Lonely Town Lonely Street (1980) By Robert North Flashcards
What year was it first created?
1980
What is the subject matter?
Depicts a portrait of a lonely person in the big city
What is the aural setting?
- composer is Bill Withers
- use of his popular American pop music
- recorded music, no orchestra
What is the physical setting?
- Set: Depicts a rundown American city, with outsides of buildings and bars, lamp posts, fire doors, rubbish on stage
- Costume: bright coloured trousers and bomber jackets, baggy denim jeans, blazers and skirts to look normal 80s current dress
- Lighting: Dim and oppressive
Who is the set and costume designer? and who is the lighting director?
- set=Andrew Stoner
- lighting= John B. Read
When was it first performed by Rambert?
1981
- what is a movement example from this work
Include the interpretation and how this shows the choreographers style
Movement: All dancers walk around the street setting, turning swiftly at right angles as if they are walking around a grid formation like on a map of a North American city
- what is a movement example from this work
Include the interpretation
Movement: The lady in the red trousers and black bomber jacket runs up to every dancer in turn, with a despearate facial expression, and puts hands on top of their arms, and they do all do 1 turn and shrug her off. The other dancers then all form a wall which she can’t penentrate through, and she runs and puts her hands up on their backs.
Interpretation: She looks like she wants to talk to every one in the street, but they shrug her off minding their own business. The wall is like everyone is excluding her, highlighting the key theme of a lonely person.
- what is a movement example from this work
Include the interpretation and how this shows the choreographers style
Movement: All dancers stop walking and do a slow and dramatic contraction into a deep parallel fourth position. They then sharply snap up out of it into an open stance, then cross the foot over to turn around and do a flick ball change to continue walking
Interpretation: Contraction looks like people are physically in pain, then they shrug it off like nothing happened, showing that many people found in a city are dealing with their own pain and problems, but act unbothered in public.
Choreographer’s style: Modern and jazz influence from North’s jazz teacher Matt Mattox, and Graham technique through contraction
- what is a movement example from this work
Include how this shows the choreographers style
Movement: One dancer does 2 step ball changes throwing his arms across the body from side to side, then does a step turn into a turning leap, bringing the arms up over his head, then into a single pirouette, with the leg in parallel retire, on a bend
Choreographer’s style: Shows the modern and jazz influence of North’s teacher Matt Mattox, and the modern vocabualarly
