Week 8 assignment: essay – interrelationships reflection apa format | Applied Sciences homework help
- Even the most rudimentary movement attempting to reveal a narrative will bring in interpretations that go beyond the narrative alone. As a viewer, discuss what you believe the other dancers added to the narrative.
FIGURE 10-4 A scene from George Balanchine’s Nutcracker, with music by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Here, Clara has freed the Prince and journeyed with him to the world of the fairies as the Snowflakes gather in a blizzard in the last scene of act 1 by the New York City Ballet. ©Paul Kolnik 261 jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 261 12/9/17 10:11 AM 262
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Swan Lake One of the most popular ballets of all time is Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (Le Lac des Cygnes), composed from 1871 to 1877 and first performed in 1894 (act 2) and 1895 (complete). The choreographers were Leon Ivanov and Marius Petipa. Tchaikovsky originally composed the music for a ballet to be performed for children, but its fascination has not been restricted to young audiences. With Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, the reigning dancers in this ballet in modern times, Swan Lake has been a resounding favorite on television and film, not to mention repeated sellout performances in dance theaters the world over. Act 1 opens with the principal male dancer, the young Prince Siegfried, attend- ing a village celebration. His mother, the Queen, finding Siegfried sporting with the peasants, decides that it is time for him to marry someone of his own station and settle into the nobility. After she leaves, a pas de trois—a dance with three danc- ers, in this instance Siegfried and two maids—is interrupted by the Prince’s slightly drunk tutor, who tries to take part in some of the dancing but is not quite able. When a flight of swans is seen overhead, the Prince resolves to go hunting. The opening scene of act 2 is on a moonlit lake, with the arch magician Rothbart tending his swans. The swans, led by Odette, are maidens he has enchanted. They can return to human form only at night. Odette’s movements are imitated by the entire group of swans, movements that are clearly influenced by the motions of the swan’s long neck and by the movements we associate with birds—for example, an undulating motion executed by the dancers’ arms and a fluttering executed by the legs. Siegfried comes upon the swans and restrains his hunters from shooting at them. He falls in love with Odette, now in her human form, all of whose motions are characterized by the softness and grace of a swan (Figure 10-5). Siegfried learns that Odette is enchanted and that she cannot come to the ball at which the Queen has planned to arrange his marriage. Siegfried also learns that if he vows his love to her and keeps his vow, he can free her from the enchantment. She warns him that Rothbart will do everything to trick him into breaking the vow, but Siegfried is determined to be steadfast. As dawn arrives, the lovers part and Rothbart retrieves his swans. Act 3 commences with the ball the Queen has arranged for presenting to Sieg- fried a group of princesses from whom he may choose. Each princess, introduced in lavish native costume with a retinue of dancers and retainers, dances the folk dance of her country, such as the allemande, the czardas, the tarantella. But sud- denly Rothbart enters in disguise with his own daughter, Odile, who looks exactly like Odette. Today most performances require that Odette and Odile be the same dancer, although the parts were originally written for two dancers. Siegfried and Odile dance the famous Black Swan pas de deux, a dance notable for its virtuos- ity. It features almost superhuman leaps on the part of Siegfried, and it involves thirty-two rapidly executed whipping turns (fouettés) on the part of Odile. Her movement is considerably different in character from that of Odette. Odile is more angular, is less delicate, and in her black costume seems much less the picture of innocence Odette had seemed in her soft white costume. Siegfried’s movements suggest great joy at being with Odette, for he does not realize that this is really Odile, the magician’s daughter. jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 262 12/9/17 10:11 AM 263
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When the time comes for Siegfried to choose among the princesses for his wife, he rejects them all and presents Odile to the Queen as his choice. Once Siegfried has committed himself to her, Rothbart exults and takes Odile from him and makes her vanish. Siegfried, who has broken his vow to Odette, realizes he has been duped and ends the act by rushing out to find the real Odette. Like a number of other sections of the ballet, act 4 has a variety of versions that interpret what is essentially similar action (Figure 10-6). Siegfried, in finding Odette by the lake at night, sacrifices himself for her and breaks the spell. They are joined in death and are beyond the power of the magician. Some versions of the ballet aim for a happy ending and suggest that though Siegfried sacrifices himself for Odette, he does not die. In this happy-ending version, Odette, upon realizing that Siegfried had been tricked, forgives him. Rothbart raises a terrible storm in order to drown all the swans, but Siegfried carries Odette to a hilltop, where he is willing to die with her if necessary. This act of love and sacrifice breaks the spell, and the two of them are together as dawn breaks. Another version concentrates on spiritual victory and reward after death in a better life than that which was left behind. Odette and the swans dance slowly and sorrowfully together, with Odette rising in a stately fashion in their midst. When Siegfried comes, he begs her to forgive him, but nothing can break the magician’s spell. Odette and he dance, they embrace, and she bids him farewell and casts her- self mournfully into the lake, where she perishes. Siegfried, unable to live without her, follows her into the lake. Then, once the lake vanishes, Odette and Siegfried are revealed in the distance, moving away together as evidence that the spell was broken in death. The story of Swan Lake has archetypal overtones much in keeping with the Romantic age in which it was conceived. John Keats, who wrote “La Belle Dame FIGURE 10-5 Matthew Golding as Siegfried and Natalia Ossipova as Odette in act 2 of Swan Lake with the corps de ballet of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, London. ©A Pennefather/Royal Opera House/ ArenaPAL/The Image Works jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 263 12/9/17 10:12 AM 264
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Sans Merci” fifty years before this ballet was created, was fascinated by the ancient stories of men who fell in love with supernatural spirits, which is what the swan- Odette is, once she has been transformed by magic. Likewise, the later Romantics were fascinated by the possibilities of magic and its implications for dealing with the forces of good and evil. This interest in magic and the supernatural is coupled with the Wagnerian interest in heroism and the implications of the sacrifice of the hero for the thing he loves. But Tchaikovsky—like Wagner, whose hero in the Ring of the Niebelungs is also a Siegfried, whose end with Brünnhilde is similar to the ending in Swan Lake—concentrates on the human valor of the Prince and its implication for transforming evil into good. FIGURE 10-6 The Royal Ballet rehearses their production of Swan Lake. Here, Rothbart’s enchanted swans dance together in a classic pose. ©Reuters/Alamy PERCEPTION KEY Swan Lake 1. If you can see a production or video of Swan Lake, focus on a specific act and com- ment in a discussion with others on the suitability of the bodily movements for the narrative subject matter of that act. Are feelings or states of mind interpreted as well as the narrative? If so, when and how?