Only moments after the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan appeared online, internet wits had already dubbed it Single White Ballerina. Like Barbet Schroeder’s smash 1992 film Single White Female, Black Swan appears to be the story of a young woman (Natalie Portman) whose identity is usurped by an obsessed competitor. Here, the women are ballerinas, and their contest is for the affections of their choreographer as well as his leading roles.
The psycho-sexual relationship between the dancers hinted at in the trailer comes as no surprise; it’s almost a requirement of the genre. Equally, the overbearing mother – here seen painfully cropping her daughter’s fingernails – is a familiar role. (And one that will soon be played for black comedy, too. A just-announced independent comedy called Dance of the Mirlitons focuses on a ballet-mother who is determined to make her daughter famous, no matter what it takes.) Read the rest of this entry »
In June 2009 the international dance community mourned the death of modern choreographer Pina Bausch. Her work combined dance with theatrical methods of performance using an investigation of reality as its basis. Dancing Dreams (Tanztraume), screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year, is an uplifting exploration of the process behind performing her innovative and challenging work.
In 2007 directors Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoffmann documented the year-long rehearsal period as a group of 40 teenagers recreated Bausch’s 1978 work Kontakthof. Against the backdrop of an industrial Wuppertal skyline, teachers Jo-Ann Endicott and Benedict Billiet help the students come out of their shells in order to intimately explore how people treat one another. The result is, as Billiet says, A Kontakthof not for adults, but for teenagers. The work is about difficult questions with no easy answers, and the dancers work hard to deliver those answers with certainty. All the feelings of tenderness and aggression that teenagers already experience are explored to maximum effect in the work. The results can be awkward (such as a shy striptease), or brutal (being slapped by bullies), but they are always truthful. Read the rest of this entry »
Ballet on film can sometimes appear flat and disappointing when it is the result of recording merely for posterity or archival purposes. It loses its shiny, reflective surfaces and even suffer the dreadfully wooden atmosphere of the worst type of amateur theatre production. Somewhere in the space between camera and stage, its immediacy can be lost in translation. Combine multiple cameras with the vision of a great cinematographer and the results are often electrifying, capturing the emotion in motion that we bear witness to as audience members.
In Robert Altman’s film The Company (2003), a faux documentary that follows the lives of members of The Joffrey Ballet, the dance performances show the capacity of the film medium to do ballet justice.
The opening sequence is Tensile Involvement, a decidedly modern dance work that was first staged in New York in 1953. The piece features dancers interacting with a fantastically elaborate network of coloured ribbons amidst a science-fiction atmosphere. Choreographer Alwin Nikolais also composed the sound and designed costumes and sets. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the past decade, more and more films have been transformed into musical theatre: Hairspray, Legally Blonde, The Full Monty, and even an off-Broadway version of the cult horror movie Evil Dead.
It’s less common, however, for a hit film to inspire a successful ballet, as did Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. The tragic story of an unfinished outsider, attempting to find a place within suburbia while unable to touch anything within it, was adapted by Matthew Bourne – most famous for his smash-hit all-male version of Swan Lake.
In a 2005 interview, Bourne explained how it took years to convince filmmakers to give permission for this re-telling of Edward’s story. Tim Burton then saw a number of Bourne’s works, and finally said: “Take it and do your thing with it.”
This ‘thing’ turned out to be a crowd-pleasing demonstration of Christmas cheese, dancing topiary, and a new ending that Edward’s original screenwriter approved as being better than the original. Of course, Edward’s tale comes with some particular choreographic challenges. (For your information: he lifts his partners with his arms, but never his razor-sharp hands.)
Visitors to the current Tim Burton extravaganza at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image will be reminded that it’s not only his animated musicals like The Nightmare Before Christmas or The Corpse Bride that contain dancing. Just think of the ghost-possessed calypso moves in Beetlejuice; the Joker merrily waltzing as Batman fights for his life in Batman; or even the Mad Hatter’s jig in his recent Alice In Wonderland. (Also for your information: it’s called the Futterwacken.) Read the rest of this entry »
What was it about French film stars that made them such perfect models for ballerina-inspired fashion? In the ‘50s and ‘60s the vogue manifested itself in Brigitte Bardot, whose inimitable French style never failed to deliver elegance and carefree chic. Bardot was the first foreign-language-speaking star to attain major international success and her films were pivotal in establishing a global market for foreign cinema.
When Bardot moves through film space, her classical ballet training is evident in her regal carriage and dance style. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and the classic dancer’s wardrobe of leotards, Alice bands, ballerina skirts, and ballet flats often appeared throughout her films and daily ensembles. What began as an anti-establishment look early in her career progressed into a glamorous, tailored flair that remains influential today. The pale make-up and bouffant hairstyle was the perfect counterpart to her mixture of passion and drifting insouciance.
Bardot provided the first celebrity endorsement of the luxury shoe brand Repetto when she asked Rose Repetto to make her a dance slipper she could wear on the unpredictable streets of everyday life. The ravishing results can be seen in the photo of her draped over a Simca at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. That same festival was the backdrop to the iconic image of her creating a spectacle as she swirled her ballerina skirt for photographers. For a woman who reportedly once said, “I absolutely loathe luxury. It is the one thing I cannot stand,” she had some pretty high-end taste in ballet flats, and the delicious ‘BB’ style was named in her honour. Read the rest of this entry »
When you think of interpretive dance, you may associate it with flinging one’s body waywardly around a room or office workers busting out at parties. Just because one feels like one is a cascading wave out at sea, however, doesn’t mean the wave’s about to crash for the audience. It is an art form that requires particular techniques and artistic interpretations to make it effective. When Kate Bush dances in a grassy meadow in Wuthering Heights, she grabs our soul.
Isadora Duncan was a huge influence on interpretive dance. In Duncan technique, the dancer’s feeling originates in the soul. Its ‘locomotive movements’ are based on universal human actions but the apparent freedom of the style is harnessed by rigorous technique. She was greatly influenced by the fluid, natural forms of ancient Greek art and these were often embodied in the style of her dances. While Duncan set out to break away from the formal structures of ballet, she influenced many practitioners, including Frederick Ashton, the founding choreographer of the Royal Ballet, who created a tribute to her in 1975. Read the rest of this entry »
Melbourne-based film duo The Apiary have been busy producing The Australian Ballet’s latest mini doco. Featuring dancers Vivienne Wong and Calvin Hannaford, the doco follows Bodytorquechoreographer Alice Topp, and designers Georgia Lazzaro and Crystal Dunn, as they come together to create a steamy pas de deux. Trace focuses on the elasticity and malleability of everyday undergarments; the dancers carve the air with their limbs and shed the fabric as if it were an extension of their very flesh.
Watch the video, then take a peek at the photo gallery capturing the doco in the making.
In Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn turns to a cynical Fred Astaire in a dimly lit, bohemian café and says: “Isn’t it time you realised that dancing is nothing more than a form of expression or release?” She then bounds into the centre of the room and scorches herself into cinematic history with an impromptu, expressive dance routine electrifyingly choreographed by Eugene Loring.
Hepburn’s approach to fashion reflected her Funny Face character’s views about dance; it, too, was an expression and a release. And, fittingly, Hepburn’s style in turn relied on dance for inspiration. By popularising the cigarette pants and ballet flats she had simply felt comfortable in all her life, she influenced generations of women and made an indelible mark on the fashion world.
Hepburn started her career as a dancer, training in London with Marie Rambert after World War II. She went on, of course, to find fame as an actress and a humanitarian, but she retained a dancer’s poise, posture and grace her whole life. Read the rest of this entry »
After a short hiatus, our comment of the month competition is back! Leave a comment on any Behind Ballet piece throughout the month of May, and you’ll go in the draw to win a copy of The Australian Ballet’s Firebird and other legendson DVD.
On Tuesday 1 June, we’ll post the winner’s name and comment, and announce next month’s prize. Until then, if you want to add your favourite dance film to the list, chime in on the new Bodytorque costumes, comment on the delicious dance of Cyd Charisse or our Coppélia posts (not to mention all the new pieces we’ll have this month), May is the time to do it!
What makes an electric dance movie? Motorbikes, garish leotards, leg warmers and lustful tear-jerking tales about dancers coming out on top, apparently. A fortnight ago we asked the members of our Facebook fan page to tell us what their all-time favourite dance movie is. We reveal your top-five films below!
1. Centre Stage (2000)
With a tagline like ‘Life doesn’t hold tryouts’, you know exactly what Centre Stage will offer: the high drama of competition for prestigious dance troupe positions. The film is given authenticity by the fact many of its actors are also professional dancers – and the leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding bad boy of ballet, Ethan Stiefel is empirically dreamy.
2. Mao’s Last Dancer (2009) Mao’s Last Dancer is based on Li Cunxin’s best-selling book – describing his poor childhood in China, transformation to a world-famous ballet star, and eventual defection to the West. It’s obvious why it’d be a sentimental favourite in Australia. Not only is it directed by Bruce Beresford, but the real-life Li joined the Australian Ballet in 1995.
3. The Red Shoes (1948)
A restored print of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 62-year-old melodrama The Red Shoesmanaged to wow audiences at Cannes just last year. It’s widely regarded as a masterpiece of British cinema – and the ballet it contains is one of the best dance sequences ever put on film. You’ll gasp, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Well, okay – you’ll mainly cry.
4. Billy Elliot (2000)
For the past decade, Stephen Daldry’s coming-of-age drama has plucked heartstrings the world over. Its appeal to dancer-lovers is obvious. Not only does the film show young Billy Elliott choosing ballet over boxing – initially against the wishes of his working-class father – the final triumphant performance places its star in Matthew Bourne’s celebrated all-male Swan Lake.
5. Flashdance (1983)
Narrowly beating out Dirty Dancing (so I guess someone does put Baby in the corner, huh?) comes Flashdance. It’s the story of Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals), a steel-mill welder and late-night bar dancer who hopes for a career in ballet. Alex’s water-drenched chair routine has become an icon of both post-disco dance and the absolute excess of ‘80s cinema.
What’s your favourite dance movie? Leave a comment below!
Behind Ballet is the blog of The Australian
Ballet. Looking at dance through the prism of
fashion, music, art and literature, we unravel
the stories behind our productions and mine
ballet’s juicy past to find the new in the old and
the old in the new.
