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Lighting : Lighting June 2014 - Vol 34 Issue 3
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20 LIGHTING MAGAZINE | June/July 2014 June/July 2014 | LIGHTING MAGAZINE 21 Having worked previously with Alexei on The Australian Ballet’s commission of Sculoa di Ballo in 2010 it was a privilege to be asked to collaborate with him again and provide a lighting design for Cinderella that would have its world premiere in The State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne on September 17th 2013. Lighting design for classical ballet has several key points of difference to those of other theatrical art forms. The music or score for the ballet is often the primary source of design inspiration, as it is from the music that the choreography is inspired and created. The emotional quality of the music underpins the creative team discussions, informs the design aesthetic of set, costume, lighting and projection content and dictates many of the technical cue placements and timings. Many ballet choreographers will be able to hum the entire score that they are choreographing to and possess an intimate knowledge of the composer and the orchestral arrangements. Ballet rehearsals are usually accompanied by a pianist who plays the score live in the studio and the conductor will pay many visits to the rehearsal room to learn the choreography, entrances, exits and appropriate tempi. The arrangement of luminaires in the rig is designed to sculpt the dancer’s bodies in space. The ballet dancers themselves provide much of the architecture in the space. Many ballets are performed with minimal set designs relying primarily on soft masking and floor. Shaping the bodies with light from many different directions reveals form and choreography in a dimensional and visually satisfying way. Side light is particularly important in classical Lighting Cinderella BYRACHELBURKE The credits for the Australian Ballet 2013/14 Cinderella Production were as follows: Choreography Alexei Ratmansky Music Sergei Prokofiev Costume and set design Jérôme Kaplan Lighting design Rachel Burke Projection design Wendall K Harrington Lighting design assistant Lisa Mibus Melbourne: with Orchestra Victoria Sydney: with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Adelaide: with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra CASE STUDY ABOVE LEFT: Act I. Cinderella’s House. Credit: Dancers of the Australian Ballet. Photographer Jeff Busby. ABOVE RIGHT: Act I. Cinderella and the Planets. Credit: Dancers of the Australian Ballet. Photographer Jeff Busby. “Storytelling is crystal clear and characters are richly drawn. Integration of dance and design is seamless to the point of being inseparable.” – Theatre People 18th September 2013 Cinderellaisoneoftheworld’sbestknownand most loved fairy tales. It is frequently interpreted as a tale with a moral message about the importance of grace, goodness and generosity winning out over spitefulness and selfishness. The Charles Perrault version of the story in French forms the basis of the three act classical ballet which was first performed at the Bolshoi Ballet in 1945 and was choreographed to a score composed by Serge Prokofiev. In 2012 David McAllister, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet commissioned Alexei Ratmansky, formerly artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet and now resident choreographer of American Ballet Theatre, to create a new version of Cinderella for the Australian Ballet 2013 season. With sets and costumes by acclaimed French designer Jérôme Kaplan, this new Cinderella would be the third production for The Australian Ballet, following productions in 1972/80 (Sir Frederick Ashton) and 1997 (Stanton Welsh). “The lighting and screen projections both beguiling and clever.” – Arts Hub 18th September 2013
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Lighting April 2014 - Vol 34 Issue 2
Lighting August 2014 - Vol34 Issue 4
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