Within Her Eyes: Staging and set

Within Her Eyes: Staging and set

Staging and Set

  • Infra: Characterised by a stripped-back set with an onstage LED screen displaying pedestrian activities.
  • The stage is awash with red light, reflecting urban life.
  • Small square leads are used, referring to individual human lives in the city’s infrastructure.

Lighting

  • Infra: Effective use of lighting to highlight specific movements and create moods.
  • Red and white lights used create a sense of intensity and urgency.
  • Lighting used to separate dancers, accentuating the theme of solitude among masses.

Properties

  • Infra: Focus on using human bodies as props.
  • Dancers create shapes, formations and structures embodying city towers and bridges.

Costume

  • Infra: Dancers dressed in everyday clothes.
  • The costuming reinforces the concept of day-to-day urban life.

Dancers

  • Infra: Consists of 8 dancers, both males and females.
  • Their movements represent the diversity of urban population.

Aural Settings

  • Infra: Music is a pulsating score by Max Richter.
  • City sounds like beeping, car noises, and murmuring voices are included to create an urban environment.

Performance Environment

  • Infra: Performed on a traditional theatre stage (proscenium arch).
  • Explores an abstract representation of city life within the confines of a stage.

Choreographer’s Approach

  • Infra: Choreographed by Wayne McGregor, known for his innovative and physically demanding choreographic style.
  • McGregor’s choreography in INFRA often interrupts and distorts balletic lines and conventions.

Movement Content

  • Infra: Emphasises on fluid movements, contrasts, sharp lines, and contortions.
  • High levels of energy in movements symbolise the continuous rhythm of a city.
  • Elements of ballet, contemporary, and street dance are found in the choreography.

Structuring Devices

  • Infra: McGregor employs unison, fragmentation, accumulation, and repetition as structuring devices.
  • The choreography builds up differing layers of dance – at times dancers perform differing phrases simultaneously.

Form

  • Infra: The dance does not follow a linear narrative.
  • It takes the form of a series of vignettes, representing different city scenes and individuals.

Choreographic Devices

  • Infra: McGregor uses amplification, mirroring, and counterpoint among other steps to create visually compelling sequences.

Mood

  • Infra: The mood can be described as intense, relentless and at times melancholic.

Meaning

  • Infra: An exploration of city life and the emotional experiences of its inhabitants.
  • It examines themes of isolation and connection within a crowd.

Ideas

  • Infra: Capturing the human emotion beneath the city life.
  • Communicating the idea of searching for connection in a crowd.

Themes

  • Infra: Themes of alienation, routine, humanity, and urban life dominate.

Style

  • Infra: A fusion of ballet, contemporary and street dance.

Similarities with Other Dances

  • Infra: McGregor’s distinctive style can be recognised in his other works, such as Chroma and Entity.
  • Like Infra, these dances also address complex themes through innovative choreography.

Differences to Other Dances

  • Infra: Unlike McGregor’s other works that focus on scientific ideas or humanoid movements, Infra delves into human emotions and social themes.

Audience Understanding

  • Infra: The abstract nature of the dance allows audiences to interpret its meaning individually.
  • Its depiction of city life is a relatable theme for many.

Purpose

  • Infra: Serves to create a dialogue about the impact of urban life on individuals.

Environment in which the Dance was Created and Performed

  • Infra: The dance was both created and performed in urban settings. This choice of environment reaffirms the urban theme running through Infra.