Sean Lake
Spring 2021 Independent Project and Qualifying Process Research
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Final Paper - PDF |
Initial Points of Research
Abstract
In my second-semester qualifying project, I plan to investigate the notions of "celebrity" imbued-upon and thread-into ballet - specifically using Swan Lake's Odette as a centering element. Utilizing experience in the studio and on stage, I want to breakdown questions revolving around what it means to be a #dancer, what ballet might inherently push in its own form, and the connection between enthusiast and performer. Using the character of Odette (alongside canon counterpart Odile and the tangentially-related Dying Swan), I hope to find and creatively engage with the idolization of the White ballet dancer/Swan. Looking into historical and contemporary studies of the intersections of dance, pop culture, and celebrity, I aim to devise a work that addresses the top-down effects of culture-making, specifically troubling its role in propagating narratives and as an instigator of cultural politics.
Proposal
“It's about a girl who gets turned into a swan and she needs love to break the spell,
but her prince falls for the wrong girl so she kills herself.”
- Nina Sayers, played by Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan
but her prince falls for the wrong girl so she kills herself.”
- Nina Sayers, played by Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan
In this choreographic project, I plan to investigate the connection between Swan Lake’s Odette and the rise and fall of a celebrity starlet. Beginning with movement-based studies regarding the ever-changing choreography of the legendary role, I will track Odette and her legacy within pop culture in works including Mikhail Fokine’s “The Dying Swan,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” and Satoshi Kon’s “Perfect Blue.” Looking at historical and contemporary interpretations of (and responses to) the White Swan, I center my investigations around the guiding characteristics of the swan in these media, the relationship between celebrity and audience, and the fetishizing of the solo performer. In my project, I posit that the fragile swans I research act as virginal ‘others’ that are cast aside when tarnished. Their value is directly linked to their death, disposal, and the availability of a like replacement. Furthering my research, the performance of my own work allows me to locate my own bodily knowledge within this power dynamic of those few who are seen and those who spectate. As the sole dancer, “Sean Lake” excavates and deals with my own ideas of these starlets and how I could embody their place in society. In this likely video-based work, I will use original music based on Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky and Camille Saint-Saëns's scores that will be performed and composed in collaboration with long-time partner Dr. Andy Thierauf.
Focusing on Odette, my danced research looks at this swan’s timid, pure characterization. Created against the aggressive and sexy foil of Odile, her personality is lacking the depth and weaknesses of her mortal love interest Prince Siegfried. Similarly, the choreography often created for her role is heavily focused on her stylized swan port de bras rather than full-bodied gestures. Unwhole as a sole figure, Odette is an ethereal specter whose contribution to the greater work is her demise. As a swan, she is cast as a species that prematurely evokes “loss and melancholy” with their inevitable swansong (Stonely, 61-62). Years after the Ivanov/Petipa premiere of Swan Lake, Odette’s legacy can be seen in The Dying Swan, this time addressing the death Fokine’s “predecessors had chosen to leave unchoreographed” (Scholl, 37.)
Coming into the work in 2021, this project deals with the lasting ramifications of these tropes of passing beauty. Looking at celebrity in modern culture, we see instances of Odette’s unsullied facade used as a recurring storyline to popularize rising starlets. Even in the realm of famous ballerinas, we see dancers such as Margot Fonteyn painted without earthly qualities, making them “more ‘sacred’ and ‘mythical’ than ‘social’ (Stonely, 133.)” The poeticly-ephemeral, public-facing women fulfill an ongoing desire to build our own idols. In researching and embodying these tropes, I use this self-choreographed solo as an occasion to find my own compliance in propagating these notions of otherworldly stars. “Diva Worship,” its own queer phenomenon, gives certain agency to communities for which real public adoration feels impossible. Celebrating the myth of Odette and reimagining her plight with my own body puts me into her famed narrative. This half-character’s notoriety, restrictions, and final flight assuage my own (and perhaps my fellow queer worshippers’) fears of failure and loneliness (Stonely, 127). “Sean Lake” lets me reimagine myself as the titular character of a work that helped build the balletic canon and still continues to inform creative media today.
Created as a solo reflection, my independent project’s preliminary research revolves around the primary choreographic and filmic materials of Swan Lake, The Dying Swan, Black Swan, and Perfect Blue. With these ballets and movies, I will conduct secondary research on the scholarship surrounding their creation and their continued implications. Within my body-based process, I will analyze my findings through improvisational structures and prompts in order to find intersections and truths between the works. Through the trying-on of various methodologies of movement analysis and generation, I will hatch my own “Sean Lake” with original (though classically-derived) commissioned music. Eventually living as a solo, I will organize a final structure in which to perform this research via video.
Focusing on Odette, my danced research looks at this swan’s timid, pure characterization. Created against the aggressive and sexy foil of Odile, her personality is lacking the depth and weaknesses of her mortal love interest Prince Siegfried. Similarly, the choreography often created for her role is heavily focused on her stylized swan port de bras rather than full-bodied gestures. Unwhole as a sole figure, Odette is an ethereal specter whose contribution to the greater work is her demise. As a swan, she is cast as a species that prematurely evokes “loss and melancholy” with their inevitable swansong (Stonely, 61-62). Years after the Ivanov/Petipa premiere of Swan Lake, Odette’s legacy can be seen in The Dying Swan, this time addressing the death Fokine’s “predecessors had chosen to leave unchoreographed” (Scholl, 37.)
Coming into the work in 2021, this project deals with the lasting ramifications of these tropes of passing beauty. Looking at celebrity in modern culture, we see instances of Odette’s unsullied facade used as a recurring storyline to popularize rising starlets. Even in the realm of famous ballerinas, we see dancers such as Margot Fonteyn painted without earthly qualities, making them “more ‘sacred’ and ‘mythical’ than ‘social’ (Stonely, 133.)” The poeticly-ephemeral, public-facing women fulfill an ongoing desire to build our own idols. In researching and embodying these tropes, I use this self-choreographed solo as an occasion to find my own compliance in propagating these notions of otherworldly stars. “Diva Worship,” its own queer phenomenon, gives certain agency to communities for which real public adoration feels impossible. Celebrating the myth of Odette and reimagining her plight with my own body puts me into her famed narrative. This half-character’s notoriety, restrictions, and final flight assuage my own (and perhaps my fellow queer worshippers’) fears of failure and loneliness (Stonely, 127). “Sean Lake” lets me reimagine myself as the titular character of a work that helped build the balletic canon and still continues to inform creative media today.
Created as a solo reflection, my independent project’s preliminary research revolves around the primary choreographic and filmic materials of Swan Lake, The Dying Swan, Black Swan, and Perfect Blue. With these ballets and movies, I will conduct secondary research on the scholarship surrounding their creation and their continued implications. Within my body-based process, I will analyze my findings through improvisational structures and prompts in order to find intersections and truths between the works. Through the trying-on of various methodologies of movement analysis and generation, I will hatch my own “Sean Lake” with original (though classically-derived) commissioned music. Eventually living as a solo, I will organize a final structure in which to perform this research via video.
Swan Lake
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1877 / 1895 / 2002
Marius Petipa/Lev Ivanov, Choreography Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Music Svetlana Zakharova, Case Study Performer |
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with fellow UIowa alumnus Sarah Zuber
The Dying Swan
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1905
Mikhail Fokine, Choreography Camille Saint-Saëns, Music Anna Pavlova, Original Performer |
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The Dying Swan
by Alfred Lord Tennyson I. The plain was grassy, wild and bare, Wide, wild, and open to the air, Which had built up everywhere An under-roof of doleful gray. With an inner voice the river ran, Adown it floated a dying swan, And loudly did lament. It was the middle of the day. Ever the weary wind went on, And took the reed-tops as it went. II. Some blue peaks in the distance rose, And white against the cold-white sky, Shone out their crowning snows. One willow over the river wept, And shook the wave as the wind did sigh; Above in the wind was the swallow, Chasing itself at its own wild will, And far thro' the marish green and still The tangled water-courses slept, Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow. III. The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul Of that waste place with joy Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear The warble was low, and full and clear; And floating about the under-sky, Prevailing in weakness, the coronach stole Sometimes afar, and sometimes anear; But anon her awful jubilant voice, With a music strange and manifold, Flow'd forth on a carol free and bold; As when a mighty people rejoice With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold, And the tumult of their acclaim is roll'd Thro' the open gates of the city afar, To the shepherd who watcheth the evening star. And the creeping mosses and clambering weeds, And the willow-branches hoar and dank, And the wavy swell of the soughing reeds, And the wave-worn horns of the echoing bank, And the silvery marish-flowers that throng The desolate creeks and pools among, Were flooded over with eddying song. Source: The Works Of Alfred Lord Tennyson Copyright 1893 London: Macmillan And Co. Toronto: The Copp Clark Co. Limited. from Litscape.com |
Anna and bff Jack
it me.
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Derivative Works (in Cinema)
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Black SwanDarren Aronofsky
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Perfect BlueSatoshi Kon
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Musical Inspiration
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Swan (Odette's) Themeof Swan Lake fame
Tchaikovsky |
The Dying SwanSaint-Saëns
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Dancin' PoodlesKimbo Children's Music
(This track feels silly, but important, especially looking at ballet as a point of entry. It's about poodles, but perhaps poodles are the ornamental equivalent to generic dog breeds (swan::bird)) |
Check-Ins
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Solo Studies... (not organized)
Active Viewings
- Swan Lake
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Swan Action
- Interpretive Dancing
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Primping, Pruning, Preening
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- Skincare
- Tweezing - Shaving/Trimming - Nails |
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Starlet Reenactment
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- Public/Private Space
- Dress-up - Nesting/Chilling - Dying (!) |
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More & More (Creative Interpretations)
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- Swans *can* fly
- Maybe they can fall too? - Broken Wing/Leg - Elusive Stagecraft |
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Studio Fiddlings
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- Invisible legwork
- Crossings series - A full run? - Nevermind the music |
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The Musical Stylings of Dr. Andy Thierauf
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"Anything that's being done right now in the kind of like imminent threat of death, especially as it gets into something that could be optional... is interesting. Because it makes you think, "Well, this is how much they thought about death, and they decided that it was worth the risk. And that in and of itself is a philosophical sort of fascinating thing. So to me, the tradition of ballet - just insisting that they must do this thing, even if some people get sick and die... I'm like, "That seems accurate." So, seeing them in the masks also kind of gives this nod to a sense of pressing on no matter what, and that certainly is a big narrative in ballet."
- Jack Ferver, "Dance and Stuff" Podcast Episode 191, February 12, 2021
- Jack Ferver, "Dance and Stuff" Podcast Episode 191, February 12, 2021
Selected Works Cited (slash.. ones that I'm looking into)
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Aronofsky, Darren. Black Swan. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2010. Burt, Ramsay. The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities. Routledge, 2007. Carter, Alexandra, and Janet O'Shea. The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. Routledge, 2010. Cohen, Selma Jeanne. Next Week, Swan Lake: Reflections on Dance and Dances. Wesleyan University Press, 1986. Fairfax, Edmund. The Styles of Eighteenth-Century Ballet. Scarecrow, 2003. Garafola, Lynn. Rethinking the Sylph: New Perspectives on the Romantic Ballet. Wesleyan University, 1997. Homans, Jennifer. Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet. Granta, 2011. Kon, Satoshi. Perfect Blue. GKIDS, 1997. Midgelow, Vida. Reworking the Ballet: Counter Narratives and Alternative Bodies. Routledge, 2007. Scholl, Tim. From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernisation of Ballet. Routledge, 2014. Siegel, Marcia B. Mirrors and Scrims The Life and Afterlife of Ballet. Wesleyan University Press, 2010. Stoneley, Peter. A Queer History of Ballet. Routledge, 2007. Volynskiĭ A. L., and Stanley J. Rabinowitz. Ballet's Magic Kingdom: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925. Yale University Press, 2010. Wiley, Roland John. The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov Choreographer of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Clarendon Press, 1997. |
PDFs on Google Drive |
Further Research and Alternate Trajectories
Women as Colored Birds
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Black Swanobvi
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Red Sparrow |
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Canary Fairykind of sort of a bird
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Bluebird / Princess Florinatechnically not a bird, but if it quacks like a duck...
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Firebird |
Sylvie Vartan
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Cherchez l'idole
"During my fieldwork in Tokyo, a record company employee told me that the creation of idol-pop as a commercial genre in Japan was influenced by a 1963 French movie called Cherchez L’idole, which dramatized a couple’s search for a stolen diamond. In the story, a young man steals a diamond for his girlfriend and places it in an electric guitar as he enters a music shop while running from the police. He and his girlfriend are subsequently drawn into frustrating interactions with clerks and acquaintances as they return to the shop and try to regain the diamond. It turns out that there are five identical guitars, and they are reserved for popular bands. The story takes a complicated turn. This movie featured French pop stars of that time including Silvie Vartan, Charles Aznavour, and Johnny Hallyday, and there are scenes in which these personalities appear on stage and sing their songs. When the movie was released in Japan, its title was translated as Aidoru o sagase, or “In Search of an Idol.” The movie was a hit, and one of the featured teen idols, Silvie Vartan, was invited to Japan and became a celebrity. According to my informant, an employee of a record company that handled the release of Vartan’s song in Japan, this led a producer to create “idol-pop” as a new genre of pop music in Japan." (Aoyagi, 4-5) |
Idols as Corps de Cygnets
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孤独なバレリーナ
SKE48 performs Kodoku na Ballerina (soloist: Akari Suda) |
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very superficial, biased, heavy-handed mini-documentary
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Traditions of Japonisme
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Sylvie Vartan's Irrésistiblement
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AKB48's Labrador Retriever
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cover by The Eccentric Opera
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cover by Goose house
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