To begin with two photos of Keith’s Inspired by Diaghilev/ set design workshop. This sets the mood for a week of activities over half term – already there are families flaunting ‘fins, feathers and funky moves’ in the half term Parade of the Animals although Keith’s workshops have a more serious aspects.
The ENB residency, Rephrasing Ballets Russes, continues through to Sunday. Today Kate Flatt led a master class for adventurous dance students from the CentralSchool which gave an insight into how choreographer Léonide Massine worked and taught. Drawing inspiration from paintings the students assumed poses that reflected the gestures in the figurative art. They then created links for the poses and finally enlarged those into choreographic movement. For those who have puzzled as to what some of the images are about in the ‘Inspiration’ section of the exhibition and how they would be used creatively here was the answer.
Kate had worked with Massine early in her career and heard from him how his original inspiration as a choreographer came when visiting the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was in early 1915 and Diaghilev posed the question, ‘Do you think you can do choreography?’ After a moment’s hesitation, gazing at Simone Martini’s The Annunciation (1333), Massine replied ‘I can do hundreds of ballets’. Kate herself is a significant and imaginative choreographer of dance and theatre but as I watched I could really understand how Massine’s influence percolated into so many parts of British choreography.