Bangarra Dance Theatre Analysis

Anna Kisselgoff a professional dance critic believes; Jiri Kylian’s choreography resulted in ‘scores of younger choreographers being influenced by the emotional and kinetic thrust of his signature style, a highly physical fusion of ballet technique with the idiomatic freedom of modern dance. As an artist, he has been remarkably deep and original.’ Jiri Kylian’s ‘Black and White’ ballets, premiered on May 7, 1988, have a number of defining characteristics which create a unique contemporary style. Elements of movement, theatrical elements and themes are carried through all six dances which creates a number of motifs throughout the series of dance works.

In most ancient civilisations, dance was an important component in temple rites. In ancient Egypt, priest and priestesses would perform stately movements mimicking significant events that had occurred, such as war and famine. Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 2008 original production of Mathinna evokes the calamity, confusion and prejudice experienced by the members of the Stolen Generation. The performance is inspired by the true story of a young Aboriginal girls’ journey between the traditional lives of her ancestors to her western colonial adoption. In response to Bangarra’s production, Dance Critic Neville Wright composed that “Mathinna is a powerful dance work that I believe should be seen by audiences across Australia. It successfully educates and informs modern audiences about the hardships and horror that the Aboriginal people endured during what was a very shameful period of Australian history”. The following report will investigate the validly of this quote by evaluating three separate sections of the performance.

Sydney Dance Company has its origins based in 1969 by dancer Suzanne Musitz. At this time the company was name entitled, The Dance Company. During 1975-1976 the company was in control by Dutch choreographer Jaap Flier, before the appointment of Australian choreographer Graeme Tater in 1976. In 1979 Murphy and his partner Janet Vernon made a change to the company and introducing a more localized title, the Sydney Dance Company. Murphy and his collaborators created masterpieces of dance and astounded audiences in Australia. Not on national recognized the company expands to include being the initial dance company to

The influence behind the dance company is what makes them so “widely acclaimed” when they perform internationally, for their distinct and unique music, choreography, movements and costume designs. The choreographers inspire the dance pieces, by the traditional stories and movements of various Australian Indigenous communities. Some of their best works include the performance productions of Ochres, Skin and Our Land People Stories.

Mrs. Farrell’s book is quite technical when it comes to the lengthy descriptions of the dances she rehearses and performs; from a dancer’s view these varied conclusions of the types of movements she was dancing is quite astonishing. In fact, it adds a whole new level to the imagination that can come alive in a person’s thoughts when they read an expressive book. Although the technical explanations will excited, astound, and reveal how much passion and deep meaning ballet had in Suzanne Farrell’s life, but a reader, who may not be involved in the arts will be unfamiliar with the ballet and musical terms in

Lester Horton has been named, as one of the many founders of modern dance, whose style continues to be used in present day choreography. Although Hortons’ early technique was impacted by his interest in various cultures; his style eventually shifted towards a more theatrical technique. Horton used his versatile dance background and interests to develop the sub genre under modern dance, more formally known as choreodramas. His technique seen in earlier pieces and choreodramas such as “The Beloved” and “Salome” were effective in displaying the purpose of Horton’s style. Horton integrated his background in dance, props, costumes, and choreography to emphasize contemporary ideas and display the new genre of choreodramas.

1) Summarize the plot of the piece. If you feel that there was no plot, describe the sequence of events in the performance.

Having the experience to witness a professional contemporary ballet company was rewarding regarding my future as a dancer. Watching the movement of each dancer, showed the diversity that the company thrive to make relevant while also keeping a controlled technique that are now calling Nique. The movement that complexion tend to use is a more flexible, curved, and movable contemporary upper body while keeping the classic ballet training for the lower half of the body. Dwight Rhoden, co- founder of complexion, created all the pieces in this concert and you can see a continuous repetition of movement throughout the concert, but each piece was created to have its own meaning through the clothing, lights and order of movements.

The dance that I will be focusing on is entitled: thinking sensing standing feeling object of attention. The dance, to me, symbolizes the socialization of persons in Western civilization concerning gender roles. In the beginning there are gestures that are separated from emotion and full-embodiment, but as the dance progresses the gestures become more meaningful and recognizable. The lighting starts out very specific and narrow, then the light encompasses the entire stage, and eventually the dancers are silhouetted as they return to a familiar movement motif in the end. The music is mainly instrumental with occasional soft female vocals, and the lyrics suggest emotion, which is interesting because the dancers do not convey emotion until

For this part of the research, I went and saw the musical ‘Wicked’ at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London, where it shows several times a week. This means that the costume I design and make needs to be very durable so that it can be used for every performance.

On November 18, 2016, I attended an evening performance in Irmo, South Carolina by Parsons Dance Company at Harbison Theatre at 7:30 p.m. This New York City modern based dance company hosted six commissioning works at the Midland Technical College that were all choreographed by the artistic director David Parsons. The created six works were “Finding Center,” “Hand Dance,” Swing Shift,” Kind of Blue,” “Caught,” and “Nascimento.” Each of David Parsons works showed a distinction of athletic, energized, ensemble works that revealed the style of his choreography. Parsons Dance is renowned for creating and performing contemporary American dance that is accessible and enriching to diverse audiences.

During the dance show at the Phoenix Art Museum I saw elements of dance from the stage. There are five elements which are Body, Action, Space, Time, and Energy. The first part was from the dance show it was about music because it looked like a calm place that people might be relaxing near the beach or walking through the beach as a couple. The costumes it looked like they were wearing rainbow colors as I think it comes from the talent show. The dancers were trying to represent their hard work from practicing for the big show for the audience and the artistes people that came to see the dancers at the dance concerts. The lights from the dance show I think they picked a light color for the audience could see the people dance on the stage and from the lights it also shows a clear vision for the audience to see if they did a good job or not.

Sally Banes is an American writer and dance historian and critic. She is also a professor of theater history and dance studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Banes has written multiple books and contributed to many documentaries and films. The book Moving History / Dancing Cultures, which Banes contributed to, includes the article “Choreographic Methods of the Judson Dance Theater”. This book was published in 2001.

Shake and Stir Theatre Company is a compelling theatrical voice which aspires to render Shakespeare’s plays to appease modern audiences. However, William Shakespeare penned his last play 400 years ago; despite this, his plays and sonnets are as alive today as they were in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Shakespeare’s plays still appeal to modern society because of the universality of the dramatic themes- desire, domestic relationships, the complications of love and power struggles in relationships - humans still experience these emotions and challenges which gives Shakespeare a foothold in modern times (Bruster, 2014). Shake and Stir sequenced together an array of modified scenes from Shakespeare’s most iconic plays, to implore the dramatic meaning that Shakespearean text can be rendered to engross modern audiences while maintaining its integrity and Elizabethan charm. “Great Shakes” is staged in a graveyard, where three year ten students, Betty, Brock and Ben are incarcerated. However, after appearances from several supernaturals, they are returned to their everyday lives, but not before they are faced with the task to manipulate Shakespeare’s tragedies, comedies and histories to engage contemporary audiences. It is evident that Shake and Stir’s production, “Great Shakes” effectively conveyed the dramatic meaning of Shakespeare’s relevance in contemporary society. This was made explicit through the re-contextualization of the historical context and utilisation of conventions

This fall dance concert was filled with joy, darkness, torture, culture, and women's rights, right when you sit down and observe through all 8 dance performances. It would have been 9 dance routines but the dancer who was suppose to perform Hart Broken had an injury, which made a putt off. Nevertheless the show must go on, it starts off with the first and second performance, Xtra Xtra and Scar Tissue. Revealing that both performances were different themes because Xtra Xtra had the dancers in radiant colors and seemed to be energetic, whereas the performers in Scar Tissue were clothed in black attire, such as tutus, dresses, and tights, yet still energetic. This brought to my attention that the whole dance performances were contrast to each other. Throughout the routines of the dance concert, the