MOVEMENT

• more clear to choreographic intention, generally develop it more
• look into making animal abuse the focus: Elephants – use elements from their movement to create motifs (inspiration can be drawn from ‘Still Life at the Penguin Café’
• for ‘show’ sections (A), look into jazz, Broadway for inspiration – should be glitzy, glamorous, entertaining

STRUCTURE

• consider changing sections B, C, D to physical, mental (research into possible drugging) and emotional abuse (separation from mother)
• have ‘cracks’ peeking through during A2 + A3 – the abuse is taking a toll

AURAL SETTING

• try looking into more music options – perhaps something more sinister (movies and TV shows are generally useful)
• begin finding possible options for voice overs – documentary style?
• * consider having the ‘traditional’ circus music for sections A, with a ring master’s voice over + applause, laughter etc
• * over sections B, C, D, have documentary style voice overs

CHOREOGRAPHIC INTENTION

• make the audience know that animals perform in the circus AGAINST their will
• make them realise they are supporters of it

* possibly 

Part 1 – Abuse

• Maybe cut down
• Create a faster dynamic
• More contrast between ‘rest’ and ‘tense’ moments
• Perhaps add explosive end (agressive jumps, turns) that come to a blunt end, facing audience before next ‘show’

Part 2 – Manipulation

• smaller gestures
• sharp, look unexpected
• head movement (facing)
• isolate body parts explicitly, rest of the body follows
• Movements similar to a puppet, limp, comtrolled

Throughout – show

• cicus- like moements
• higher energy in choreo
• make the dynamic lighter
• Perhaps it can change slightly throughout (add a movement from other sections here and there)
• Add show movement to other section, have something consistent and recognisable throughout

Ending

• have motifs from the show and other sections merge together
• chaos
• not necessarily link, common theme between the movements
• come to a rest? sudden ending? what should the conclusion be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_MhFHP4UuM

American Horror Story: Freakshow Soundtrack – Theme

 

 

Entry of the Gladiators

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oaMxDLrgiwyUnfpn0DHAl301X9O04LZ_wB6GuiG632Y/edit

 

Planning: 15 – 20 second motif (make good use of choreograph devices)

Stillness: between transitions of negativity and positivity (reflecting? revealing?)

Gestures:  Angular and sudden for pain

Elevations: use circus like movements (fancy jumps, extended arms), and heavy more falling/ being pushed down

Shape: curved back, contractions, small for looking timid v extended arms + legs

Speed: changes, maybe fast/violent travels, dragging travels, crawling?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGDHN1SvL4w– cirque du soleil opening (video)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/ – PT Barnum article

“The story of his life that we choose to tell is in part the story that we choose to tell about American culture,” he says. “We can choose to erase things or dance around touchy subjects and present a kind of feel good story, or we can use it as an opportunity to look at very complex and troubling histories that our culture has been grappling with for centuries.”

hosting a live autopsy in a New York Saloon. There, 1500 spectators paid 50 cents to see the dead woman cut up … “he owned this woman, worked her for 10 to 12 hours a day near the end of her life, worked her to death and then, exploited her after death.”

“He had these new ways of making racism seem fun and for people to engage in activities that degraded a racially subjected person in ways that were intimate and funny and surprising and novel,” says Reiss. “That’s part of his legacy, that’s part of what he left us, just as he also left us some really great jokes and circus acts and this kind of charming, wise-cracking ‘America’s uncle’ reputation. This is equally a part of his legacy.”

“Barnum’s great discovery was not how easy it was to deceive the public, but rather, how much the public enjoyed being deceived.”

http://boredomtherapy.com/pt-barnum-facts/ – PT Barnum article (good light)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyke_(elephant)   – Tyke the Elephant

“The elephant handler was observed beating the single-tusk African elephant in public to the point [where] the elephant was screaming and bending down on three legs to avoid being hit. Even when the handler walked by the elephant after this, the elephant screamed and veered away, demonstrating fear from his presence.”^[3]

Following the Hawaii accident of August 20, 1994, Tyke became symbolic of circus tragedies and a symbol for animal rights.^[5]

Tyke (1974 – August 20, 1994) was an African bush elephant from Mozambique who performed with Circus International of Honolulu, Hawaii. On August 20, 1994, during a performance at the Neal Blaisdell Center, she killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and seriously injured her groomer, Dallas Beckwith. Tyke then bolted from the arena and ran through the streets of the Kakaako central business district for more than thirty minutes. Unable to calm the elephant, local police eventually opened fire on the animal, which eventually collapsed from the wounds and died. While the majority of the attack in the arena was recorded on consumer videotape by several spectators, additional professional video footage captured the attack on local publicist Steve Hirano and the shooting of Tyke herself (both of which took place outside of the building).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLi9C7ygyk – The Rampage of Circus Elephant Tyke (video)

Key moments: 2:25

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/1954_Episode_of_the_TV_series_%22Super_Circus%22.ogv – 1954 Circus (video)

Key moments: 1:30 acrobat act / 14:00 leopard / 18:40 elephants