Infra

Question 1

Choreographer

Answer 1

Wayne McGregor

Question 2

Company

Answer 2

Royal ballet

Question 3

Stimulus of dance

Answer 3

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”

Question 4

Choreographic intention

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Costuming

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Motifs within the piece

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Date of first performance

Answer 7

13th November 2008

Question 8

Location of first performance

Answer 8

Royal opera house London

Question 9

Dance style

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What was the choreographic approach

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

At the end of his 3 choreographic approaches what does Wayne do

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Number of dancers

Answer 12

12
6 male
6 female
Brief appearance of crowd who cross stage

Question 13

Duration of dance

Answer 13

28 mins

Question 14

Structure of dance

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Aural setting

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Lighting

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Performance environment

Answer 17

Proscenium arch/ theatrical setting

Question 18

Staging / set

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What does the green lighting show

Answer 19

The chemicals and toxics from the bombing

Question 20

What choreographic devices were used

Answer 20

Motif and development

Repetition, contrast(section 3), highlights, climax, manipulation of number, contact, unison and canon

Question 21

Where is the climax seen

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Where is there a highlight

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Describe a motif

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

Describe the use of accumulation

Answer 24

The use of accumulation is mirrored in the projection above. As dancers gradually accumulate on stage, it is too mirrored on the LED projection

Question 25

Where is there climax

Answer 25

Climax to show chaos of London bombing g

Question 26

What was the initial stimulus

Answer 26

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

Question 27

How many sections

Answer 27

9 sections- episodic

Each has a different piece of music, each section differs with mood and rhythm

Question 28

Describe space

Answer 28

Spatial design

Use of foreground and background “full” and “empty” in terms of numbers of dancers on stage

Question 29

Describe pathways

Answer 29

Use of linear horizontal pathways across the stage

Question 30

Describe size

Answer 30

Wayne McGregor uses the term “fat” and “thin” to describe the size of the movement

Question 31

Describe relationships

Answer 31

Lead and follow 
Accumulation 
Action and reaction 
Complement and contrast 
Counterpoint 
Contact 
Formations