In this short essay I would like to present several latest research in the attempt to invent a complete dance notation system. I will also look at the historical background, i.e. - Laban and Hodson Archer. The research include Emio Greco's Cover Project / Capturing Intentions and William Forsythe's Synchronous Objects. As an examples I will present Chunky Move's Glow, and the tools used for movement editing in Darren Aronofsky's movie Black Swan.
George Balanchine was a Russian ballet master based in the United States. He fled Russia in the 20s, initially to Paris where he surrounded himself with Russian artistic community forced on exile during the Revolution. There he met Sergei Diaghilev who invited Balanchine to choreograph for Ballet Russes, which was the outset of his illustrious career. After numerous commissions, Balanchine formed New York City Ballet in 1948. His repertory included story dances - with a simple and well known plot outlined in the programme, as well as more abstract dances which focused on technique, composition and relationship with music.
The British "In-yer-face Theatre": Sarah Kane's PHAEDRA'S LOVE in the light of Racine's PHEDRE29/3/2011
The British theatre wave of the 1990s was labelled by a theatre critic Alks Sierz "in-yer-face theatre". The term reflects both the language and the means of expression of the new young theatre makers. "Yer" stands for colloquial "your" and suggests that the characters speaking colloquial language are either working class or careless and rebellious middle class youth. "In the face" style suggest an offensive or shocking material thrown at the audience without inhibitions. The 90s in Britain saw substantial cuts from the Art Council, as well as experienced the decadent feel of the end of the millennium, combined with disappointment with the social order and hopelessness for the future. Similar situation took place earlier in the 50s and 60s, when the wave of "Angry Young Man" moved through the cinema and theatre with authors such as John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. Otherwise known as "kitchen sink drama" those plays depicted lives of working-class men and women, and focused on social and political issues.
Konstantin Stanislavsky was a Russian theatre director, based in The Moscow Art Theatre between 1890s and 1930s, most notably known for developing his System for actor training which focused on the individuality of a character, the main assumptions of which he outlined in An Actor's Work on Himself. In short, these included the idea of 'physical action' in which an actor was to express the inner qualities of a character - the way he feels, thinks and acts in specific situations - by preparing himself physically. Stanislavsky believed that the "line of the body and the soul are dependent on each other" (qtd. in Fischer 282). Wit this reciprocal influence of body on soul, and in turn soul on the body, Stanislavsky's System based all its exercises on two main assumptions.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere, more commonly known as Moliere, had the privilege of being a protege of the Sun King, Louis XIV at the time of prosperity and endless lavish feasts at court. The theatre in the 17th century Paris however was not a common entertainment as it is today. There were only two established theatres: Hotel de Bourgogne, which specialised in tragedies, and Theatre du Marais known for performances of baroque machine plays. Later, a third theatre was established as a result of a merge between Moliere's company newly arrived in Paris, and Comedie Italienne whose previous place of residence - Petit Bourbon was destroyed. They were now commissioned by the king and based in Palais Royal. Throughout all this time Palais Royal, together with the Louvre (and initially Petit Bourbon) were open to theatre companies for occasional performance under king's consent.
Jan Fabre's The Power of Theatrical Follies, commissioned by the Venice Biennale, premièred in 1984 when Fabre was only 25 years old. It soon became to be known as "Belgium's answer to Pina Bausch, Laurie Anderson, Peter Brook and Robert Wilson" on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean (Rockwell). The originally four-hour long performance, typically for post-dramatic theatre - rather than building up a story around the main text - combined elements of opera, dance, visual projection, physical theatre with nudity, as well as text in the form of citations with references to historical events - all strenuously unhurried and in a numbing fashion.
|