Out of the two dances, Matthew Bourne’s rendition of Swan Lake was my least favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed the traditional clip of Swan Lake. In the traditional dance there was precision, cohesiveness, and timing. One big reason I did not enjoy Bourne’s dance is because it seemed too “flowy”. By that I mean it was a more relaxed version in my opinion. I did not like how there was so many people in this dance compared to the traditional one, and that it did not seem that all dancers were dancing with one another. There was a lot of jumping and flaying of their arms. This felt more of lyrical dance compared to a ballet. The dance for me, was just more watching a lot of people running on and off stage jumping and swaying.
Bourne’s version was
Have you ever read something and was so deep in it that you felt inspired and received a connection from it? Gabriel Garcia Marquez does this in the story “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the world.” Marquez gets across two ideas about inspiration and connections through his use of symbolism, character, and setting.
The element that stood out the most to me was how effectively the music and the footwork corresponded. The best examples of this are seen through the dancers solos. Especially Albrecht's solo, his feet glide on the stage at the same tempo as the music. Similarly, Giselle's graceful footwork is truly amazing. I really like the similarities between the choreographed footwork and the music, it makes Giselle seem much more elegant and beautiful. This also seems to make the work look more put together and in sync because the dancers are dancing in harmony with the orchestra. The choreography by itself is amazing. The footwork is rapid and intricate, however, at the same time it is delicate and graceful. The ballerina (Giselle) made it look very easy to do the choreography, when it rea...
T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” is set in the 1960s, a time, as the narrator sees it, “when it was good to be bad” (125). As a result, he believes he is a “dangerous character” and strengthens his image by doing rebellious things in his town. However during his journey to and back from Greasy Lake, he is thrown into a different setting, where his experiences tint his understanding of humanity. The narrator transforms from someone who thinks he knows who he is, to losing his sense of self, then being shocked back into reality, and finally becoming aware. The narrator’s perception of nature and his surroundings parallel the regression and evolution of his understanding of self-awareness.
Almost all young men hit a point in life where his mindset transitions from the imagined indestructability to the comprehension of humanity. Many see it as a steady change with no definite stage of illumination, nonetheless a sequences of open-minded phases or “the stepping stones into maturity.” For a select few, there is an insight, bounded by a catastrophic occurrence that incites a renovation in one’s outlook on something. Whichever comes to play, the unavoidable renovation subsists. The short story “Greasy Lake" by Thomas Coraghessan Boyle exposes this rational alteration in three young but “undeveloped” men as they face a chain of faults, penalties, and reiteration.
In the end the original stands out much more compared to the movies of it. It takes away from the movies from the theme presented to the music chose for it. These flaws and many more take almost the whole experience away. Truly in the end the far superior best telling of Romeo and Juliet is in the origional, and it truly provides the best experience.
The Nutcracker, as shown in the San Jose theater, was the first professional dance performance I had ever been to and chose to go to because it was conveniently set up by the SCHS Performing Arts Program. With costumes that were elaborately designed to bring out the characteristics of each actor and actress, the overall mood of the performance was admirable. The set of the performance was spectacular; there were fog machines, smooth velvet couches, and accurate, bright lighting. Dancers were able to communicate to the audience without the usage of verbal sounds. They were able to efficiently tell a story through their facial expressions and their dramatic movements, keeping the attention of the audience throughout most of the show. There were elements that were incorporated into the dances that we had learned in our ballet unit, such as demi-plies, degages, and echappes, so it was much more interesting because we could somehow relate to the dancers.
Both “Rite of Spring” and “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” expressed the abandonment of conventional artistic standards. “Rite of spring” started buzz because it wasn’t the usual ballet and music people where accustomed to. People where use to ballet being something elegant and graceful but Stravinsky’s ballet was far from that. Then people where also use to music sounding more of a “pre...
The pond is placed here because on page 143, it said “Edwin stopped beside a long rocky slope that roose every several hundred feet to their right above the shallow valley. On their left, the stream flattened out into a large, calm, crystal clear pond. Upstream about a hundred yards, the stream gushed through a rock gorge, calming as it flowed into the still pool.” (Mikaelsen, 143)
All three of the different versions “What is This Thing Called Love?” affected me differently in a way that they were three different versions similar but also entirely different. The first versions by Holman was very different to what you would think and what is shown on T.V as to how jazz sounded. This version reminds me somewhat of Broadway and had a very slow tempo.
Nina Sayers / The Swan Queen – Nina is a very talented young and confident ballerina. She has taken up to ballet due to her mother who is also an ex-ballerina. She is presented a golden opportunity to play the lead role in the new Season of Swan Lake where she is required to portray the role of the White Swan as well as the Black Swan. Nina characteristics makes her, a perfect fit for the White Swan however the director feels she lacks conviction to play the Black Swan. Moreover he singles out another dancer for the role of the Black Swan. These entire factors, makes Nina go into a tizzy consumed by hate and jealousy she goes into hallucinations and sense of madness to try and prove to her first and the world that she would suit to play the role of the Black Swan. Nina has a deeper darker side inside her which only circumstances like these bring out. This character was very interesting to watch on screen.
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular of all composers. The reasons are several and understandable. His music is extremely tuneful, opulently and colourfully scored, and filled with emotional passion. Undoubtedly the emotional temperature of the music reflected the composer's nature. He was afflicted by both repressed homosexuality and by the tendency to extreme fluctuations between ecstasy and depression. Tchaikovsky was neurotic and deeply sensitive, and his life was often painful, but through the agony shone a genius that created some of the most beautiful of all romantic melodies. With his rich gifts for melody and special flair for writing memorable dance tunes, with his ready response to the atmosphere of a theatrical situation and his masterly orchestration, Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped as a ballet composer. His delightful fairy-tale ballets, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker are performed more than any other ballets. Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's first ballet, was commissioned by the Imperial Theatres in Moscow in 1875. He used some music from a little domestic ballet of the same title, composed for his sister Alexandra's children in 1871.
...downfalls. Fagan in his own hope want the audience to look at dance without going through boredom or thinking dance as a medicine (Bramley 24:1997). The musical has allowed this particular component to make differences to such challenges from one dance to the next. This was possible due to Fagan’s approach to choreography that are different compared to another choreography that was designed to other Disney films turned musicals i.e. Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. These two notable musicals have taken the stages of Broadway by storm. However, there is an ingredient missing to those shows that Taymor was able to capture from beginning to end with the Lion King. It was a risky challenge that Fagan radically took out of the negative into the positive with the use of vocabulary to approach the use of dance and movement as part of a highly successful musical.
Within the context of film industry, the film Titanic by James Cameron belongs to epic romance/ disaster genre. The film, released in 1997, was a global box office hit because the director provided equal importance to history, fiction and romance. To be specific, one can see that the film’s plot is based upon the history of RMS Titanic. On the other side, the main characters including the protagonist and the heroine (Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater/Dawson) are fictional characters. Besides, the element of romance between the main characters (Jack and Rose) is the film’s main attraction. Thesis statement: The critical analysis of the film Titanic proves that the innovative mode of storytelling (flash back and other techniques), Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Style and Directing (equal importance to fictional and historical characters), Societal Impact, and Genre (epic romance/disaster) are the most important factors behind the film’s success as a historical/fictional masterpiece (special references specific shots, scenes, characters, stylistic devices and/or themes).
On the night of the DancePlus performance, I saw numerous little performances. There were six of them in total and the one I had most reactions and favors to is the last one of the first half, which is called Swampin. It was choreographed by John Evans with additional material by Oluwadamilare Ayoride, Jennifer Payan and surprisingly, the dancers. Usually what I would expect from a piece of dance performance is choreographers dominating the process of being creative on the grounds o f coming up dance moves. However, this time, it is nice to see how the dancer actually participating first hand in the creating process of the whole performance which would definitely benefit the quality of the dance, since the dancers would their own choreography