Analysis Of Christopher Bruce's Rooster

Rooster is piece of work created by Christopher Bruce, based upon the attitude and behavior of people within a society he grew up in. The music was also created by the rolling stones which was a band popular at the time and relate greatly to the time period. This piece was created for Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genèvre, it was then first performed at the Grand Théâtre de Genèvre on the 10 October 1991. The year after it premiered in Britain when he worked with the London Contemporary Dance theatre on 28 October 1992. Rooster is seen to be a celebration of music and this means the movement relates to each section individually, a key point Bruce makes when talking about the piece he has created he states that the attitude seen in his teenage …show more content…
This is shown heavily through Rooster, the first example seen is within the section Ruby Tuesday the classical footwork with a contracted torso, the detailed feet are classical ballet while the contracted torso is more commonly found within the Graham technique, which is contemporary. Martha Graham’s technique is based on the idea of contractions and release as she says that the curvature of the torso or the straight torso are the difference between desire and duty, between fear and courage and between weakness and strength. My second example is the deep plie in second, although the movement within itself is very classical the arm lines and the costumes the female dancers are presented in take the innocence and gracefulness away which would usually come with the movement, as the hand slides up the thigh and then skirt rides up the mood of this movement is changed, the female dancers are presented as more provocative. This leads us as the audience to then look at the society of the time completely, at the time woman were sexualized and seen as objects by society but if they dressed like this and movements like the ones we are presented with are common doesn’t that mean they are asking for it, if they didn’t want to be treated like this then why dress in this manner if Bruce is truly trying to show the society then he must have memories from the past where he has seen this, …show more content…
The circular movements I believe reflect the society, we travel in this continuous cycle of this battle between the battles of the sexes which in all fairness from my point of view can never really be won. Lastly we look at Ruby Tuesday once again, the legs are extended in balletic manner and then returned in towards the knee but as the foot is returned to the knee the upper body contracts in a downward motion, this is a seamless bland of ballet and contemporary and unless you were looking for it you wouldn’t notice it was