Infra E-resource pack 2018

ANALYSIS
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DANCE STYLE
CHOREOGRAPHIC DEVICES
Infra is a contemporary ballet, incorporating elements of classical ballet and
contemporary dance. Classical ballet is a codified formal movement language
that has developed over hundreds of years. It is based around a series of
fundamental principles including the turnout of the hips and feet, and five
positions of the feet and arms. It typically includes adage (slow movements
performed with fluidity), allégro (fast, complex jumps and steps), pas de deux
(duets), pointe work and ballon (when dancers appear to float mid-air when
jumping). Classical ballet has a set repertory of extraordinary and expressive
movement vocabulary that all professional ballet dancers can perform.
When creating Infra Wayne McGregor experimented with contrasting the
traditional ballet vocabulary with everyday movements such as walking,
running and sitting. He was also interested in using the traditional ballet
language and then pushing and exploiting the body to take the movement
even further. He comments that dancers’ bodies today are different from ballet
dancers’ bodies 50 years ago. Dancers today have more knowledge about food
and nutrition and better understanding of the biomechanics 5 of the body. They
can move faster, turn more and jump higher. When working with Royal Ballet
dancers, McGregor asks such questions as: how far can the dancer extend their
legs when off balance? How can the dancer use their back when performing
complex footwork? In doing this Wayne McGregor is helping the dancers to
improve their creative capacity, developing the language of ballet even further.
5. Biomechanics – In dance,
the study of the structure and
function of the human body. This
understanding helps dancers to
train and perform more effectively.
See Appendix A for full glossary.
Wayne McGregor’s Infra.
©2012 ROH. Photographed
by Andrej Uspenski
Motif and Devlopment
With Infra motifs were developed from a prosaic, pedestrian language
exploring what people do everyday such as walking, running, sitting and
gestural actions. These actions were developed further to make richer
movement. This was then contrasted with the more traditional and codified
ballet movement vocabulary. McGregor pushes the classical language to its
extreme, particularly with the use of the back and extensions of the legs.
Manipulation of number
Wayne McGregor invites the audience to individually select what they
would like to watch. It is more like an accidental way of seeing reflecting our
experience in everyday life; the audience will not see everything with one view.
Sometimes all 12 dancers are on stage dancing at the same time and this is
contrasted with a solo or duet performing on their own or in the foreground
while other dancers perform minimal movement in the background.
Contrast
Wayne McGregor experiments with contrasting the mood/energy and
number of dancers throughout the piece.
Climax
The climax of the piece is in section 4. It includes the accumulation of six
male/female duets performed simultaneously in blocks of light, sometimes
in unison. This creates a very clear visual effect showing lots of separate
encounters happening simultaneously, sometimes involving the same activity
and sometimes completely different but each couple is unaware of what is
happening through the other window. There is also a climax in the music in
section 6b that is matched with the intense energy and complex spatial
pathways of the movement.
Highlight
There are a number of highlights in Infra. One happens in section 7b towards
the end when the stage is filled with a crowd of ‘normal’ people walking
like pedestrians in one particular direction. This is contrasted with a solo
female dancer centre stage moving slowly to the floor, demonstrating grief
and despair.