The Paper Cinema's Odysseys

I went to see the Paper Cinemas Odyssey at the Pier Theatre. I really didn’t know what to expect when I went to see this performance as illustration and puppetry is not something that I have really looked at before.  This piece of theatre was really enjoyable though and I felt completely immersed in what was going on. 3 live musicians, who you saw onstage, used a range of different instruments and objects to create the sound track to story, brought this piece together. There was so much to look at, as I wanted to watch the musicians, the screen and the couple doing the puppetry. I enjoyed how you could see how it was being created and they would walk across the stage to do different things. This interaction made the performance feel real and gave the piece even more life. 

http://thepapercinema.com/

Ballet Black

This year I am trying to see as many theatrical performances as I can. I went to Poole lighthouse to see a Ballet Black, who were putting on a collection of different pieces. These pieces were all collaborations with different chorographers who specialised in different areas of dance.  This meant that all of the pieces were different even though they used the same set of dancers. The first piece was a duet called together alone, I found this a really powerful piece where you could really feel the emotion between the two dancers. I also felt that this piece was a perfect balance of contemporary and modern ballet.  The costumes in this piece were contemporary but with historical influences therefore they really worked well. The male costume was simple breaches and cut off shirt, this meant that you couldn’t really place him in any particular time period. The female costume was very modern and current however the skirt had netting underneath; this gave a reminder of the classic pancake tutu. The netting was also bright yellow, which was a contrast to the muted pallet of the rest of the costumes. Several other short pieces made up the rest of the first half that were a mixture of styles with different dancers. As a member of the audience who is not an expert on ballet this was really enjoyable as there was a lot of change throughout the piece and I was not left watching a piece which I did not understand.

The second half was set out very differently as the piece had a narrative. Storyville is set in 1915 and follows a lost young girls path as she enters into a New Orleans nightclub. This piece was a contrast to the earlier piece’s however it was still preformed using a mixture of contemporary and classic ballet. You could really feel the emotion in this piece and the story was easy to understand. Overall I really enjoyed the entire performance, as there was such a mix of style and performance techniques. The costumes though varied all worked together and enhanced the pieces.  In the future I will try and see any local performances by Ballet Black. 

Pancho, C. (2012) Ballet Black [Online] Available from: http://www.balletblack.co.uk/index.html [Accessed: 7.10.2012]