Presentation title:
With(out) Audience: Experiencing Recorded Ballet In and Out of Lockdown
Bio:
My name is Linda Kvitkina, I have an MA in History and have recently become interested in researching dancing. I am fascinated by the field and I am a devoted member of dance community, aside from being a researcher. I focus my studies on ballet and contemporary dance.
Abstract:
Akram Khan's Giselle invites the viewer into the world of a refugee camp, separated by a wall from the richer characters. Giselle is no longer a naive peasant girl, but a woman. She is pursued by two men and declines the interest of the one that she does not desire, while encouraging the other, even though, as it turns out, he belongs to a different world.
We (myself and the audience) are going to explore how the perception of the same piece differs by the external context through auto-anthropology. The ballet was recorded for the Theatre HD project, and was shown both in cinema, and online. We will explore the difference of perception of it in the cinema and at home during lockdown, when the entire world turned to be behind the wall, and the usual routine, much the same as for Giselle was left behind, with movements and music stifled and melted into new reality of the Willis' void world.
We will discuss the setting, costumes, and dance techniques, but will ultimately focus on the experience of viewing the recorded ballet and explore whether it preserved the conventional point of viewing it, which is from the theatre hall onto the stage.