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EDUCATION Education RESOURCE rnzb.org.nz facebook.com/nzballet

, with L ARLESIENNE

SUPPORTED BY NATIONAL TOURING SUPPORTING EDUCATION PARTNER Introduction

Carmen with l’Arlésienne, two landmark works of 20th century by French master-choreographer Roland Petit, is a programme that the Royal New Zealand is immensely proud to share with New Zealanders. These two iconic works are new to the RNZB’s repertoire, and it is a privilege to bring them to audiences in Auckland, Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, Napier, Palmerston North, Rotorua and Wellington this summer – a high energy start to the RNZB’s performing year. As well as a wide range of insights related to the production, this resource includes a collection of cross-curricular activities to introduce you and your students to the dramatic and passionate world of .

Contents

Carmen with L’Arlésienne curriculum links 3 Origins 4 Ballet timeline of Carmen 6 Two by Roland Petit; Carmen and L’Arlésienne 7 The Story of L’Arlésienne and Carmen 9 Music 10 Production 11 Activity: L’Arlésienne 17 Activity: Carmen 18

2 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Carmen with L’Arlésienne curriculum links

In this unit you and your students will: Learning objectives for • Learn about the elements that come Levels 7 & 8 together to create a ballet experience. Level 7 students will learn how to: • Identify the processes involved in making a • Understand dance in context – Investigate theatrical production. and evaluate the effects of individual, social, cultural, and technological influences on the development of a variety of dance genres Curriculum links in this unit and styles. Values • Develop practical knowledge – Extend Students will be encouraged to value: skills in the vocabulary, practices and • Innovation, inquiry and curiosity, by thinking technologies of selected dance genres and critically, creatively and reflectively. styles. • Diversity, as found in our different cultures • Communicate and interpret – Analyse, and heritages. explain and discuss aspects of performance and choreography in a range of dance • Community and participation for the works. common good. Level 8 students will learn how to: • Understand dance in context – Investigate, Key competencies analyse, and discuss the features, history, • Using language, symbols and text – issues, and development of dance in New Students will recognise how choices of Zealand, including the contribution of language and symbols in live theatre affect selected individuals and groups. people’s understanding and the ways in • Develop practical knowledge – Extend which they respond. and refine skills, practices, and use of • Relating to others – Students will develop technologies in a range of dance genres and the ability to listen actively and share ideas styles. regarding theatrical ballet performances. • Communicate and interpret – Critically • Participating and contributing – Students analyse, interpret, and evaluate the artistic will be actively involved in their cultural features and the communication of ideas in community, understanding the importance a range of dance works. of creative environments. • Thinking – Students will reflect on their NCEA own thinking and learning after the personal experience of attending a live theatre show. Carmen with L’Arlésienne, and the use of this resource, is ideal for NCEA level dance teachers and students who are learning to analyse and appreciate a dance performance.

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 3 Origins

Carmen is an iconic female character, synonymous with independence, fearlessness and the power of seduction. Carmen revels in her sensuality and the freedom to make her own choices. Whatever the claims made on her body, her heart and mind are her own.

Literature Carmen first appeared in a novella written by the French writer and historian, Prosper Merimée (1803 – 1870), in 1845. The story was inspired by a trip to Spain that Merimée had made as a young man, and tells of Carmen, a beautiful gypsy woman, and her jealous lover, Don José. In Merimée’s version, the story is told to the author by Don José on the night before his execution for the murder of Carmen. Don José was a soldier, but deserts after becoming involved with Carmen, whom he has fallen in love with after arresting her for fighting in the cigarette factory where she works. He later joins her band of gypsy smugglers and kills Carmen’s husband in a knife fight. Carmen and Don José marry but she continues to consort with other men, including a successful young picador, and Don José is consumed with jealousy. Don José stabs Carmen to death and then gives himself up to the police, knowing that he will be sentenced to death.

4 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Opera Ballet was commissioned to compose The story of Carmen, and especially its iconic a full length opera for the Opéra Comique heroine, has also inspired many dance works, in 1873. After several suggestions from the of which Roland Petit’s 1949 ballet is the theatre’s management, which the composer most enduring. It was premiered by Petit rejected, Bizet suggested Merimée’s novella and his company ‘Les Ballets de Paris’ at the as a suitable scenario for the new opera Prince's Theatre in London on 21 February which, as was always the case at the Opéra 1949.This version is in five scenes and offers Comique, would include spoken dialogue a striking mix of classical ballet, Spanish- as well as singing. The opera had a long style movement, mime, and freshly invented gestation, with the theatre’s management dramatic dance action. at times being very uncomfortable with Get a glimpse of Roland Petit as Don José and its risqué subject, and then difficulties in his wife as Carmen dancing the famous Pas finding a singer-actress who could portray de deux : the title role. The premiere took place at the Opéra Comique on 3 March 1875, and was a https://www.youtube.com/ moderate success. The critics were divided, watch?v=9n1xS1u5ZLo in part because nothing like Carmen had been seen on the operatic stage before. It was not a mythological music-drama, like Wagner, and it was not a lavish spectacle like the works of Massenet or Gounod. The ‘amoral’ heroine and the low life setting disgusted some critics. After 33 performances, Carmen was not seen in Paris again until 1883. Outside Paris, it was a different story, with productions of Carmen soon seen in Vienna, Brussels, London and New York. By the time of the Opéra Comique revival in 1883, Carmen had entered the repertoire of opera houses throughout Europe and the Americas, and has continued to be one of the most frequently-staged and popular works in the operatic canon.

Carmen rehearsal with Peter Schaufuss and Susan O'Gan, Berlin Opera Ballet, 1995 RP PRIVATE ARCHIVES

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 5 Ballet timeline of Carmen

1845 Carmen first appears in 1800 Prosper Merimée’s novella

1875 First performance of Bizet’s 1900 Carmen Opera in Paris

1949 Premiere of Roland Petit’s Carmen ballet in London

1953 Poul Gnatt (1923 – 1995) founds Poul Gnatt the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB)

1967 Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin writes his , using Bizet’s music and scenario but orchestrated for strings and percussion

1967 Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso creates Carmen Suite, a one-act ballet using Rodion Shchedrin music arrangement

1976 The RNZB performs Philip Charfield’s Carmen choreography on Rodion Shchedrin music score

1992 New Carmen ballet by Swedish choreographer Mats Ek premiered by the Cullberg Ballet in Norsberg, Stockholm

1999 Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman creates a full-length dance theatre version of Carmen for the Northern Ballet in the UK 2000 2002 the RNZB performs the Carmen ballet of Didy Veldman

2010 the RNZB restages Didy Veldman’s Carmen ballet

2017 New Zealand premieres of Roland RNZB Carmen ballet 2010 Petit’s Carmen and L’Arlésienne ballets by the RNZB

6 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Two ballets by Roland Petit; Carmen and L’Arlésienne

Choreography ROLAND PETIT Music GEORGES BIZET Staging LUIGI BONINO, with GILLIAN WHITTINGHAM Lighting JEAN-MICHEL DÉSIRÉ Set design (L’Arlésienne) RENÉ ALLIO Costume design (L’Arlésienne) CHRISTINE LAURENT Set and costume design (Carmen) ANTONI CLAVÉ

help of his father, founded Les Ballets des ROLAND PETIT Champs-Elysées, creating ballets like Les (1924 – 2011) Forains and Le Rendez-vous, soon followed by his landmark Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. Despite his young age, Petit was already demonstrating his uniquely theatrical vision of ballet, to which he remained faithful throughout his life. In 1949, he created Carmen, in London, with dancer Renée (‘Zizi’) Jeanmaire (b. 1924) in the title role and with himself as Don José. Jeanmaire and Petit had first met as students at the Paris Opéra Ballet; they went on to marry in 1954 and were lifelong artistic "The work of Roland Petit is a crucial collaborators. link in the chain of the development of By the early 50s, his career was becoming dance theatre and story ballets around increasingly international as more ballet the world." companies around the world asked him to MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV, 1997 stage his ballets including Carmen. As for his L’Arlésienne ballet, it was created in 1974 for Born in Villemomble, outside Paris, Roland the Ballets de which became the Petit entered the School of the Paris Opéra Ballets National de Marseille-Roland Petit in Ballet in 1933 at the age of nine. In less than 1981. a decade, he became a member of the Paris Alongside his works for Marseille, Roland Opéra corps de ballet before to be promoted Petit created new works for other companies to the rank of sujet (soloist) at the Paris including the Paris Opéra Ballet, American Opéra Ballet. Ballet Theatre, the Staatsoper and Deutsch At the age of just 20 Petit decided to leave Oper of Berlin and the Teatro alla Scala. the Paris Opéra and with the financial

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 7 FUN FACT Petit’s Carmen was created for Les Ballets de Paris, and premiered in London in 1949 with (whom Petit was to marry) in the title role, and Petit himself as Don José. It has become Petit’s signature work.

Carmen 1949, Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire II PHOTO BY SERGE LIDO

After running Le Ballet National de Marseille for twenty-six years, Roland Petit left the company in March 1998 and continued to create new ballets, and also to stage his works around the world. Roland Petit died of leukaemia on 10 July 2011, aged 87. His wife Zizi Jeanmaire, his daughter Valentine Petit and his close associates are committed to preserving and continuing his work throughout the world.

RNZB dancer Abigail 8 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 The Story of L’Arlésienne and Carmen A BRIEF SYNOPSIS FOR THE CLASSROOM

L’Arlésienne – Characters Carmen – Characters FRÉDÉRI a young man, about to marry CARMEN a free-spirited, strong-willed gypsy VIVETTE his fiancée girl, working in a cigarette factory THEIR FRIENDS DON JOSÉ a soldier THE TOREADOR a professional bull fighter Synopsis CIGARETTE GIRLS, BANDITS It is high summer in Provence. As his wedding Synopsis approaches, Frédéri is captivated, and then obsessed, by an unknown, unseen woman – Don José encounters Carmen as she fights the faithless ‘girl from Arles’. We never see with another woman at the cigarette factory. her onstage, in fact, she may be a figment of Despite initially being sent to arrest her, he is his imagination. attracted to her and invites her to meet him at a tavern later that evening. Despite Vivette’s efforts to help him, as their wedding day approaches, Frédéri loses his At the tavern, Carmen dances for Don José. reason, and ultimately, his life. While he has eyes only for her, her bandit friends rob him. Carmen and Don José leave and spend the night together. Driven by passion and a desire to prove himself to Carmen, Don José kills a man. Nonetheless, she abandons him for the glamorous Toreador, leaving Don José broken and despairing. Don José cannot bear to see Carmen with another man. As the Toreador fights in the Serata Petit – L'Arlesienne arena, the lovers meet one last time, and Don Il Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala José stabs Carmen to death. PHOTO MARCO BRESCIA Music

Bizet died from angina on 3 June 1875, before GEORGES BIZET the first season of Carmen had finished, and without seeing his work become one of the world’s most popular and enduring operas. Born in Paris in 1838 (as Alexandre-César- Léopold Bizet, but L’Arlésienne baptised as Georges), Drawing on Provençal folk music as well as Bizet entered the original themes, Georges Bizet composed prestigious Paris incidental music for the premiere of Conservatoire at L’Arlésienne, a play by Alphonse Daudet, the age of nine in 1872. While the play is now seldom and studied under performed, Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suites are Zimmerman, Halévy frequently heard on the concert platform. and Gounod until the Petit’s ballet, based on Daudet’s scenario, was age of twenty. created for the Ballet National de Marseille, In 1855, at the age of seventeen, he composed the company founded by Petit, in 1974. his first symphony. It was not discovered Listen to Bizet’s suite #1 until 1935 and upon its first performance was https://www.youtube.com/ immediately hailed as a junior masterwork watch?v=NwaoEONSxmk and a welcome addition to the early Romantic period repertoire. In 1857, a setting of the one-act operetta Le Carmen docteur Miracle won him a share in a prize The music is taken from the 1875 opéra offered by Jacques Offenbach. Bizet also won comique of the same name by Georges the Music Composition scholarship of the Prix Bizet, arranged and orchestrated by Tommy de Rome, the conditions of which required Desserre. him to study in Rome for three years. There, his talent developed as he wrote such works To hear Bizet’s Carmen music, click on the link as the opera Don Procopio. below: https://www.youtube.com/ Following his stay in Rome, he returned watch?v=cCrKncOpE7Q to Paris where he dedicated himself to composition. In 1863 he composed the opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) for the Theatre-Lyrique. He followed this with the opera , the incidental music for Daudet’s play L'Arlésienne, and FUN FACT the piano piece Jeux d'enfants. His next Over 5,000 performances of composition was the romantic opera the ballet Carmen were given , which is often seen as a precursor around the world in its first to Carmen. 50 years alone.

10 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Production

In 1984, Roland Petit chose Luigi Bonino as Staging his assistant and dancer for the creation of Le Mariage du ciel et de l’enfer, for La Scala, and in 2001 he assisted Petit in the creation LUIGI BONINO of The Queen of Spades for the Bolshoi Ballet. He went on to assist Petit in the staging of all his works, including La Chauve-Souris Luigi Bonino was for the Teatro San Carlo, La Chambre for born in Bra, Italy, Aterballetto, Bolero for K Ballet and Carmen and began dancing and L’Arlésienne for La Scala, as well as works with Susanna Egri in for the Asami Maki Ballet at the New National Turin, at the age of Theatre in Tokyo. ten. He participated Luigi Bonino continues to perform the role of in many televised Coppélius in Roland Petit’s Coppélia, which performances in Petit created on him, however, most of his Italy, and in 1973 time is now spent staging Petit’s ballets joined the Cullberg around the world, including for the Bolshoi Ballet in Sweden, Ballet, the Paris Opéra Ballet, the National under the direction Ballet of China, the Wiener Staatsballett, the of its founder Birgit Cullberg. As a Principal Mariinsky Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, English Dancer he was entrusted with leading roles National Ballet and the Teatro Colón. in the company’s repertoire, including Adam Since July 2011, Luigi Bonino has been Artistic in Cullberg’s Adam and Eve and Romeo in her Director of the Roland Petit Trust, with overall Romeo and Juliet. responsibility for the staging of Petit’s works In 1975 Luigi Bonino joined Roland Petit’s and the preservation of his artistic legacy. Ballet National de Marseille, where his early roles included Coppélius in Coppélia, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, Frollo in Notre Dame de Paris, Le Fantome de l’Opéra and Ulrich in La Chauve Souris. In 1979 he performed Petit’s choreography with as part of Fonteyn’s celebrated television series The Magic of Dance. Many other roles were created by Petit for Luigi including the title role in Le Chat botté (Puss in Boots, 1985), the King in The Sleeping Beauty (1990) and Charlie Chaplin in Charlot danse avec nous (1991).

Madeleine Graham, Luigi Bonino and Shaun James Kelly

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 11 Lighting design

“I am one of the lucky people who had JEAN-MICHEL DÉSIRÉ the privilege to work with Roland Petit and thus share precious moments of his own career. He taught me all the Jean-Michel Désiré skills and tricks of the stage trade. began his career in 1978, at the Marseille Each rehearsal with him was like a real Opera House, where lesson to me. All I have been able to do he met Roland Petit in great and beautiful theatres all over for the first time. the world, I owe it to him. I admire him In 1984, Roland Petit immensely. offered him a position From the time when I was a ‘kid’ at the at the Ballet National beginning of our collaboration, till he de , so passed away, during all the years spent beginning a long collaboration that with him, I hung on his every word. I lasted far beyond Petit’s association with the was nourished by our long discussions; Ballet National de Marseilles. I loved all his ballets, but also all the In 1998, when Roland Petit decided to leave music-hall shows he created for his wife. the company in Marseille, Jean- Michel Désiré Zizi on stage was a dream. followed him and since then he has been We do feel lonely since he left us. responsible for the technical staging of all With me, as with so many others, he Petit’s works, worldwide. was generous, trusting and faithful. A Working on tours of Petit’s works throughout few months before he left us, when I Europe, Asia, South America, and the United told him that beyond our professional States, Jean-Michel Désiré has worked in the most prestigious theatres in the world collaboration we could say we were including the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, friends, he replied: ‘Oh yes!!! We are the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro dell even brothers’, and I was in heaven. ‘Opera in Roma, the Bolshoi in Moscow, the For all those exceptional moments Mariinsky in St Petersburg, the New National forever engraved in my heart, I will Theatre in Tokyo, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, the Metropolitan never stop saying, ‘Thank you Maestro.” Opera of New York and the Kennedy Center JEAN-MICHELi in Washington DC. For the ballets of L’Arlésienne and Carmen, the lighting design was revamped by Roland Petit and Jean-Michel Désiré in the 1990s to include new lighting technologies. Look below to see how the lighting helps create a different ambiance in all five scenes of the ballet Carmen.

Scene 3 – shades of blue give a romantic feel to the bedroom

Scene 1 – a beautiful afternoon in Spain

Scene 4 – the lighting creates an effect of leaves in the moonlight

Scene 2 – bright red lights create a rustic tavern look

Scene 5 – we see the warm flamboyance of the bull-fighting arena

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 13 Costume design (L’Arlésienne)

CHRISTINE LAURENT

Born in Lyon in 1948, Christine Laurent is an actress, director, screenwriter, set designer, costume designer and makeup artist. As an actress, she appeared extensively in French film, television and theatre, from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. She now works mainly as a theatrical make-up and wig artist. Working with her husband René Allio as set designer, she created the costume designs for Roland Petit’s L’Arlésienne. This specific ballet requires 18 dancers: nine couples in total. The principal couple is shown by their different costumes. The principal male dancer is dressed in shades of brown: his brown waistcoat and trousers are a nice contrast with the white shirt and red sash. Even his flat shoes are dyed brown. As for the leading female dancer, she wears a white blouse with petticoat and a cream dress.

All eight couples required in the corps de ballet ensemble are dressed identically; the male dancers wear some black trousers with a waistcoat, a white shirt and a red sash. As for the girls, they look elegant with their white blouse, black dress and cream scarf. Some pink pointe shoes and hair tied in a bun complete their traditional look.

14 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Set and costume design (Carmen)

In 1965, Antoni Clavé and his wife Madeleine ANTONI CLAVÉ moved to Saint-Tropez, where they built a new workshop and Clavé created what he regarded as his greatest paintings and Spanish painter trompe-l’oeils. Antoni Clavé I In 1978 the Museum of Modern Art in Paris Sanmartí was born devoted a retrospective to Clavé, and his in Barcelona in 1913. works were exhibited at the newly-opened Apprenticed to a Centre Georges Pompidou. More than a cloth maker in 1925, hundred of his works were shown in the Clavé joined the Spanish Pavilion in the 1984 Venice Biennale, evening classes at and the same year, he was awarded the ‘gold the Fine Arts School medal for merit in fine arts’ by the French of Barcelona in 1930. Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. After two years’ study, his family Antoni Clavé died in Saint-Tropez in 2005 accepted that he was to become a painter. and is buried in Paris, in the Montparnasse cemetery. In the 1930s, he quickly made a name for himself resulting in his first solo exhibition While the costumes for the Carmen ballet prior to moving to Paris where he met one have a definite Spanish influence, they are of the greatest painters of his time Pablo surprisingly simple, drawing on the main Picasso. colours of black, white and red. It’s also interesting to note that the main lead female Like Picasso, whom he greatly admired, dancer doing the role of Carmen has a total of Antoni Clavé was inspired by the bullfight. On four different costumes throughout the ballet: this subject, he produced a large number of • black leotard and a black rag skirt lithographs, notably La Corrida and Toreros, • a green corset from which he created a costume for the • a blue corset choreographer , whose ballet • a black dress. was given in 1943 by Les Ballets des Champs- Élysées, headed by Roland Petit. See the next page for detailed images of the costume. During the 1940s and 50s, Clavé enjoyed success as a theatrical designer. Working closely with Roland Petit, he created designs for many of Petit’s ballets including Carmen (1949). However, after this fruitful period, Clavé decided not to take up any more theatrical commissions. He set up a workshop in Paris, where he created paintings, collages and sculptures in an unclassifiable style, neither figurative nor abstract.

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 15 FUN FACT As a short haircut is required for the female dancer doing the role of Carmen to be faithful to the original dancer who danced the role for its premiere performance (Zizi Jeanmaire), the RNZB dancer doing Carmen is wearing a wig so that she doesn’t have to Black leotard and a black rag The green corset cut her real hair. skirt

Tonia Looker in the blue Costume of the bandit girl in corset Carmen

Complete costume for Underwear of Vivette in Vivette L’Arlésienne

16 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 L’Arlésienne studio rehearsals Activity: L’Arlésienne

In the opening scene of L’Arlésienne the corps de ballet do a lot of dancing holding hands with each other.

Dancing while holding hands. Divide the class into small groups – six to eight dancers per group. Ask the groups to find interesting ways of holding hands, not just having their arms by their sides and holding onto their neighbour. Let them experiment with being in any formation they wish, a straight line facing the front or back, a diagonal line, or a circle. After they have tried a few ideas set some tasks to help structure a movement sequence where they must stay holding hands with their group. Remind the students that sometimes they have to hold their neighbour’s hands loosely, so that moving between positions is more comfortable. At the start of the sequence the students will not be holding hands, so they need to find an interesting pose/shape to hold, then they begin by holding hands in canon. Some things they must include in their sequence are: • Maintaining physical contact • Travelling in the space while holding hands – in the ballet while the dancers are holding hands, one of the main ways they move is by shuffling their feet very fast in parallel. Suggest this way of travelling to the students; then they can concentrate on what they are doing with their arms rather than their feet • Changing the direction that the group is facing • Turning/twisting the body while holding hands • Moving the arms/hands in canon • Changing level • Bending the torso forwards or backwards • Pivoting the whole line The above can be done in any order but each task must be clearly seen. The group can end their sequence by holding a pose/shape or by exiting the space (still holding hands). This activity can be a way to introduce having physical contact with other dancers. You might like to experiment with playing a game of musical statues where when the music stops you have to find a partner and have contact with them without using your hands, for example an elbow to a knee. This is also a good warm-up game. 17 Carmen studio rehearsals Activity: Carmen

In the Tavern scene of the ballet, the dancers use chairs in many different ways – sitting on them, standing on them, moving around them and using them for counter-balance.

Dancing with chairs Divide your class into pairs, and each pair will have one chair between them. You’ll need to set some ground rules before starting this activity, for example, if someone is standing on a chair the other person must hold the chair, no sharp or sudden movements with the chair, and don’t make your partner do something if they feel unsafe. Ask your students to find some different ways to work with the chair. Both dancers do not have to maintain contact with the chair all the time. You can either let them experiment with not much direction at first then set some tasks, or set tasks straight away. The tasks do not have to flow from one to another initially. Here are some tasks you might like to set: • One dancer must travel around the chair, while the other stands on the chair • Find a way to use the chair for a counter-balance pose, try and find interesting ways of moving into and out of the pose • Move the chair from one place to another, both dancers do not have to be in contact with the chair • Find a way of using the chair without it being upright • Pass the chair between you • At some point you and your partner must be at different levels • At some point you must use different body bases on the chair or floor (standing, sitting, kneeling, lying)

18 ©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 Carmen studio rehearsals

The performance quality of this ballet is very important, so if you would like your students to work at a deeper level, encourage them to project a confident and proud energy. They need to make strong shapes, have lifted posture and make their hands as articulate as possible. Once the students have worked on the tasks, ask them to choose four of their favourite chair manoeuvres. Then they need to put all their choreography together to make one long sequence. In the ballet during this part of the scene, the movements are fairly slow and sustained, so you may want to ask your students to give their work the same dynamic. If you are using music for this, you may want to use some Spanish or Tango style music, and you may want to ask your students to make their sequence fit into a set amount of counts. If you want to develop this activity, you can put the chair duos together to make a group piece. There are lots of options here: • All the chairs can be randomly set in the space with no dancers onstage and the dancers have to make an entrance • All the chairs can be randomly set in the space with some of the dancers in their start positions and the rest make an entrance • All the chairs can be randomly set in the space with all of the dancers in their start positions • The chair duos can be performed all at the same time, or they can be done in canon • You might want to choose one or two duos, or sections from some duos, and ask the students to teach the rest of the class their work. Then these duos or sections can be performed in unison • You can add moments of stillness where everyone holds a pose and looks towards the audience • The piece can finish with all dancers onstage, or they can exit with the chairs, or some can stay and some can exit

©RNZB FEBRUARY 2017 19