"Into the hoods" - Zoonation- review

I love zoonation, their funny they're on it all the time with performances that are so enjoyable for all age groups, and im glad this performance was no different, into the hoods we went to an energetic fantasy world set not far from our own.
This show has been performed before a few years back, so watching the remix now i really understand why, some of the sections I saw had been added to the performance according to my college teacher, but personally without seeing the comparative difference myself I wouldn't know how to comment on that.

 

Into the hoods remix, flyer/poster image

As the title suggests the performance was based on the musical into the woods which is inspired by the grimms fairytales. The general plot is that a bunch of his fairytales have entwinning stories as we see some loved and well known chacters; little red ridding hood and the bad wolf, jack and the giant, cinderella and rapunzel. A witch (in this case a landlord) puts a spell on two innocent characters (in this case two school children) who got stuck in the hood by mistake and the landlord says that he'll give them money for the bus ride home if the find him 4 presentants for his daughter rapunzel (or rap-on-zel) for her eightenth birthday, each item comes from a different chacter, you have the hoodie as red as blood, the ipod as white as milk, the trainers as pure as gold and the weave as yellow as corn.

Having seen their performance of the "mad hatters tea party" last year  I had an idea of what to expect from the performance.

lil' red and wolf

Like teaparty zoonation had put their own spin on the play making it modern and urban. Each character had some interest in the music industry, significant from their names ie spinderella: dj, rap-on-zel: rapper and was introduced with their own short piece as the beginning, I really liked this idea and felt it worked really well it allowed us to become familiar with the characters and understand the alterations and  see the zoonation twist that had been put on the story in order to modernise it and set the scene.

Prince and chorus. introduction to main characters and scene setting

The dancing itself was clear energetic and free, slightly different for each character to show their individual personality traits. I found it quite interesting that due to them being a small company main characters would take more minor roles as well, and vise-verse this meant that everyone played quite a big role in the show which is firstly quite unusual to see but also really nice as it goes to show that each and everyone of those dancer is valued for the work they put in but also each earned a place in this specific performance. The outfit for the chorus roles was a black tracksuit with a white stripe going down the sides of the body allowing them to become these creepy characers at the beginnig like  trees or lamp posts as the backdrop would have suggested. These later became the everyday where of  the residents and members of the public in the hood.

jax

I loved the way they adapt the play to make it more relevant to todays society, with the urban set up and adult humour jokes at certain points while maintaining the fun childlikeness of panto with the stepsisters in drag. In the last two years zoonation have really made a massive influence on the way I look at performance, this could be that im used to watching more ballet and contemporary styles which I personally tend to work in, and it makes their style of movement more exciting for me to watch  and enjoy because it doesn't feel so predictable. I also find I get caught into their performances I feel they're clever about how they adapt the scripting of the role to really make it their own. in all honesty it appears they could do no wrong and I certainly want to go see them perform next year, where I will be sourcing my own tickets as opposed to going with my college group.

If anybody reading this has never seen zoonation perform I highly recommend you do!

 

-expect another review very soon-

 

Emma Louise xx

Romeo and Juliet ballet- review/experience

As an early 18th birthday present my lovely grandparents brought me tickets to see the 50th anniversary performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Royal ballet in London's Royal Opera house theatre.

The Royal Opera House

mum and i 

The ballet was originally first performed over here by the Bolshoi ballet, more recently performed by the Royal Ballet the Shakespeare classic has been loved and enjoyed as a ballet since the 20th century.
I personally was incredibly excited to see this performance because it was the first performance by the Royal Ballet that I have seen live at the Royal Opera. I’ve also never seen Romeo and Juliet as a ballet, although I’m very familiar with the classic tragedy.
I wasn’t disappointed by any stretch of the imagination the performance was enchanting mainly because the storytelling was so strongly given, each movement has a meaning and a purpose, you’re not just doing a movement you’re feeling the emotion through it. Which is why I love ballet so much, people don’t always realise it but ballet is just as much about acting as it is dance, and to be honest I hadn’t registered this in my mind until fairly recently.

Romeo and Juliet, balcony scene

I greatly admire them for bringing the classical ballet, with all its skill and beauty into todays society (which really they are trained to do), however, I say this because in today’s society not enough emotion is put into the movement, its often forgotten by performers and it marks the style as being very dull and emotionless which it isn’t by any stretch of the imagination. Without an emotion or story ballet is not ballet it becomes gymnastics.
Unfortunately my mind isn’t as naïve as it used to be I did pick out some very minor criticisms from the ballet, which is purely just little details such as Romeo pausing briefly before picking up Juliet in their first lift causing the routine to not flow quite as it should, I like to believe this is a fluke of the performance I saw.
Another minor detail was watching Romeo and his two friends pirouetting and their legs were all slightly off in different directions which looked a little messy, the unison was only ever so slightly out so again it could have just been fluke of that performance.

Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt

The performance  brought a lot of the theatrical Shakespeare side making the audience laugh at certain points, which I’ve never experienced with ballet before because the story doesn’t tend to have a comical aspect to it! I felt captured into the story; at the beginning I felt fickle minded of Romeo and  sorry for Paris, which changed later in the play when we saw a darker side to Paris forcing Juliet to love him, which i don’t remember reading in the play, but it made my pity turn to dislike. For me that really just goes to show I was drawn into the story.

Romeo and Juliet: final science

 There was also beautiful use of fluidity and  weight firstly on Juliet and Paris’s first duet but also later on when charters die, they mastered the art of creating realistic and believable falls, and faints as if they were as light as a feather.
 they were also largely believable at being dead, laying lifelessly on the stage only to be dragged like a rage doll into a heap or off stage.
A particular thing I must mention is the sheer flawlessness and professionalism of the dancers in chorus who didn’t get applauded at the end, much to my dismay. When you do get a " minor role" in a performance it usually knocks your confidence but professionally you should put your heart and soul into every role you get, because although you are not the focus you are delivering a performance, I as an audience member should be able to look anywhere on stage at any time and the story and theme is held and told through every character. I feel that the chorus roles did an amazing job and in honest some parts I enjoyed more from them than the principle dancers.

Overall I really enjoyed the performance the storytelling was amazing, and the overall composition was really enjoyable and it reminded me of some highly important morals to remember as a dancer or performer.