Infra Flashcards
Choreographer
Wayne McGregor
Company
Royal ballet
Stimulus of dance
The title infra comes from the Latin word for ‘below’ and the work presents a portrait of life beneath the surface of the city. This abstract ballet delves beneath the surface to present human interactions.
‘Under the brown fog of a winter dawn’
‘A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many’
The Poem “the wasteland”
Choreographic intention
Infra is about seeing below the surface of things.You can see people walking in the street. Infra is about people and the choreography has found a pedestrian language which is recognisably human. The piece is about inferences, particular types of relationships and reactions. He wanted to help the Audience in watching the complex structure, he purposefully left open the full visual field by Julian opie so the audience could make their own selections.
Costuming
Designed by maritz junge
Fitted shorts,vests, t shirts in flesh, black, white, grey colours.
E.g. One woman wore a short wrap around skirt and a male wore long trousers.
Female wear pointe shoes.
Some street clothes are worn briefly for the appearance of the everyday crowd.
Motifs within the piece
Wanted to build a language, a very prosaic and pedestrian language, what do normal people do?
Language was inspired by walking, running, sitting- took simple actions and developed them into something richer.
Wanted to use stuff that was very anti ballet, ballet is a very code defined language which you have to learn the logic to be able to do it. Wayne wanted to contrast this by doing something that everyone understands. Everyone has a body and knows how to use it and to carry out those everyday actions.
Date of first performance
13th November 2008
Location of first performance
Royal opera house London
Dance style
Contemporary ballet
McGregors dance style is distinctive for its speed and energy and for the dynamic, angular and hyperextended movements that push dancers to physical extremes
What was the choreographic approach
SHOW a phrase to the whole or part of the cast- dancers watch and either recreate the phrase or create a version
MAKE a phrase on a target dancer or dancers- others watch and copy or develop
TASK- set a choreographic task for dancers to complete a pose or choreographic problems for the dancers to solve. The task problems involve imagery as a stimulus for creating movement.
At the end of his 3 choreographic approaches what does Wayne do
The movement vocabulary is then structure into longer “sentences” and “Paragraphs”. Finally he words musically with the structure and pieces it all together like a jigsaw.
Number of dancers
12
6 male
6 female
Brief appearance of crowd who cross stage
Duration of dance
28 mins
Structure of dance
The ballet compromises of solos, duets and ensembles with many arresting moments, for instance 6 couples dance duets in 6 squares of light and a crowd surges across the stage unaware of one women’s private grief
Aural setting
Music by Mac Richter - max richter quintet performed live with Johnathan haswell
Sound design by Chris Ekers
Melancholy sting melodies with electronic sounds and everyday sounds like train-whistles.m
Lighting
Designed by Lucy carter
Lights width of stage often focusing down stage
Occasionally dancers are lit by shafts of light and at one point 6 rectangles of light frame 6 dancers
Colours are used to highlight different sections
Performance environment
Proscenium arch/ theatrical setting
Staging / set
Designed by artist Julian opie
A 18m LED screen placed high up on a black back wall. It runs the width of the stage and has visuals of a flow of electronic walking figures
What does the green lighting show
The chemicals and toxics from the bombing
What choreographic devices were used
Motif and development
Repetition, contrast(section 3), highlights, climax, manipulation of number, contact, unison and canon
Where is the climax seen
Section 4
6 male/female duets take place simultaneously downstage, with moment of unison occuring, each duet takes place within a block of light (looks like a window). Although each duet shares movement vocabulary and take place at the same time, each duet is not aware of other duets taking place. This links to the idea of strangers being busy in a city- only reveal true feelings behind closed doors in the intimacy of their own homes
Where is there a highlight
Section 7b towards the end when the stage is filled with a crowd of normal people walking like pedestrians in one particular direction. This is contrasted with a female solo dancer centre stage moving slowly to the floor, demonstrating grief and despair
Describe a motif
In the opening section, two male dancers perform a unison duet where their hands circle over their shoulders and reach forward which then goes into counterpoint. Meaning maybe e a bit dodgy but hinted at how as humans we can have similar emotions and basic human responses/needs and experiences (unison) but also deal with things differently as individuals (counterpoint)
Describe the use of accumulation
The use of accumulation is mirrored in the projection above. As dancers gradually accumulate on stage, it is too mirrored on the LED projection
Where is there climax
Climax to show chaos of London bombing g
What was the initial stimulus
2007 London bombings
It was exposed in a really extreme way to an act of violence and people behaved very differently after, different type of humanity
How many sections
9 sections- episodic
Each has a different piece of music, each section differs with mood and rhythm
Describe space
Spatial design
Use of foreground and background “full” and “empty” in terms of numbers of dancers on stage
Describe pathways
Use of linear horizontal pathways across the stage
Describe size
Wayne McGregor uses the term “fat” and “thin” to describe the size of the movement
Describe relationships
Lead and follow Accumulation Action and reaction Complement and contrast Counterpoint Contact Formations
