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Dance > Richard Alston + WILDLIFE > Flashcards

Richard Alston + WILDLIFE Flashcards

1
Q

where and when is Alston born?

A

Sloughton Sussex England in 1948 into a privileged family- a British choreographer

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2
Q

where was Alston educated?

A

Eton, where he discovered his passion for music in the school gramophone library, listening to the likes of Bach and Billie Holiday

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3
Q

when did he begin classes in dance?

A

At 18 in contemporary dance and then decided to take it up as a career

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4
Q

what established did Alston take part in?

A

Initially a drop out, Modern Dance Establishment
- wanted to do his own thing developing a dance language and conversing with music

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5
Q

what was his dance career like?

A

LCDS trained Alston in Graham technique
- it’s syllabus included ballet, historical dance and contemporary

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6
Q

what did he develop his own way?

A

Own way of moving and choreographing works

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7
Q

where did Alston study in 1965?

A

Studied Fine Art and theatre design and the Croydon College of Art

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8
Q

where is he the first student sohort?

A

London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1967

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9
Q

where did he become one of the first full time students?

A

LCDS along with Siobhan Davies in 1968

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10
Q

When did Alston begin to choreograph?

A

1968

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11
Q

what did Alston receive a grant from?

A

Gulbenkian Foundation (1972)
- which allowed his to form the UK’s first independent dance company

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12
Q

what was his first dance company?

A

Strider
- were he investigated new forms of dance within the experimental company

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13
Q

what collage did Alston visit?

A

Darlington Collage of Arts (1973)
- where he met Mary Fulkerson and is introduced to contact and release technique

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14
Q

when and why did Alston leave England?

A

1975 to study with Merce Cunningham in New York

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15
Q

when and why did he return to London?

A

1977 to teach Cunningham Technique
- on his return he worked as a freelance choreographer and teacher and mainly young dancers attended his classes, including Siobhan Davies and Ian Spink

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16
Q

who were the founding members of Richard Alston and Dancers?

A

Davies and Spink

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17
Q

what is included in the Cunningham technique?

A

• upright
• curve
• twist
• arch (high release)
• tilt

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18
Q

when and what does he choreograph his first work for Ballet Rambert?

A

1980 Bell High School

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19
Q

what position did he have in Ballet Rambert?

A

Resident Choreographer (1980-6)

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20
Q

what happened to Strider?

A

Merged with Siobhan Davies company to form ‘Second Strider’ in 1981

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21
Q

what did his position change to for Ballet Rambert?

A

Artistic Director in 1986

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22
Q

how many work were created during his directorship?

A

25 works (1986-92)

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23
Q

what did Alston change the name of Ballet Rambert to?

A

In 1987, to Rambert Dance Company to reflect the more modern style of the company

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24
Q

what were Alston’s stylistic features?

A

• Cunningham- esquire
• Curves and tilts in the body
• Retailed steps
• Balletic
• weight, breath & flow
• fluid quality
• clear shapes and rhythms
• love of music: scores & music visualisation and disassociation
• interest in new architecture
• space, paths and flows of body
• proportional phrase
• harmonious lines in the body
• distinctive style
• specific choice of dances: training gender, physique, creativity
• interest in structure

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25
Q

who is Frederick Ashton?

A

• British dancer and choreographer
• Inspired by Ashtons musical lyrical flowing movement, his beautiful use of the black (flowing into shoulders and arms)
• quick detailed foot work

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26
Q

who is Merce Cunningham?

A
  • American dancer and choreographer
  • Forefront of American Modern Dance for more than 50 years
  • The ‘grand-father’ of Modern Dance
  • Alston was inspired by Cunningham’s clear full movement, sharp changes of direction, rapid moves through space, extraordinary energy and clarity
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27
Q

who is George Balanchine?

A
  • American ballet choreographer
  • One of the most influential 20th century choreographers
  • Balanchine fast flying energy in space and “musical, musical, musical!”
28
Q

who is Fred Astaire?

A
  • American choreographer, singer,
    actor, choreographer and TV presenter
  • Alston enjoyed Astaires light elegant rhythmical quirkiness
  • Astaire partnering was totally sublime
29
Q

who is August Bournonville?

A
  • Danish Ballet master and choreographer
  • inspired by his beautiful small fast steps
  • he identifies his choreography as providing gracious generous dancing and a wonderful humanity
30
Q

who is Twyla Tharp?

A
  • American dancer, choreographer and author in New York City
  • her work often uses classical music, jazz and contemporary pop music
  • Alston enjoyed Thrapston earlier work for complex structure disguised by a laid back coil
  • dances such as the Bix Pieces and Cukclin Hen were a huge inspiration to Alston
31
Q

who is Margot Fonteyn?

A
  • an English ballerina for the Royal Ballet
  • Alston was in awe of her articulate musicality and warm generous personal on stage
32
Q

who is Mary Fulkerson?

A
  • American dance teacher and choreographer
  • who developed an approach to expressive human movement called ‘Anatomical Release Technique’
  • Alston studied release technique with Fulkerson at Dartington College and some of the values such as keeping the skeleton in dynamic balance and using momentum to generate movement and also apparent to his work
33
Q

what dance does Alston choreograph?

A

Wildlife (1984)

34
Q

what company was Wilflife created for?

A

Ballet Rambert

35
Q

when was the Wildlife premiere?

A

17th May 1984

36
Q

how created the music for Wildlife?

A

Nigel Osborne

37
Q

what created the set and costume for wildlife?

A

Richard ‘Dick’ Smith

38
Q

who created the lighting for Wilflife?

A

Peter Mumford/ Sid Ellen

39
Q

what is the duration of Wildlife?

A

35 minutes

40
Q

how many dancers are in Wildlife?

A

6

41
Q

what is the subject matter of Wildlife?

A

None
- no story
- forests, deep shade, open space, hunting, exotic animals, birds could be related to the piece

42
Q

what are the origins of Wildlife?

A

• a three way conversation between
- Nigel Osborne (music)
- Richard Smith (design)
- Richard Alston (movement)
• however each created separately and hold their own independence

43
Q

who is Nigel Osborne ?

A

A British Composer
- Alston approached Nigel first in the creation of Osborne

44
Q

why did Alston want to work with Osborne?

A

After Soda Lake (1981)

45
Q

how did Alston and Osborne work together?

A

They decided to work from scratch so they could have a commissioned score and a new ballet

46
Q

where did the music from Wilflife come from?

A

Different cultures backgrounds and music came from all over the world

47
Q

how did Alston choreograph without music?

A

Alston did not have the full track until half way through which meant reconstructing had to take place

Osborne gave Alston short snippets of music to choreograph form
- these included sounds the Borneo fanfare, bird catching of children, African Imbera

48
Q

what was Richard Smith known for?

A

3D synthetic canvases

49
Q

how did Alston found Smith?

A

When Alston was studying at Art school
- this collaboration was intitiated after Alstons experienced of touring America fondness of art growing up

50
Q

what did Alston like about Smith work?

A

Fascinated with how they curved into the space
- in particular a large yellow ‘kite’ that hung in the top of a museum in Oxford

51
Q

how did Alston and Smith work together?

A

Cutting out shapes of paper to from kites which then developed into designing the set in hotel rooms in model theatres

52
Q

how did Smith’s creation influence Alstons work?

A

Influence the sense of visual for Alstons movement in particular the shapes of movements

53
Q

how did Alston determine sections?

A

By listening to the sections that Osborne had written and looking at the longer musical structure

54
Q

what was the form of Wildlife?

A

Abstract
- hard to identify the beginning and ending of these sections

55
Q

how many dancers are in Wildlife?

A

6 dancers
• 3 females/3 male
• the dancers are cast demonstrating strong technical ability and physical bodily skill, and present slender toned muscular frames
• Mark Baldwin- one of the dance then becomes artistic director for Rambert

56
Q

who designed the costume?

A

Richard Smith

57
Q

what was the costume like?

A

• both the male and female dancers wear long sleeves, round necked, cotton leotard (one for long sleeve, vest strap)
• the leotard colours vary throughout the cast with yellow, green or pink
• upon the front and back of the leotards have large white/blue/orange geometric shapes with black outlines
• there are no shoes worn: all dancers are bare foot (dance style)
• the hair is worn natural female dancers hair with us low
• the makeup is natural with a black and white stripe under the eye
• ties to the set because Richard Smith designed both. The same in terms of colours and shapes
• costume is abstract and has a linear movement

58
Q

what was the set design like?

A

• proscenium stage created and performed
• upon the white backdrop that hangs at the back of the stage
• a silhouette of similar ‘kite’ shape are projected at different times throughout the work
• the silhouette stretches the widths of the stage but only across the bottom half of the backdrop
• artist created mobile set containing huge, brightly coloured kite like screens
• these were hung at varying heights, turned and moved in and out, up and down almost as part of the choreography and acted as an exotic, habitat for the dancers/wildlife contained there in the imaginery landscope

59
Q

what was the accompaniment like?

A

• use of peculiar sounds
• specifically commissioned music was composed by Osbourne who began by researching and exploring nature sounds from other cultures
• the strange sounds Osbourne heard were made by ethnic instruments in very distant parts of the world such as Eskmic, singing, tribal song from Chad and a sharp, sputtering trumpet from New Guinea
• performed by a small ensemble of wind percussion and strings with a sound projectionist adding stereophonic effects
- flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, viola, cello, bass, guitar, harp, violin

60
Q

what was the lighting like?

A

• at the final stage, Peter Mumford, the lighting direction, joined in the collaboration
• Mumford went to rehearsal and saw certain sorts of Wildlife but did not see the complete work or exactly how it was going to piece together until relatively late on
• once the kite were hung in the space in the theatre there were a lot of last minute discussions to be made by Mumford in the sense of him not seeing the actual objects until that later stage

61
Q

what was the use of lighting?

A

• highlight the artwork
• makes audience see the effect on the space
• lighting can point out shape/relationship to the space

62
Q

what are the actions shown in Wildlife?

A

• arabesque
• leaps
• runs
• stretches
• turns
• extensions
• lunges
• bends
• folds
• footwork
• angles/shape
• balance

63
Q

what are the dynamics shown in wildlife?

A

• sharp
• sudden
• soft
• stuttered
• seamless
• direct
• sustained
• controlled
• static
• rhythmic
• slow
• fast
• heavy

64
Q

what are the space shown in Wildlife?

A

• difference facings
• linear pathways
• use of levels
• curved pathways
• variations of directions

65
Q

what are the relationships shown in wildlife?

A

• solo
• duets
• trios
• ensemble
• canon
• unison
• counterpoint
• pas de deux
• contact

66
Q

what is the significance of the character of the dance in wildlife?

A

• the unique selling point of the dance
- unlike any other work at that time/prior to
- inclusion of art work
- exploration of artwork

67
Q

what is the characterisation of the dance?

A

• abstract
• art
• fantasy

Dance (4 decks)

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