Ghost Dances and Nutcracker
Similarities and Differences
Similarities
Staging - Proscenium
Very defined characters
Both telling a story
Ghost Dances
Choreographer -
Christopher Bruce
Company- Rambert Dance
Company
First Performance - 3 July 1981
Dance Style - A blend of
contemporary
(Graham-influenced) and
balled with elements of folk
and social styles
Theme - Political
Oppression in Chile
Starting point - The music
and south American culture
Structure - 7 sections, each have
different song/music
Dancers - 5 Women, 6 Men
Lighting - Nick Chelton
Gloomy and shadowy, side
lighting highlights the
ghosts. Brighten for
folk-type dances performed
by the dead. Lighting
changes show death
Costume - Belinda Scarlett
Ghosts wear wigs and rags and
have skull-like masks and
painted bodies to suggest
bones and muscles. the dead
wear gender specific clothing to
show their different walks of
life, all are unique
Set - Christopher Bruce
The painted backdrop
represents a rocky cave
like opening. in the
distance there is water
and mountains . There
are rock-like structures
on stage
Nutcracker
Choreographer -
Matthew Bourne
Company - Adventures in
Motion pictures (Now called
New Adventures)
First Performance - August 1992
Dance Style - Contemporary and
balletic. Exaggerated but realistic
use of features
Choreographic Style - Reworking of a
traditional ballet. Narrative and comic.
Influenced by film and theatre. Close
relationship between dance and music
Theme - Original Nutcracker story,
retold with references to adolescence,
escapism, fantasy, and satire
Starting point -
Classical ballet and
music. Images of
Victorian childhood
Structure - 2 acts,
9 episodes
Dancers - 24, male
& female
Accompaniment - Tchaikovsky
Classical and orchestral
Costume - Anthony Ward
Colourful and over the top
to show characters.
Cultural influences and
literal references to sweets
Lighting - Howard Harrison
Theatrical, Helps to create
atmosphere
Set - Anthony Ward
Partly realistic but larger
then life and
cartoon-like. Act 1 is dull
orphanage but Act 2,
entered by a large
mouth, represents
sweetie land