Silence is golden

It may be a little early to be thinking of this, but tonight I've been thinking a little about next years big project, the comedy sans dialogue.

While at a friends house tonight, my friend who is extremely passionate about opera, ballet and theater in general, showed me an excerpt from a ballet adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. I'd seen a ballet once before in my life (an amazing interpretation of The Nutcracker, with unbelievable set-pieces and costumes) and it really is an amazing experience. Aside from the dancing, there's a real element of acting involved, and unlike many silent films where over-acting is common, the acting I've seen in ballet is often understated but still extremely effective.

Here is the excerpt from the Alice in Wonderland Ballet that my friend showed me earlier. What I love is that the dancing, acting and music all join forces for different effects, in this case being one of humour. When we see the Queen of Hearts devouring a tart from one of her servants, her movement is completely ridiculous and the way the tart is just stuffed into her mouth and stays there for ages is just hilarious! Throughout the video she prances around and presents herself, to establish herself to the audience who her character is, and with this presentation of herself and her childish behaviour towards her servants, we get a true sense of what she is like.

I've always had an interest in ballet, and my favourite would have to be Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake'. It's not a comedy, in fact it's completely the opposite, but the whole spectacle and interpretations I've seen in broadcasted recordings really are truly stunning.

This is the prologue of Swan lake, where we see Odette fall under the spell of the evil wizard Rothbart. It's incredibly simple, like in the first video, the dancing, acting and music all combine to tell the story. It's powerful and dramatic, and the lack of dialogue in no way prevents the audience getting a coherent story.

This is my favourite excerpt from. I like the gloomy set-pieces that I've seen from this show, and this video showcases ballet's ability to combine the dance, music and acting to show character.
Overall I'd say this style of performance is a huge influence on my ideas and plans for how I want this future project to look, whether or not my colleagues agree with me is to be seen!!