Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake: practices of looking at his dancing images
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/2237-9126.2010v4n6p23Keywords:
Dance, Images, Gender stereotypes.Abstract
This paper discusses, through the lens of visual culture studies and semiotics, Matthew Bourne’s piece Swan Lake. I examine meanings of images and signs that make up this piece. The investigation is delimited to the dancers’ bodily movements, gestures, gazes and territorial explorations in Act Two, A park in St. Jame’s. By contrasting themes in classical ballets that are conventional rather than challenging, this contemporary piece is an example of avant-garde works. Indeed, avant-garde is often associated with post-modernism and is frequently contrasted with mainstream or traditional dance works, especially classical ballet. Hence, the piece is at the forefront of artistic experimentation because it implicitly affirms that traditional ballets can be reconstructed through the lens of contemporary discussions about what is natural and conventional in gender stereotypes.Downloads
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