Dance goals 2016

1) To be able to hold all ballet foot positions on point with out the aid of something to hold on to

 

 

2) To work on developing an over split, so that I can achieve full split when leaping in the air

 

 

 

3) Improve and further develop my confidence in my own capabilities and solo performance

 

 

 

 

 

4) Work on focus, making sure my head is up and not looking at the floor. Also direct eye contact with audience members

 

 

 

 

 

5) To participate in at least 5 different workshops

 

 

 

6) To start my own dance you tube channel

 

 

 

 

The Nutcracker - Live streamed, Bolshoi Ballet Review

One of the most well-known and loved ballets to this day. Set during Christmas time to tell us what "love to all" really means.

This is by no means the first time I've seen this ballet, in fact Its the one I know the best, some people may say its overrated others adore the well known classic. I'm a mix of both, I love the fantasy world we're put into, I also love the artistry and use of props in the movement. So in many ways I was really excited to watch it again my only worry was that I recognise the choreography and am so familiar with the story that it loses the magic.
As expected the cinema was completely full for the live-stream I think that just goes to show how popular the ballet is, every other live-stream/film I had to been to see on my season ticket the cinema/theatre was always half empty.

 

 

One of the main difference in this performance for me was the fact that the Nutcracker in its doll form was played by a young female instead of being an actual doll. im used to seeing Marie (or "Clara" as she is know traditionally in the German version of the story) dancing with a nutcracker doll. The dancer was incredibly good at playing this part,  unlike traditional forms of ballet the dancers movements were stiff and angular to fit the characteristics of a wooden doll, which contrasts from the floaty elegant movements we assosciate with ballet! However, not only was the Nutcracker played by a female in the opening section but so were Marie's brother and all of the other male cousins, this could have been because of a shortage of male dancers within the company to distribute all the roles too, particularly in the Nutcracker you'll notice there are an equal/larger ratio of male characters to females, such as; the Mouse King, the Mice, The Toy Soldiers, Uncle Drosselmeyer and The Nutcracker himself.

 

 

The first part stayed quite traditionally to the story and scripting, however, the secound part wasn't as clear as it used to be for me, the stage was quite minimalistic in terms of scenery and props, with only a pile of snow with a tree/mountain backdrop at the very centre back of the stage, this can be effective at not taking any of the attention away from the dancers and the movements, however, personally I would have liked to have seen more of a set change for he land of sweets, where we get the dance of the sugar plum fairy and the different cultural dances, I feel that this would have enhanced the performance but also helped us to differentiate between the winter wonderland and the land of sweets as opposed to them being merged together, but that is a matter of opinion and taste. The Bolshoi ballet is a world renowned ballet company that is known for its outstanding technique and performance from its dancers so its understandable that they would not like to take the attention away from that!

What I will say is I did enjoy the dance of the snow fairy's which showed grate technique and poise with a large use of spatial patterns and design which added to the effect and enticement of the dance making it seem more complex and keeping everyone in the cinema transfixed, they did use the snowy mountain prop near the end of the routine with the addition of The Nutcracker and Marie it really gave the effect that they had gone into a new and exciting world which really "The Nutcracker" is supposed to do. 

I also enjoyed the different cultural dances that had been mixed with ballet each one was suppoused to represent a different type of sweet. They represented India, China, Spain, Russia and either Danish or French. The movements represented many stereotypes of each country some more quirky than others! I felt all the duets showed skill and confidence in each and every movement, my favourite duet was defiantly the Indian styled dancing, I this may be because I've just finish studying kathak dancing in one of my recent dance units, so seeing them include and combine movements from ballet and kathak really intrigued me and could have  given me inspiration for my own ballet-kathak fusion piece.

 

 

I had never noticed that the Nutcracker and Marie actually get married in this imaginary land, I know in spin-off film version they did but I had never been aware of it happening when I watched the ballet, so definitely watching it when im a little older does mean I pick up on a lot more of the detail and may suggested to me that I don't remember the story as well as I thought I had!

 

 

Overall I enjoyed the performance the dancing itself was brilliant and reasonably modern, however, I did feel some of the magic was gone for me maybe partly as I already new the story so it wasn't new material, but also because of maybe the lack of scenery in the second section. I didn't feel as enthused as I did when I saw their live-stream of Giselle earlier in the season. No matter how much I may critically comment on the piece it will still remain a gem of my childhood, and the really beauty of any performance that I will go to see now is that I will pick out some true highlights for me and other parts that I may feel less enthused by, but either way I still love watching a performance that has been really worked for and with the Bolshoi ballet you will know and can always see how hard each and every dancer has worked!

 

Emma Louise xx

 

My top 5 resons for loving ballet

1) The beautiful story telling! not only through facial expressions but the way in which they feel and perform a movement helps tell a story, each movement is given a purpous and an emotion, its beautiful to see

2) The sheer technique and skill shown by all the dancers, performed flawlessly

3) The costumes, they look elegant or eye catching under spotlight. Not only enhancing the character but the viewing pleasure

4) The stamina, a ballet dancer may be training on pointe for 7hrs + a day and performing for at least an hr every performance.

5) The commitment and training. A ballet dancer works so hard to perfect every single movement + every single breath.

"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.

Flexibility improvement

Finally able to do right split fully, and im so close to being able to hold my leg up and also do box.
My stretch diarys been working!
Ill keep my blog updated on how i do with my left split and development of my box and standing split!



right legged full split

second
 

second/box splits

standing split on right leg  

 

Ballet boyz -"young men"- review

The other day I had the pleasure of going and watching "young men" by ballet boyz, in Saddlers wells theatre, London! Ballet boys is a well renowned company of predominantly male (as the name suggests) contemporary dancers.

The show I went to watch called "young men", a tribute to the thousands of young boys who lost their lives on D-day (ww2) which happened 70 years ago. This theme was evident in the performance, through the style of movement, formations and performance skills, which showed many different aspects of the war: pain, suffering, love, friendship and trust.

my ticket :)

Act one showed us, how the young men were recruited, what they left behind, learning to fight, work as a team and the very start of the war. Whereas act two focused more on the war itself, the fights amongst the troops, and some going home injured or mentally unwell.

The emotions in this piece were very high there were certainly a few movement where I was close to tears watching the piece: not just when the men had to leave their families and loved ones behind but in the movements that they were doing particularly in some of the solos, even from quite a height I could feel the emotions that they were giving off, this was very closely linked to the accompaniment which was quite sorrowful, the live orchestra in this part used a lot of violins and contrasted this with the use of a deep drum. The music to choreography relationship for me was one of the strongest things about this performance I didn't spot any timing issues or slip ups, and found myself transfixed on the sheer elegance and grace of these dancers but also the effortless power that they sustained throughout the performance, while doing trick after trick.



different poses on different levels help add interest, dancing in very mutual clothing which would have been warn in the time period.

Something I'd like to pick up on is that I find with a lot of companies they can perform the same tricks over and over again in the same layout and order that we saw them earlier, so for me seeing how the routines were choreographed with tricks repeated but in different orders or combined with something new, made it really captivating. It also left me wondering how they did it? which makes you interested in seeing more. One of the main foundations of dance, or even performing is to capture an audience, to make them inspired and to leave them awestruck, in some cases is very hard to do.

Having said this there were moments where I did loose attention and the performance didn't quite capture me as it should, I think this was because of the changed in soloists during the routine, who showed less emotion through their body. I found that a particular criticism that I personally would have is the moment in the second half where they started playing a card game, the idea behind it was to set the scene, which I understand but I feel it went too long, and I felt my attention start to go, maybe more so due to it being considerable less captivating that the dance before. It may have helped for something else to be happening at the time maybe music in the background or war sound effects like earlier in the piece, to set the scene, as they all formed a circle in centre stage under a spotlight but with some side lighting so the stage could all be seen as opposed to just the dancers which again if it had been darkness with just a single spotlight on the group it would have drawn my attention in for longer.

Shows use of levels and core strength, pose insinuates someone falling or being shot during battle.

There was a solo that I found particularly interesting and it was a dancer contorting his body in a disjointed way, to give the effect of him being crippled by injury, he started the routine being able to do amazing tricks and balances with complete control and then slowly throughout the solo we saw him deteriorate into the floor by increasing the changes in levels as to portray the idea that his injuries and physical health got worse, which was hard to watch in terms of emotions. What I found quite touching was that the other dancers or "young men" came on stage when he was at his lowest and all helped to  build him back up, showing the themes friendship and team work amongst the troops. This then developed into a well formatted group piece, where everyone would be dancing in unison and one by one they'd break away as to become injured and then re-join the rest of the group. This bit also flowed really well as the dancers swapped roles of who was injured they would stop and then start where the last member finished almost to show the continuation of ones injury.

Soloist bending his body in different ways. lack of clothes helps show venerability, but helps draw attention to muscles and ligaments in the body making his movements seem more strenuous as the light catches them

Overall I enjoyed the performance its a very emotional piece and I would recommend it to someone else, I felt the choreography and live orchestra where the two overall highlights of the performance, and there's only certain things that I would change such as the scene with the card so as to maintain the attention of all the audience members! 

By Emma Louise xx