Rooster Comparisons

Question 1

Starting Points?

Answer 1

Rooster (1991)
- Nostalgia: growing up in the 60s (autobiographical)
- the music of The Rolling Stones (“It’s a celebration of the music”)
- choreography does not always focus on this as it is an abstract source. He allowed the songs to have an impact on the section of the movement and to colour the meanings that emerged.

Swan Song (1987)
- Work of Amnesty International
- The experiences of Chilean poet Victor Jara and the novel ‘The Man’ by Oriana Fallaci
- Bruce also reflected on the experience of saying ‘goodbye’ to his career as a performer (autobiographical)

Ghost Dances (1981)
- Bruce first heard the music 2 years before creating Ghost Dances
- Bruce was asked to create a dance for the Chilean Human Rights Committee
- A book about Victor Jara’s murder during General pinochet’s rule
- South American Rituals and cultures like the ‘day of the dead’

Question 2

Movement Content?

Answer 2

ROOSTER:
Graham / jazz / social dance
- Graham tech. (section 6 Ruby Tuesday) : female soloist performs a contrast and release style of movement CS
- releasing her right leg to an extended line facing DR whilst her arms remain behind her back.
- as she contracts her torso with a heavy head facing downwards, she releases herself to a straightened position, unfolding her arms towards DR

SWAN SONG
Graham / partner contact / tap / jazz / music hall or vaudeville / references to social dances / ballroom
- Section 1 : references to vaudeville and tap. Question and answer sequences with foot tapping
- (Graham tech.) Section 7 : rises from the chair and dances a solo. Controlled movements, arms resembling wings, extended body line, movements slow, long and sustained.

GHOST DANCES
Graham / modern dance / folk / social dance
- movement vocabulary based on folk and social dance, combined with the vocabulary from his own training of ballet and Graham-based modern.
- Bruce is a member of the 2nd generation of choreographers which married classical ballet to contemporary or modern dance
- no formal mime, there is a strong sense of character in the choreography (eg. sighs, gestures of sorrow, and actions when playing games)

Question 3

Aural setting?

Answer 3

ROOSTER
Since the early 1980s Bruce has choreographed to popular songs
The Rolling Stones

SWAN SONG
- especially commissioned by Bruce, composed by Philip Chambon
- played by various instruments, modified using a synthesiser.
- electro-acoustic accompaniment includes digitally sampled sounds, vocals, a reed pipe, and popular dance rhythms
- unaccompanied interludes (silence) to hear tapping of feet etc. Also means audience can hear the sound of a dancers’ movements and breath

GHOST DANCES
- South American songs and folk tunes by Inti-Illamani
- Played mainly on banpipes, sung in Spanish and accompanied by the sound of wind.
- Piece begins with the wind effects before the music fades in very quietly

Question 4

Themes?

Answer 4

ROOSTER
sexual revolution
courtship
power relationships
narcissism
misogyny
adolescent anxieties

SWAN SONG
Human rights
Prisoner of conscience definition
Freedom of expression (free speech etc.)

GHOST DANCES
Political oppression
Human rights
Speaking out for good
Story telling
Bruce describes the group on their way to heaven or hell. Their last statements/memories before they go to their deaths.