Ziggurat (1967) By Glen Tetley

Question 1

What year was Ziggurat performed and created for Rambert?

Answer 1

1967

Question 2

What is the subject matter?

Answer 2

-a plotless work, but is linked to the tower of Babel, and explores the use of and confusion that language and language barriers can bring to communication.

Question 3

What is the aural setting?

Answer 3

by Stockhausen

Question 4

What was the physical setting?

Answer 4

• Set: a bare stage apart from a huge, white, movable, metal cuboids which could be repositioned to create different shapes and structures, positioned USC
• Costume: dancers all wore catsuits and then a hand crocheted catsuit over the top
• lighting: use of slide projection of eyes was a new, key design feature of this work
• props: use of a long strip of cellophane= Jacob’s ladder

Question 5

Who was the lighting designer and set designer for this work?

Answer 5

• lighting= John B. Read
• set= Nadine Baylis

Question 6

1. what is a movement example from this work

Include the interpretation and how this shows Tetley’s choreographic style

Answer 6

Movement: Several dancers are positioned DSL and are lying in a prone position, pushing up on their hands so their chest is lifted. Their heads are lifted backwards, and their facial expression looks as though they are shouting as their mouths are all open widely. In the background, a dancer is in a second plie with his arms out bent at the elbows and flexed at the wrists, positioned underneath the tower.

Interpretation: The dancers at the front don’t appear human, through their position and abstract costume, suggesting they are trying to communicate through a language barrier to another species. The dancer at the back is like the God figure exisiting within the tower

Choreographer’s style: design is integral to dance idea

Question 7

2. what is a movement example from this work

Include the interpretation and how this shows Tetley’s choreographic style

Answer 7

Movement: 2 dancers are stood facing downstage, with their legs in a natural stance. 2 other dancers, in only a white catsuit are positioned up on the other dancers shoulders, and their legs are bent at the back so their feet are touching. The dancers in the lift have their arms in a high, upwards curve position, and are looking upwards. In the background you can see the projections of eyes.

Interpretation: The 2 dancers being lifted look as though they are trying to communicate with the God’s above possibly, as they are raised onto a higher level. They could also be being sacrificed to the God’s, as an offering.

Choreographer’s style: modernist as quite an abstract lift, design integral to dance idea.