| Todd et al. Choreography | |
| Posted by: peter3053 07:28 am EDT 07/15/23 | |
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| In the Ballad in the revival, the peculiar choppy hand movements made by the ensemble in the lines, "Sweeney was smooth Sweeney was subtle..." etc suggested nothing more than that they were indicating either the brevity of the lines on the page in the script, or the bar lines in the musical phrase which accompanied them. In fact, when not looking like something that skeletal and absurd, the movement seemed to have no connection to actual, understandable attitudes of character at all. Movement for movement's sake. It got me to thinking that this style of choreography has been a while aborning ... I think of some of the peculiar choreographic intrusions in the Promises Promises revival, such as those strange men who appeared and did push-ups during "She Likes Basketball"; and other instances which I can no longer remember specifically but echo in my memory. Movement disconnected from character or even attendant emotion. I thought the choreography in Hamilton was of that ilk, too. And then I pondered the kind of movement that a Jerome Robbins would create, or a Patricia Birch would manifest, where everything stemmed from character, and the feeling in the moment, and yet was shapely, elegant, beautiful to enjoy. Agnes de Mille, too, captured understandable behaviour in such as the end-of-act-one dream ballet in Oklahoma! Their dance loaned added dimension to our understanding of character and therefore plot. In a sense, could we be seeing the end of the genuinely integrated musical, (beyond the egregious juke box shows), wherein dance no longer serves a dramatic purpose alongside music, lyrics and book, but simply serves to provide meaningless activity to entertain thoughtlessly? |
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