thetas, such as ‘Theatre Royal’ in Glasgow.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Taglioni

https://www.yputube.com/watch?v=LiGY2d65r7I

https://www.marierambert.org.uk/about/us/our-history

During the end of the 19th century, the art dance form of ballet moved to St Petersburg. As well as this, ballet still remained as an import from Western Europe. There were not many productions that had any type of link with Russia, and the only production of ballet that had a link with Russia or a Russian theme was the production of ‘The Little Humpbaked Horsed’ (1864). This production was choreographed by a Russian worker named Saint-Leon.The Russian ballet between 1870-1903 was controlled mainly by Petipa, and from his control over it he changed up the repertoire and he did this by using his own ballets, such as; Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.Through the many years of this company been emerged with the Russian style, the company also taught the Italian and French style of ballet, and with these styles been taught together they were able to form the Russian dance school. Not a lot of countries had ballet or ballet companies, such as Denmark, it wasn’t until the 20th century where you started to see ballet and ballet companies in the country.

Marius Petipa was a Russian and French ballet dancer and choreographer. Petipa was well known for a lot of different things but mostly known for been the most influencial ballet dancer in the history of the art dance form of ballet. During his time of been a professional ballet dancer, he was able to collaborate with a man who went by the name of Tchaikovsky in the production of ‘The Nutcracker’, he has also been able to present his very own versions of different types of ballets that have been revived frequently back into the world of dance, such as the productions of; Swan Lake, Giselle and Raymonda. At this specific period of time these ballet productions were not successful straight away, they are now known to be the most popular classical ballet productions. Marius during the late 18th century wasn’t very well known as a choreographer because of the certain people that he was woking for at that time in his life. Four years later after that Marius was able to get his name out there in th industry by inventing a performance called ‘La file du pharon’, and this production ended up being one of his most iconic and successful production pieces. After inventing this dance piece it lead him into getting a job as being a choreographer in chief at the ImperialTheatre. Then later on in the year of 1869 he was then promoted to be the Premier Ballet Master at that theatre company.

Michel Fokine was a well known dancer and choreographer, but he wasn’t just that, he was also a very talented painter and musician. Fokine also attended the ‘Imperial Ballet’ school an Mariinsky theatre, and he was only young when he attended this theatre in the year 1889. He believed that the conventional mime and dancing have no meaning unless they are able to express multiple different emotions such as; hopeless. He was very into his beliefs and stuck to his belief of the meaning of been expressed through the whole of your body, and this meaning should be able to be followed through in group and solo performances as well. Michel’s last ballet production was called ‘Helen of Troy’, and this ballet production was for the American Ballet Theatre company, this production was his last one before he passed away. This ballet production didn’t die with him as his piece was continued and completed by a man who went by the name of David Lichine and premiered in the year 1942 in Mexico City.

Another well known ballet choreographer was a man who went by the name of George Balanchine. He was the co-founder of very well known ‘New York City Ballet’ which was founded in the year 19478, he stayed as the theatre companies artistic director and also as the chief choreographer, a lot of other ballet companies who have heard of Balanchine performed different parts of his amazing work. The theatre company in New York City were able to present over 150 pieces of different types of ballet numbers because of George, such as; ‘The Nutcracker’, and this piece is now one of the most famous and well known ballet pieces that had been revived many times by many different ballet and theatre companies. George was not only a well known ballet choreographer, in addition to that he was also able to choreograph Hollywood movies and multiple Broadway musicals. Before the time of George been the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, he was a ballet master at a company called ‘Ballet Russes’ until the company shut down and stopped because of Diaghilev’s death in the year 1929.

http://www.biography.com/people/george-balanchine-9196284#synopsis

https://www.britannica.com/art/ballet

http:www.biography.com/people/marius-petipa

Classical ballet is by far the most formal out of all the ballet (classical, contemporary and modern ballet), this is because they are very strict in to sticking to the traditional set rules of ballet. Classical ballet is mainly known for its precise technique within the dance movement, this specific style of ballet also consists of also including the use of pointe work in ballet and using your pointe shoes.Modern dance style was not created until the 20th century, it is a certain style of dance that is known for going against the traditional rules of ballet. The original originator of modern dance style in ballet was a women who went by the name of Isadora Duncan, she was also known for mainly using the upper body for mainly all of its dance movement. In the style of modern dance there is a women who is known as the ‘mother’ of modern dance and she goes by the name of Martha Graham. Graham has this name in modern dance as she had a different and outgoing style to modern dance.

There is a style of dance that incorporates both modern and classical style dance, and this style is contemporary. This style of dance allows the body to flow in anyway it can and there are no limits to it, even though it still has the technique behind it (pointed feet and legs) nothing is really wrong in the contemporary style, and it does not really support the strict rules and techniques of ballet at all times ut it odes sometimes (technique).

Nowadays there are many ballerina’s and they come in all shapes, forms and sex, but for able for all the these ballets to be able to succeed they need to be able to be able to adapt their dance skills and be open to new ideas and not be strict and limited to what they believe they can only do as a dancer.

“Up-and-coming 21st century stars would do well to learn to be incredibly diverse”- Bussell

The reason for Bussell to have said this phrase is because this is what she deeply believes in, and she truly believes that the main way forward is for the style of modern dance, she strongly believes that this style of dance should be including “surprising things”, these surprising things in modern dance could include anything such as acro, tumbling or even gymnastics. At the top of this article it also says that “Modern ballet dancers need more tricks up their sleeves”, and these words were said by the incredible Bussell herself. This phrase that she said means thats quite a lot of the choreographers teaching different dance styles are now expecting more and something new from their dancers and not just something simple, they want something out of the ordinary and amazing to watch and what will surprise them.

Todays generation of dancers have to be a lot more diverse than what dancers before them were, and this is because that all of the dance choreographers are looking for something new and original to add into the dance style of ballet. the reason for the choreographers wanting this from their dancers is because they want to make sure the fame ad popularity of the style does not lose any of history of being something that everyone loves and enjoys doing.

“Younger choreographers of today sought to constantly create something that hasn’t been done before, requiring dancers to take on ever-more varied challenge”- another inspiration phrase by Bussell

William Forsythe;

Forsythe grew up in the state of New York City, he was born in the year 1949. William did not start dancing and training as a dancer until he was in his late teens, which is where he really took a interest in this art form. During the later 20th century in 198, he was given a very important role of being artist director of ‘Ballet Frankfurt’, which them William transformed it into one of the best dance companies in the world and they were very well known for producing talented dancers.

In the middle somewhat elevated has become on of William forsythe’s most famous and iconic pieces, and this piece by William is perfumed worldwide by many different theatre and dance companies. A company by the name of ‘The English National Ballet’ gave their first performance of this piece of incredible art by William, even though it was proving to be quite a challenge for them.

All the dancers in Artifact are wearing tights and also tight leotards which are worn as they are able to show off the dancers and their svelte bodies, and also highlights the dancers and the definition of their movements in the choreographed piece. The dancers are able to tell the story and convey the message to the audience very well by having sharp movements, and these sharp movements that a re been performed have connotations of portraying anger and the moves are also very controlled at the same time as portraying through all of that anger. A lot of emphasis is been portrayed throughout the dance and constantly the choreographed moves that the dancers are doing are been mirrored , also this dance and the choreographed moves throughout the dance are going against the main ballet rules as they are very flowing and loose and aren’t as sharp and precise as they are supposed to be in ballet.

The classical ballet performance that i have chosen is the production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I have specifically chosen this performance as it is considered to be he greatest love story of all time, and also it is able to keep in with classical ballet techniques and style, in that when the story starts to get aggressive or scary or a fight scene happens with quite a powerful piece of music behind it, the choreographed dance movements can be sharp also to contrast with the music. Then when something happens in the story where it is love based and the music is quite soft and flowing, the dance movements can be that also.

There are multiple differences between these two performances, but there are also multiple similarities between the two performances. One of the differences between these two performances is that is the production piece of Romeo and Juliet, they are both using the correct ballet technique and the correct positioning of the arms and legs and positions. On the other hand in the production piece of the Artifact, they seem to break the rules a little bit of the classic ballet technique, and there moves are more loose rather than sharp, even though Romeo and Juliet have some loose movements in the piece, they also include sharp movement in there as well rather than must been loose and lowing movement all the way throughout he piece. Artifact does have ballet technique within their choreographed performance but is showed differently to the choreographed piece of Romeo and Juliet.

Cecchetti is a specific ballet technique and certain training method that is used by quite a lot of dancers, and this was created by a man who went by the name of Enrico Cecchetti who was an Italian ballet master. The style that Cecchetti created (The Cecchetti style) trains its dancers to think of this certain method as a type of science as it seems to consider the laws of anatomy. The Cecchetti method also teaches its dancers the certain movement of arms between the different positions, sharp lines, quick feet and smooth transitions between the different positions. A lot of dancers do not have amazing turn out and a lot of classical ballet techniques force the turn out, out of its dancers, whereas the Cecchetti method emphasises in natural turnout for dancers.

Augeste Bourneville;

Augeste was a well known Danish dancer and choreographers who directed the royal danish ballet for over fifty years, and also created the Danish style based on bravura and expressive mime. During the year 1836 Bourneville performed in his very own version of a well known production of ‘La Sylphide’. Most of his more important ballets were based on multiple observations that he made whilst been on tour. One of his observations were; Wedding in Hardanger in the year 1853, and this was based on his many visits too Norway. Augeste’s choreographic style reflected mainly on the romantic approach.

To conclude, with all the research that i have done about the dance style of ballet i feel like it has developed a lot over the many periods of time, and this has happened by the incredible dancers that had an impact on the development of ballet and changing the style up into the way that they like it. For example, choreographers such as the women who was the first women to dance on pointe and in her pointe shoes and she was Marie Tangoli Then there was choreographers such as Carlo Blasis who came up with and invented the arabesque, pirouettes and also the different attitude arm positions. Overall i believe that from all this research that i have gathered, that many different choreographers had multiple different ways of having an impact of the classical art dance form of ballet.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/August-Bournonville

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2COs6yh_LS0C&pg=PA603&lpg=PA603&dq=carlo+balsis&source=bl&ots=7xBroSjcm8&sig=8exwxiu2ruyj-8nrhvN4DXyiSCU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF6dig2ZzSAhUELsAKHRIpCh0Q6AEIJjAB#v=onepage&q=carlo%20balsis&f=false

http://www.williamforsythe.de

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