Video Response Paper

Katina Studzinski

Beginning Ballet- Summer I 2013

            In class we viewed two videos of dances. One vodeo was called “ La vivandiere” by Arthur St. Leon. This dance is dated back to 1848. It is very formal and balanced. The things I really enjoyed about it was the partner work. The dancers were bery together and danced in unison.  The 6 people looked like one dancer. This dance, based upon the Mirov and Maryinski Ballet, had a lot of foot work and turns. It was very entertaining to watch. The second performance was more up beat and happy. It was faster. The male dancer had a very adnvanced variation and I liked watching him. The third performance had two female dancers with very fast foot work. They danced in alsmot perfect unison.  The fourth performance was a femal solo. She was flawless as she paraded across the stage doing turns, leaps and once again, intricate footwork. The fifth performance was the male solo. His dance was filled with a lot of turns and jumps. He even did a triple turn. Then they did some more partner work. The partner work was my favorite as I love watching the dancers interact with eachother and dance in syncronization. The ending was very interesting. All the female dancers gathered around the male dancer. It was a pretty cool visual to see since they all has their legs and arms up in a pattern around him. Overall, I really enjoyed this dance. I was not used to hearing the rhythmic clapping of the European audience so that threw me off at the end but this dance was very entertaining to watch.

            The second video however, I did not really enjoy that much as I found it harder to follow. I enjoyed the story plot as the dances were about relationships and people, not just the steps of the dance. The dance “Jardin Aux Lilas” (Lilac Garden) is dated back to 1936. It was choreograhed by Englishman, Antony Tudor, and the music was composed by Chausson. This dance had a lot of charcters in it. It is cimprised of four princials: Carolyn, the man she must marry, an incident from his past, and her lover. In the first performance Carolyn and the man she must marry dance together. By the second scene the episode from his past makes an appearanc. In the thirs performance, her lover comes into play. By the end the four characters are dancing in unison. It ends with Carolyn being told she can never see her lover again.

            This dance was a theatrical play without words that portrays silent emotions. The dancers moved like water and flowed with the story line. Overall, I enjoyed the story line of this plot as it was easier to understand, but I found it hard to follow the characters and it got confusing at some points.