Practitioner Study

As part of my research into Crystal Pite I analysed an excerpt of her ballet ‘Body and Soul’. 🩰 Body and Soul (excerpt) - YouTube

The ominous staging that we are introduced to at the opening of the excerpt creates a sense of unease as a large group of dancers begin to march onstage, upon the couple who merge into the forming vessel of the dancers. With half the dancers wearing white and the others wearing black, I wondered whether this was direct correlation to the title, ’Body and Soul’ as the dancers began to form an intertwined structure which reminded me of the human spine. The top of the structure began to move, triggering the movement of others, just like the spine. The resistance of each pair (one wearing white and the other in black) suggested to me that the resistance shows the metaphorical resistance between what the soul wants and the action the body produces; an internal war. As the piece progresses, the patterns develop and the music increases in the number of layers, first starting of like a seemingly calm seaside location to one of protest. The movement become erratic and increase in dynamic value, emphasising the sense of rebellion and limitations of freedom. Around the end of the piece, the video turns into black and white whilst the movements seem to be in slow motion where the dancers are using lots of physical contact. As this phrase progresses, the dancers dressed in black gradually leave the stage until its only dancers wearing white left.  This suggests to me, especially when the combination of movement with the music, that only bodies are used in war opposed to ‘souls’, intending to remind the audience of the negative impacts that war has on people. ‘The dancers evoke scenes of epic protest, profound personal struggle, and collective survival.’ (Videotanz, 2021) The piece ends with a body lying on stage and the other dancers spread out upstage.

We intend to similarly manipulate the dynamic values of our music and exaggerate the consequences of indulgence.

Pite was ‘Exploring the theme of mourning and bereavement, the Canadian choreographer presents the conflicting urges and impulses that challenge the unity of each of us.’ (Opéra national de Paris, 2021) and used ‘repetitive, synchronized groupwork’ (Wyman, 2019).

Bibliography:

min, R.M.I.D. 1 hour 21 (2021). Body and Soul. [online] videotanz. Available at: https://videotanz.ru/dance/body-and-soul/ [Accessed 31 Oct. 2023].

www.operadeparis.fr. (n.d.). Body and Soul - Ballet - Season 21/22 Programming - Opéra national de Paris. [online] Available at: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-21-22/ballet/body-and-soul#about [Accessed 31 Oct. 2023].

Wyman, M. (2019). Crystal Pite’s Body and Soul. [online] Notes Toward a Life. Available at: https://maxwyman.com/2019/11/09/crystal-pites-body-and-soul/.