Presents Dog’s Don’t Do Ballet Education and Participation Resource Pack Written by Sarah Schofield Little Angel Theatre 14 Dagmar Passage, Islington, London, N1 2DN 0207 226 1787 www.littleangeltheatre.com John Wright Theatre founder Background Information - The History of the Theatre Little Angel Theatre This was to be the first purpose built puppet theatre the country had seen for many years and th On Saturday 24 November 1961 Little Angel the only one with a permanent long string Theatre first opened it’s doors to the public and has marionette bridge constructed backstage. The been creating and showcasing high quality bridge was designed for puppeteers to stand on puppetry performances ever since. while they manipulate long stringed puppets who perform on the stage below leaving the audience John Wright, the founder of Little Angel Theatre was unable to see the puppeteers. The original bridge born in South Africa in 1906. He travelled to England in is used to this day. The theatre has a traditional 1935 and worked as an assistant stage manager for the ‘proscenium arch’ and seats 100. Ballet Rambert while studying at the Central School of Art and Design. It was during this time he saw a puppet The very first show to play at the theatre was an performance by Podrecca’s Piccoli and became original marionette show with puppets made by hooked. John made his very first puppet in 1938. John Wright called ‘The Wild Night of the Witches’ which was revived at the theatre as part He returned to South Africa at the outbreak of the of our 50th birthday celebrations with a team of Second World War and continued to make and perform apprentice long string marionette puppeteers. with puppets in his home country. When the war ended he returned to England, overland, performing with his puppets along the way. In 1961 John and his troupe found a derelict Temperance hall with no roof in Islington and transformed it into a magical little theatre, specially designed for the presentation of marionette shows. John with Wild Night of the Witches puppets Over the next 30 years, the Little Angel team created and performed over 30 full-scale shows, with John and his wife Lyndie designing, making, performing and directing as they established Little Angel as ‘The Home of British Puppetry.’ Little Angel shows were taken to 23 International Festivals, representing Britain. John Wright died in 1991 but the work of the theatre continued apace with family, friends and supporters working tirelessly to continue in his footsteps to make sure John’s legacy would delight generations to come. Dogs Don’t Do Ballet is based on the popular The interior of Little Angel Theatre auditorium before it was children’s book by Anna Kemp (illustrated by re-built in 1961 Sara Ogilvie). The idea to turn it into a puppet show came from David (the director) and Andrea (performer and co-adapter), who read the story to their daughter and thought it would make the perfect puppet show – which we all agree it does! Little Angel Theatre 1 Dog’s Don’t Do Ballet on the stage The Story Theatrical Influence and Music We highly recommend that you share the book with As well as telling the story of the book using puppets your class either before or after coming to see the David and Andrea were keen to explore other show. The story of Dog’s Don’t Do Ballet focuses on a theatrical styles and performance devices. In the production you will see nods towards: little girl (who in the book is nameless, but who we have called Anna) and her little dog Biff – who is not like Physical comedy and popular theatre/film other dogs. He wants to be a ballerina! of the past (Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin etc) Our version stays very true to the book – with a few Eccentric dance (comedy routines and additions for theatrical effect and added enjoyment! throwaway style dance that came out of music hall) We introduce Marjorie, the ballet class pianist, who Pantomime Miss Polly (the ballet teacher) is forever nagging and Early Disney films (Fantasia and The Pink who finally gets herself a job at the royal ballet (sadly not playing the piano!) Elephants on Parade from Dumbo which influenced Biffs nightmare) We also get the opportunity to see into Biff’s Classical ballet (the dance movements imagination as he dreams (or is it a nightmare) about and music are all taken from classical being a ballerina. ballet) The team wanted the classical ballet music used in the show to be recognisable and familiar to the audience, even if they had never been to the ballet themselves. This was all part of the general ethos to make the idea of ‘the ballet’ less scary and more accessible and fun for everyone. The Street Awakens and The Dance of the Knights (used in BBC’s The Apprentice) from Romeo and Juliet (ballet) by Prokofiev The Clog Dance from La Fille Mal Gardee (ballet) by Hérold The Waltz of the Flowers from the ‘Anna’ and Biff illustrated by Sara Ogilvie from the Nutcracker Suite (ballet) by Tchaikovsky book by Anna Kemp Pizzicati from Sylvia (ballet), by Delibes Les Sylphides by Chopin Boléro by Ravel (originally written as a ballet piece but made famous by Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics) Little Angel Theatre 2 Anna’s Arabesque You CAN do Ballet! Ballet words and movements to try A significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language, because ballet as a type of dance first became formalised in France. The Paris Opera, originally known as the Royal Academy of Dance (founded in 1661 by King Louis XIV), features the oldest ballet company in France and probably the world. The ballet positions for arms and feet. Above Learn some French Ballet terms, practice saying the you can see both the arms and feet for words: positions 1-5, and the picture below shows a close up on the 5 positions for the feet. Try Try out some of these movements in your PE positions 1-3 first, and when you get really good lesson! Concentrate on balancing and holding the move on to 4 and 5. The more you practice the positions as carefully as you can. easier they will be and your legs will be stronger and more flexible. Arabesque When you know all the positions try moving Standing on one leg with the through them all from 1-5 without stopping. other leg extended behind the Move slowly and carefully and let each position body with the knee straight flow into the next one as slowly and smoothly as possible. Choose some slow music and (sticking your leg out behind!) This one takes a lot of change positions in time to the music. practice and good balance so take it slowly. Plié Bending the knees with your feet flat on the floor and knees facing out Other words in the show Prima (ballerina) – A title or honor given to the best female ballerinas in the world. Corps de ballet – A large group of dancers on Can you spot any of these ballet movements in the stage who dance behind the lead dancers. show? Corps in French means ‘body’, so they make up Couru - tiny, tiny, pitter-patter steps on point the ‘body of the ballet’. Pirouette - spinning round and round Jeté – a jump with one leg forward and the other back Ballet barre – A handrail that the dancers hold on to when practicing Little Angel Theatre 3 Puppets! Meet the Puppets The Prima The puppets were designed and made by Keith Ballerina puppet was inspired by Frederick. He wanted to make the puppets represent the illustrations in the book as closely a design by Bruce Schwartz as possible, but he also needed to make sure they could move well enough to do ballet! who was a puppeteer who appeared The main Biff puppet frequently on the is sewn from soft Muppet Show in fabric and filled with the 1970s. Not lentils to create a soft only can she squidgy feel and look dance beautifully but also to give him but her eyes snap weight and open in surprise! movement. He is a Look out for it! rod puppet with rods on his paws to move him. His legs are Bruce jointed at the top so Schwartz on that he can dance! the Muppet Show with his famous ballerina puppet in 1977. There is more than one Anna puppet as she wears different outfits during the story. She is a rod puppet with Before Keith made the finished puppets he joints in her made practice puppets to try out ideas with wrists, elbows, first. These puppets from Anna’s class needed shoulders, feet, to perform ballet positions and movements at knees and thighs the barre all at the same time so Keith needed so that she can to work out how to do that. He made these perform her simple practice puppets using basic materials famous to work out the best way to achieve this before arabesque! he made the finished puppets. Little Angel Theatre 4 Make Your Own Puppets Designing and Making Puppets When you design and make a puppet make Materials sure you think about these things: Remember that puppets have to be held up and moved by a puppeteer so choose light materials. If Decide on the character first (before you make your puppet too heavy you won’t be able to use it! Why not make an eco-friendly junk you start drawing or making).