Comprehensive Study Notes: Wildlife (1984) by Richard Alston

Overview and Stimulus of Wildlife (1984)

• Richard Alston’s Collaborative Milestone:     * In a $2016$ retrospective, Alston identified Wildlife as the first work in his career where he collaborated so intimately with both music and stage design.     * Sophie Constanti ($1992$) describes the work as a rare example where no single artistic element—dance, music, or design—becomes subservient to another.

• Thematic Core:     * The work depicts an imaginary kingdom or landscape with its own unique culture, logic, and rituals.     * The kites within the set are considered part of the inhabitants' everyday environment.     * Alston clarifies that the title Wildlife does not refer to specific known animals like badgers or fish, but to whatever specific creatures might naturally inhabit this constructed landscape.

• Inspirations and Indigenous Concepts:     * Architecture: Alston was inspired by Bernard Rudovski’s book featuring extraordinary African huts and Mediterranean villages, which symbolized buildings arising from a community's needs.     * Folk Dance: Alston has a long-held fascination with "authentic" folk dance—the type that expresses a people's existence. He aimed to choreograph the "indigenous folk dance" of this imaginary place.     * Visual Environment: The kites designed by Richard Smith represent the "jungle" or the trees of this world.

Structure and Dancers

• EPISODIC STRUCTURE ($6$ Sections):     * Section 1: Male solo and male duet.     * Section 2: Female solo and male/female trio.     * Section 3: Female solo $1$ and ensemble.     * Section 4: Extended duet.     * Section 5: Female solo $2$ and male/female ensembles.     * Section 6: Ensemble and final tableau.

• The Dancers:     * Cast size: $3$ Male and $3$ Female dancers.     * Role: They are the inhabitants of the imaginary kingdom, described by Sophie Constanti as "brightly plumed creatures of nature."

Design and Aural Setting

• Set Design (Richard Smith):     * Features large, giant kites that invoke a mysterious habitat.     * Functional Metaphor: When lowered, the kites act as "exotic foliage"; when lifted, they form the "roof of a forest."     * Impact on Movement: The angular quality and asymmetrical marks of the kites inspired Alston to create a movement vocabulary that is primitive and sharp.

• Costume Design (Richard Smith):     * Dancers wear vividly colored, tightly fitted all-in-one bodysuits.     * Geometric Designs: The costumes feature abstract, geometric markings that echo the patterns on the kites.     * Cultural References: The designs refer to a primeval or aboriginal community, with colors suggesting an "energetic alertness" similar to aboriginal hunters.

• Aural Setting (Nigel Osborne):     * Instrumentation: Scored for a small ensemble of wind, percussion, and strings, with a sound projectionist providing stereophonic effects.     * Cultural Fusion: Osborne incorporated universal musical qualities, evoking African and Asian environments while utilizing Western minimalism (repeated rhythmic phrases and underlying pulses).

Section One: Male Solo and Male Duet

• Set and Spatial Analysis:     * Beginning: Features a large red kite outlined against a black cyclorama at stage level. A male dancer in green enters as a green kite comes into view.     * Mid-way: A lattice pattern on the cyclorama reflects the rectangular and triangular shapes of the kites.     * End: The red kite is lifted to hang above the stage.     * Interaction: The kites create "corridors" and foliage. Dancers perform behind the kites, hiding from onlookers. Audiences catch only glimpses of bodies through holes in the kites, emphasizing the creatures' relationship with their environment.

• Costume and Lighting:     * Dancer 1: Deep pink all-in-one with burgundy geometric shapes, matching the red/pink kite.     * Dancer 2: Dark green all-in-one with white geometric shapes, matching the green kite.     * Lighting: Starts with a soft yellow down-light and a red sidelight on the crouching pink dancer. A green pool of light illuminates the green kite upon the second dancer's entry.

• Aural Setting:     * Includes horns and trumpets from New Guinea; the sharp, stuttering trumpets are used to signify tribal leaders.

• Movement Examples and Analysis:     * Creature Motif ($0.19$): Male soloist in pink performs a parallel crouch with the upper body bent, sharply extending the left arm toward the floor. This is repeated at $1.03$ by both dancers in unison at different stage positions. The crouch suggests unidentified creatures, while the sharp arm reflects the kite's angles.     * Warrior Motif ($0.30$): The dancer in green steps into an arabesque on plié; one arm is flexed at the elbow overhead with a flat palm, while the other extends straight. This finishes in a sharp relevé facing away from the audience with a raised leg angled at the knee/ankle. This fluid movement contrasts with staccato music to create drama.

• Music-Dance Relationship:     * Visualisation ($0.19$): The dancer pauses in a crouch exactly when the music pauses, mimicking a creature on the hunt.     * Direct Correlation ($0.44$): Both dancers perform a fast triple pirouette coinciding with the tempo of a horn trill/stutter, creating urgency.

Section Four: Extended Duet

• Visual Environment:     * Blacked-out cyclorama with a striking green kite. Toward the end, the red kite descends to the stage.     * Final Image: The red and green kites rotate slowly. The red kite (giant, angular) is in front, with the smaller green kite (white/red zig-zags) hanging under it.

• Costume and Intent:     * Both dancers wear yellow bodysuits. The male has white/orange designs; the female has white/blue designs.     * Atmosphere: The shared color suggests they are a pair, perhaps the "first or last man and woman in the universe."

• Lighting and Aural Dynamics:     * Nighttime Imagery: Lighting is dark with white side lights, suggesting moonlight. A green pool of light allows dancers to camouflage against the kites.     * Musical Sources: Derived from an Eskimo song (lullaby/spirit calling) played on clarinet and flute around a minor chord.     * Movement Interaction ($1.16$): The female dancer moves to demi-pointe on a high-pitch tone, folding around the male's torso as he performs a penché; his lowering is mimicked by a lower woodwind note.

Section Six: Ensemble and Final Tableau

• Visual and Symbolic Resolution:     * Both kites now show the same pattern: white with red geometric designs. They are lifted, and the lighting turns them into dark silhouettes/shadows.     * This silhouette effect suggests the night sky or the end of a day.

• Costume Harmony:     * All $6$ dancers appear together for the first time ($2$ yellow, $2$ pink, $1$ green, $1$ blue). This suggests the different species live in harmony within the "Wildlife" kingdom.

• Aural Setting:     * Features a complex West African time line with wind, brass, percussion (temple blocks), and electric bass.     * Mbira: The use of the African Mbira (traditionally played by the Shona culture in Zimbabwe for sacred ceremonies) reflects the tribal qualities of the dance.

• Movement Examples:     * Tribal Unison: All dancers perform hip-twisting swivels and emphatic stamps in parallel. While in unison (community), they remain in individual kinespheres (individuality).     * The Final Tableau: Dancers form a "horizontal knot pattern." Male dancers are on the floor with one leg up and a flexed foot; female dancers join in curved positions.     * Context: Alston based this on a Romanesque sculpture (a frieze of small figures) he saw at the Heywood Gallery (South Bank).

Technical Influences and Dance Language

• Cunningham Technique Influence:     * Bodysuits: Used to show the clear contours of the body.     * Attitudes: Use of "open attitudes" (e.g., Section $4$ at $0.50$, where the male dancer holds the female's hand and lifts his leg into attitude while twisting the body).     * Leg Work: Sharp arabesque fouetté into penché ($0.21$).

• Release Technique (Mary Fulkerson):     * Characterized by a sense of flow and "melting" into the floor.     * Section 4 ($3.38$): Two dancers stand side-by-side, tuck a leg, melt onto their backs, and lift legs into a triangle shape, using the floor to push and flow into new positions.

• Ballet and Classical Structure:     * Technical Skill: Inclusion of triple pirouettes.     * Pas de Deux: Section $4$ mimics a classical pas de deux through its supportive, male-female nature.     * Weight: Section $6$ ($1.04$) features a V-shape formation where dancers stamp and drop their torsos, showing a "grounded and weighty" execution.