Masterpiece – Art made for the stage 

Masterpiece made Act 1 of our 10th annual show ‘Decennium’ where we chose to celebrate some of the world’s most famous and iconic pieces of art. What I love about art is its openness to interpretation meaning there is no right or wrong answer. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that art is the expression or application of human creative skill or imagination and that art is produced primarily to be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. 

I personally love visual art and can spend hours getting lost in art galleries. I was lucky enough to fly to New York last December and took so much inspiration from The Guggenheim which was exhibiting work by Degas, Picasso and Kandinsky. I am a dreamy Pisces who also finds an emotional connection and narrative to a piece of art, so I therefore thoroughly enjoyed researching this Act in the show.  I was keen to include a lot of familiar and iconic pieces for the audience to enjoy, painted by artists such as Monet, Banksy and Warhol. Our graphic designer produced his own version of each piece of art, and we projected it against the white cloth to create the backdrop to the piece being performed that creating such a wonderful visual effect. 

Miss Liz decided to take “The Great Wave” by the Japanese artist Hokusai and turn it into an Acro Dance for our Inter students. The print depicts three boats moving through a stormy sea with a large wave forming a spiral in the centre. Liz spent a long time researching ideas for choreography and movement that mimicked water and in particular waves. It was important that the shapes, skills and builds the dancers created had a sway and flow to them as they physically became the waves from the iconic print. Liz used a lot of contraction and relaxation movements during the dance elements of this routine to create this and then progressed the routine to actually build the wave itself by lifting the dancers in the air in cannon to construct the waves. Liz used music composed by American composer Julie Giroux who is best known for her wind ensemble. The piece she composed inspired by The Great Wave was the perfect choice as it is full of up and down motions and melodic lines that increase and decrease in volume. Liz spent hours editing this piece of music to compliment the choreography, and there were certainly a lot of wows from the audience. 

I cannot stress enough how much time and rehearsal goes into creating Acro Dance group numbers. Acro Dance needs to be visually effective using limber, flexible and strong dancers to create shapes and builds with their bodies, but moreover, it needs to be safe and secure. We are fortunate enough to work from a large space that allows us to rehearse these numbers and we have to be so hot on attendance. It is like having one piece of the puzzle missing if a dancer is missing. Acro Dance is most definitely teamwork at its finest.

We couldn’t create an Act from a dance show all about art and not include Degas. Edgar Degas was a French artist who especially identified with the subject of dance, and more than half of his work depicts dancers. We chose “The Ballet Class” and gave it to some of the youngest students aged 5-7 years old. Connor decided to let our Year 2 students be the ballerinas from the painting and our Year 1 students were the artists. A senior student Maia was en pointe as many of the dancers in Degas’s paintings were, and that immediately told the beautiful journey of a ballet dancer at Jaykays Dance Company; from their first tutu to dancing en pointe. 

The routine started in the ballet class with Maia en pointe who then welcomed the younger ballerinas to the stage who then appear shocked and surprised to see the little artists run onto the stage. Connor was keen to use comedy in this number with the youngest dancers dressed in berets with paint-splatted aprons holding paintbrushes. There was a lot of mime and gesture whilst the little artists were thinking about what it is they would paint, and then they find their ballerinas and paint them. 

Co-ordinating and rehearsing young dancers can be challenging! Learning a show routine involves a lot of repetition and rehearsal as the dancers dance on stage independently without the support of their class teacher. Young dancers can also get disorientated and distracted when they take their routine to a new environment, and the presence of a live audience can be overwhelming. So we are always so incredibly proud of this age group in particular who continue to teach us a thing or two about resilience and courage. It is always a joy to watch this age group next to the Senior dancers at Jaykays as it highlights one of the mission statements that; great things come from small beginnings.