Combined arts skills workshop 2. 13/09/21

 In this workshop, I created a duet with Millie inspired by the knickerbocker glory character from Act 2  in Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker. 

Summary of the video:

The character of knickerbocker glory (me) has a snakey, seductive and sneaky body language. he lures Clara (Millie) in and tries to pressure her into taking the invitation but only if she smokes with him. in the original scene he has a cigarette in his mouth the whole time he dances with her, and right at the end he offers it to her. when she doesn't take it, he leaves. In this duet, Clara has wide, innocent eyes and is submissive to the knickerbocker glory. Us together are telling a story because our body language and expressions contrast with each other. I tried to channel his seductive body language by leading with my hips and pelvis when walking towards Millie and remaining eye contact. The skill we ae focusing on is non verbal communication again, so this was done through movement together and most importantly the pace. you can see at the start everything is slow and its almost as if i am hypnotising Clara and putting her under some sort of spell. then i pick up the pace by the quick and aggressive hand grab as Clara goes to take the invitation. I am very dominant in the movement after this and it shows that i now have power over her, especially when i push her away from me. 

Understanding:

While creating this duet, we were not only inspired by the scene in Act 2 with the knickerbocker glory and Clara but we were thinking about how this can be linked to and influenced by the characters in commedia. Commedia was all about overly exaggerating stereotypical characters on stage. in this scene in Nutcracker certain sweets and desserts were being portrayed in a stereotypical way. for example, liquorice were Latin/Spanish style dancing and came across as very arrogant and sexy. Marshmallows were very bouncy, airy and almost blonde-bimbo characters. Knickerbocker glory had the seductive yet bad side to him. i exaggerated this stereotype, thinking about how body language was the main way to show characters in commedia. It was all about leading body parts, hence why i lead with my hips.