The piece ‘Bird Song’ choreographed by Siobhan Davies challenges the tradition of ballet in so many ways and displays very different movement, music, costume, and staging to traditional theatre.
One of the ways in which the performance challenges traditional ballet conventions is by performing in bare feet and wearing loose trousers and tops, instead of Pointe shoes and a tutu. The performance is also set as an in the round theatre style and the square of performance space is on the same level as the audience, creating a relationship between them as they are so near to each other. Whereas, traditional ballet would have been performed on a proscenium arch staging with the audience sat all facing the front to create a separation and enable the audience to view the performance almost as a film.
The use of music also displays big differences from traditional ballet. The music is screechy and sounds almost mechanical, and is not pleasant to listen to. It constantly pauses and has no specific timing. This is completely different to the classical music used in traditional ballet that would be chosen first so the dance could be set to it after. There is no central point of focus, and the whole space was used by all the dancers at one time, so there are no corps de ballet or principal characters that are framed by the other dancers and there is no hierarchy of dancers, as there is in traditional ballet.
The traditional themes explored in ballet would be fairy tale narratives, Greek mythology, and love stories through the use of gesture and mime. However Bird Song has no narrative and displays movement with no specific theme or meaning communication which allows the audience to figure out their own conclusions of the movement, if any at all, and enables them to appreciate the performance as they wish.
I watched this performance on the Siobhan Davies Archive.. http://www.siobhandaviesreplay.com/index.php
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