Features of the plastic embodiment of the images of Oberon and Titania in the ballet by J. Neumeier's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Abstract

In this article, a meaningful interpretation of the plastic solution is carried out by choreographer J. Neumeier created images of Titania and Oberon in order to identify their choreographic features in the context of the ballet "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the choreographer's work as a whole. In the course of the research, the author applied comparative-historical, ideological-artistic and analytical methods. The theoretical basis of the research was the methods of ballet analysis approved by the historians of the ballet Dobrovolskaya, Krasovskaya, Surits; the methodological basis for the analysis of choreography were the works of ballet master and ballet theorist Lopukhov. In the course of the source analysis, the author used video materials from the archives of the Hamburg "Ballettzentrum" and the Moscow Bolshoi Theater.A detailed analysis of the choreographic score of Titania and Oberon's parts made it possible to identify the following author's solutions related to the new research results. In the first duet of Oberon and Titania, Neumeier forms plastic leitmotifs, which are developed in further appearances of the characters. The choreographer uses emphatically profiled, graphic and carefully geometric positions of the performers' bodies, additionally accentuating this with tight-fitting costumes; the parties receive active choreographic development based on a technically saturated duet dance, replete with high supports with acrobatic elements using extreme flexibility and stretching of the ballerina. So, when setting the analyzed roles, J. Neumeier used qualitatively new, including non-traditional plastic methods, which were significant in the context of his production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and influenced the further formation of the choreographic style of the choreographer.