Choreographic interpretation of the images of Hippolyta and Theseus in the ballet by J. Neumeier's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Abstract

In this paper, the author continues to study and comprehend the author's interpretation of J. Neumeier images of the main characters of the ballet "A Midsummer Night's Dream". A meaningful interpretation of the choreographic embodiment of Hippolyta and Theseus, one of the two hypostases of the main characters of the ballet, is carried out in order to identify their features in the context of the performance and the choreographer's creativity. Based on the methods of ballet studies analysis approved by historians and ballet theorists Dobrovolskaya, Krasovskaya, Surits, the author used comparative-historical, ideological-artistic and analytical methods, as well as the method of included observation (based on personal experience with Neumeier). 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 the roles of Hippolyta and Theseus allows us to conclude that Neumeier makes two detailed duets that differ from each other as the main fragments characterizing these characters. In the first of them, the choreographer uses a rich duet technique: upper supports without approaches (often starting from kneeling positions), non–standard combinations of paired rotations - elements that determine the further line of development of his choreographic style. The composition and means of choreographic expressiveness of the second duet are rather atypical for Neumeier's work. Here, the choreographer, with poses and technical solo fragments of the dancers, hints at the similarity with the ballets of the classical heritage, with the help of which he emphasizes the ceremonial and ceremonious solemnity of this duet. It also uses such an additional attribute as a train, which gives the ballerina's movements even more weight and royalty. Thus, the choreographic development of the images of Hippolyta and Theseus occupies one of the key positions (along with Titania and Oberon) in the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and also becomes an important stage in the evolution of the author's style of J. Neumeier.