Blog Archives
Cinderella revived!
On May 11th and 12th Ballet Cymru will be performing a new ballet to my score for Cinderella. I have been working on a version with live instruments and also revising the version which will accompany the company on their national tour (see www.welshballet.co.uk for a complete list of dates and venues). With a new set and costumes I am very much looking forward to seeing the production and working with the musicians on the night!
Dance Unstuck
A project in which I scored ballet dancers live has recently been released. The aim of Dance Unstuck (danceunstuck.co.uk) is to explore to what degree a ‘universal’ approach (informed by Universal Design of Instruction) and teaching methodologies developed for inclusive technique classes could be applied to the highly codified genre of ballet, thereby making it accessible to a wider diversity of dancers. The way of working was totally new to me as I was asked to compose as the dancers danced. This is such a worthy project and I am very grateful to have been asked to take part.
Dance Unstuck
I have just finished working on a very worthwhile and interesting project. In partnership with GDance and Ballet Cymru, the fantastic choreographer Jürg Koch was asked to produce a DVD for dance teachers to use as a reference tool for teaching dance to people with movement restrictions. Usually music exists before it is used for choreography, however in this case I was asked to compose as the dancers learned and rehearsed their exercises. This meant that the process was immediate and energising. The dancers (Krystal Lowe, Robbie Moorcroft, Vicky Malin, Suzie Birchwood) were amazing and made me feel very unfit sitting down for most of the day! The DVD is in production now and I will put up more information about it when it is released.
Jack White 