Radical Restagings / Radicals Restaging
CFA MH 620
"Radical Restagings / Radicals Restaging" Imagine attending a performance of Daphnis et Chlo?--the staged ballet rather than the orchestral suite. To the sounds of Ravel's familiar, ethereal score, the curtain lifts. But instead of a lithe ballerina in a diaphanous costume, a roller-skated dancer appears on stage. What is happening? And why? In this course, we will investigate both the whats and whys of productions like this wacky version of Daphnis: choreographers who entirely reimagine canonical ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and The Rite of Spring among others. To that end, we work to understand the political as well as the aesthetic implications of these remade productions. Said another way, this course rethinks what ballet (with its musical as well as its danced components) can--and perhaps should--do.

