Chroma (ballet)

Last updated

Chroma
Choreographer Wayne McGregor
Music Joby Talbot
Jack White
Premiere17 November 2006 (2006-11-17)
Royal Opera House
Original ballet company The Royal Ballet
Design John Pawson (sets)
Moritz Junge (costumes)
Genre Contemporary ballet

Chroma is a one-act contemporary ballet created by Wayne McGregor for the Royal Ballet. The work received its premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 17 November 2006. The ballet is performed to a combination of original music by Joby Talbot and arrangements of music by Jack White of the White Stripes, with orchestrations by Christopher Austin. The ballet was a great success, winning a number of awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and led to The Royal Ballet appointing McGregor as resident choreographer.

Contents

Production

External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Wayne McGregor's Chroma – The Hardest Button to Button (The Royal Ballet), YouTube video

Chroma marks the second time Wayne McGregor choreographed for the Royal Opera House main stage, having previously created works for the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio Theatre. [1] [2] According to McGregor, it was created within three weeks, with four to five hours of rehearsals each day. [3] The ballet is performed by ten dancers; some of the original cast members went on to be McGregor's frequent collaborators, such as Edward Watson, Steven McRae and Eric Underwood. The original cast also featured several Royal Ballet lead dancers, some of whom were working with McGregor for the first time. The female dancers are completely off pointe. [2]

The music includes four pieces by British composer Joby Talbot, as well as Talbot's rearrangement of three songs by Jack White of the American rock band White Stripes, including "Aluminum", "The Hardest Button to Button", and "Blue Orchid". [1] [4] The set was designed by British architect John Pawson, who was known for his minimalist style. Pawson was brought in after he was approached by McGregor to create "amazing plain canvases in which anything can happen". Chroma was the first time Pawson designed for a stage. [1] [5]

The choreography, design, and music received critical acclaim, with The Times noting: "McGregor’s Chroma is ravishing on all fronts", and The Guardian writing that the ballet's "tension between chaos and minimalism is extreme". [6] [7] The success of Chroma led to McGregor's appointment as resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, a position that was previously held by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan, thus making him the first contemporary artist and the only one without any ballet training to hold the post. [8]

The Royal Ballet has since revived Chroma and it has been performed on tour. Other ballet companies that have danced the piece include the National Ballet of Canada (2010), San Francisco Ballet (2011), Bolshoi Ballet (2011), and The Australian Ballet (2014). [1] In 2013, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater became the first modern dance troupe to perform Chroma. [9] In 2016, on the 10th anniversary of the premiere, the Royal Ballet performed Chroma alongside five dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, including Jacqueline Green, Jamar Roberts and Rachael McLaren. [10] [11]

Casts

Videography

In 2011, Opus Arte released a DVD of a performance of Chroma by The Royal Ballet, along with McGregor's Infra and Limen. [13]

In 2015, a performance by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Lincoln Center, along with three other pieces, was filmed as a part of Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance, which was screened in various cinemas and was released in a DVD. The Lincoln Center released the video online in light of the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts. [18] [19]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardWorkResultRef.
2007 Critics' Circle National Dance Awards – Best Choreography (Classical)ChromaWon [20]
Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production ChromaWon [21]
Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance Wayne McGregorNominated [21]
Steven McRae [n 1] Nominated [21]
South Bank Show Awards – DanceChromaWon [22]

Notes

  1. ↑ Steven McRae was nominated for both Chroma and Homage to the Queen

Related Research Articles

Alvin Ailey American dancer and activist (1931–1989)

Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. A gay man, his work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of Black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world.

Joby Talbot Musical artist

Joby Talbot is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes and an accordingly broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and works for dance. He is therefore known to sometimes disparate audiences for quite different works.

The Royal Ballet Ballet company in the United Kingdom

The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and has purpose built facilities within these premises and was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.

Principal dancer Dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company

A principal dancer is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.

Judith Jamison American dancer and choreographer (born 1943)

Judith Ann Jamison is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Modern dance company based in New York City

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.

Mara Galeazzi is an Italian ballet dancer. She was a Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet.

Edward Watson MBE is a British ballet dancer. He is a principal dancer and coach with the Royal Ballet in London.

Wayne McGregor British choreographer and director

Wayne McGregor, CBE is a multi award-winning British choreographer and director. He is the Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. McGregor was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 2011 for Services to Dance.

The National Dance Awards 2009, were organised by The Critics' Circle, and presented to recognise excellence in professional dance in the United Kingdom. The ceremony was held in the Paul Hamlyn Hall of the Royal Opera House, London, on 21 January 2010, with awards given for productions staged in the previous year. The awards were sponsored by Yvonne Sherrington in memory of her husband Richard Sherrington, the founder sponsor of the Awards; HIT Entertainment; The Dancing Times; Dance Europe; Dance UK; Artsworld Presentations; The Council for Dance Education and Training and the website ballet.co.uk

Polyphonia is a one-act ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to music by György Ligeti, costumes designed by Holly Hynes, and was created for the New York City Ballet. It premiered on January 4, 2001 at the New York State Theater. It is regarded as Wheeldon's breakthrough, and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2003.

Steven McRae Australian ballet dancer and tap dancer (born 1985)

Steven McRae is an Australian ballet dancer and tap dancer. He is a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, London.

Eric Underwood (dancer) American British ballet dancer, model and actor

Eric Underwood is an American British ballet dancer, model and actor. He was a soloist with The Royal Ballet, he left the company in August 2017. He was one of the few black dancers in the company.

Francesca Hayward English ballet dancer and actress

Francesca Hayward is a Kenyan-born English ballet dancer and actress. She is a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London. In 2019, she starred as Victoria the White Cat in the musical film Cats, an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name.

Akane Takada Japanese ballet dancer

Akane Takada is a Japanese ballerina and a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. Her lead roles have included the title role in Giselle, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Kitri in Don Quixote, and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.

Antonia Franceschi American actor and choreographer

Antonia Franceschi is an American actress, dancer, and choreographer.

Woolf Works is a full-length contemporary ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor, composed by Max Richter, and inspired by Virginia Woolf's novels, letters, essays and diaries. The premiere took place on 11 May 2015 at the Royal Opera House. It was McGregor's first full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet, and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.

Alicia Graf Mack American dancer

Alicia Graf Mack is an American dancer and teacher. She danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and taught at Webster University and University of Houston. In 2018, she became the Director of Dance Division at Juilliard School.

Rachael McLaren is a Canadian dancer who performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Yugen is a one-act ballet by Wayne McGregor, to Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. The ballet premiered on 15 March 2018 at the Royal Opera House, danced by The Royal Ballet.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "A Chroma primer". The Australian Ballet. 27 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Wayne McGregor". The Ballet Bag. 2 November 2009.
  3. ↑ "Wayne McGregor". Ballet Association. 28 June 2007.
  4. ↑ "Chroma (2007)". Wise Music Classical. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Olivero, Simone. "Chroma: Inside the Ballet". National Ballet of Canada. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  6. ↑ Craine, Debra (21 November 2006). "Royal Ballet". The Times.
  7. ↑ Mackrell, Judith (20 November 2006). "Royal Ballet triple bill". The Guardian.
  8. ↑ Snow, Georgia (9 February 2017). "Wayne McGregor: 'People will tell you there are rules, but there aren't any'". The Stage.
  9. ↑ Burke, Siobhan (3 December 2013). "Proving That Ailey Never Stands Still". New York Times.
  10. ↑ Parry, Jann (13 November 2016). "Royal Ballet – Wayne McGregor bill: Chroma, Multiverse, Carbon Life – London". DanceTabs.
  11. ↑ Mackrell, Judith (11 November 2016). "Wayne McGregor mixed bill review – dances at the end of the world". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ "Chroma – 17 November 2006 Evening 7.30pm". Royal Opera House Collections Online.
  13. 1 2 "McGregor, W.: Chroma / Infra / Limen [Ballets] (Royal Ballet, 2006–2009) (NTSC)" . Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  14. ↑ Citron, Paula (25 November 2010). "Stunning Chroma brings down the house". The Globe and Mail.
  15. ↑ Ulrich, Allan (8 April 2011). "S.F. Ballet review: Wayne McGregor's 'Chroma'". San Francisco San Francisco Chronicle.
  16. ↑ Haby, Gracia. "Playlist". Fjord Review.
  17. ↑ "The Royal Ballet – Wayne McGregor Mixed Bill – Chroma; Multiverse; Carbon Life". Classical Source.
  18. ↑ "Chroma, Grace, Takademe, Revelations (2015)". Lincoln Center at Home. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  19. ↑ "Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – Chroma / Grace / Takademe / Revelations (NTSC)" . Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "2007 Awards". Critics' Circle National Dance Awards. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  21. 1 2 3 "Official London Theatre Guide – Olivier Winners 2007". 23 April 2008. Archived from the original on 11 February 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  22. ↑ "South Bank awards honour The Who". BBC News. 23 January 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.