Christopher Bruce Ghost Dancers

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Ghost dancers choreographed by Christopher Bruce was created for Ballet Rambert in 1981. It is a performance that represents the political oppression that occurred in 1973. Christopher Bruce agenda was not to create a performance for entertainment but to make the audience moved and feel something for these people who suffered. Movement and non-movement components will be analysed throughout this piece, and through these, it will be evaluated how Christopher Bruce achieved the intent of communicating the Pinochet regime and political oppression. This performance is performed in 7 sections, this essay will be analysing section 1 (Ojos Azules) section 2 (HuajraA ‘folk lament’) and section 5 (Mis Llamitas).

In Section 1 Ojos Azules Christopher …show more content…

This section opens with the ghost dancer exiting the stage and three female dancers and three male dancers enter the stage. One female is wearing an old dirty old flowy dress that is ripped up, the second female is wearing a nice frilly red skirt and flowy white top, the third female dancer is wearing a button up grey shirt with a black mid-length skirt. As for the male dancer, one male is wearing a grey suit, the second male is wearing a nice business shirt and pants. The last male dancer is wearing an old long white t-shirt with baggy pants. These costumes represent how everyone was affected by the Pinochet regime and it wasn’t just the poor who suffered. They used folk lament which is a very happy upbeat song. They use space and levels in this section, space and levels gave structure and interest to the section. The ghost dancer return and violently grab the male dancers and throw them to the ground, and take their place in the partner work. The female dancer and male dancer are moving in unison, they run down the stage to either left or right. They then begin to do their motif, which is where they swing their shoulder forwards and backwards, and they then jump and turn around and began walking slowly in the other direction. The ghost dancers return at the end of section and repeat their motif, this motif represents victimisation (Jane Pritchard, 2000, Ghost Dances Study

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