Choreography for Solo Performance (MU40370O)

The practitioner I have chosen to focus on and use as inspiration in my own choreography is Crystal Pite ; who is an Canadian choreographer creating work for many big companies including the Royal Ballet - which she made her debut in the 2016/17 season with a piece called ‘Flight Pattern’. (Crystal Pite — People — Royal Opera House, 2022) Pite is known for creating work which addresses complex themes and problems relevant in today’s society which are also important topics to her personally. (Company – Kidd Pivot, 2022)   ‘Flight Pattern’ is an example of a piece she created in response to the refugee crisis in modern society, which explores themes of separation and grief. (Winship, 2022) . In an interview with the Royal Ballet, Pite describes her creation as ‘’her way of coping with the world at the moment ’’ and that she ‘’can’t not talk about it’’. (Royal Opera House, 2019)   One thing that drew me to Crystal Pite w a s h e r focus on incorporating her emotio...

The stimulus I chose for my solo was a piece of artwork called ‘Metropolis’ ; which is a serie s explor ing how we are dwarfed in society today and how we are often lost in it. (Schaller, 2019) This image stood out the most to me as I liked the abstract idea and how it could represent many different things - I  felt like it would be the most interesting image to work with. To aid the creative pr ocess of my solo I began to research about shadows , linked specifically with psychology . From this I found a concept by a psychiatrist named ‘Carl Jung’, which describes aspects of our personality which we don’t like and cho o se to reject , repress ing into our unconsciousness . (Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side, 2022) These repressed characteristics become known as our ‘shadow self’ , almost like an ‘alter ego’ . (Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side, 2022) From this, I could tie together the idea of everyone hav...

‘In the Countenance of Kings’ (San Fransisco Ballet, 2017) by Justin Peck was a very lively piece , in which the dancers performed energetic mov ements with a strong use of dynamics and change of direction throughout. Each movement was very sharp and precise; creating strong, clean lines. The music reflected this lively feeling and almost sounded like birds chirping. The piece began and ended in the same place (making it cyclical) : the dancer lying on the studio floor, sit ting up and looking in the mirror . The beginning and end of the piece are parallel although they differ in that at the beginning the dancer sits up and there is a different dancer acting as her reflection ( although this dancer acts independent of the dancer whom she is reflecting ) . In contrast,   the ending of the piece when the dancer sits up , her reflection is herself staring back. This difference suggests that something has happened,  resulting in a change of  reflection , and that t...