Comparing the physical setting of two scenes from 'Still life at the Penguin Cafe'.

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Dance: - Comparing the physical setting of two scenes from  ‘Still life at the Penguin Cafe’

The two scenes I have chosen are the first and last ones we looked at, as I thought that these were the two that were the most different in both scenery and lighting around the stage also they are the beginning and end of the set work. The two I have chosen are the Penguin cafe itself and the southern cape zebra.

I am going to show the relationships and differences between these two scenes in 4 different areas: Set design, Lighting, props and dance content.

Set Design:

The set between all of the scenes is based partly on the colonial café and there is a projection of their usual habitat shown in an arch on the backdrop at the beginning. This is just an abstract focal point for the audience as the dancer begins in front of the image and so looks as though they are put of it but then the dancer or dancers begin to move out and this is when the backdrop begins to become less of a focal point as it is not always a specific part of the dance.

This projection of the creatures habitat is very different between these two scenes as firstly, in the penguin café scene the habitat is of Antarctica and so the colours used are mainly blues and whites in the projection, to show the image of snow and ice and to give the general idea of the climate. As the arch moves away the backdrop becomes a colonial style café lit with a dim pink wash to emphasise the features, the only disadvantage of this is that it draws the attention away from the realistic form of the penguin itself and makes them less like the actual creatures and gives them a presence of a person rather than an animal. Although the title specifies ’The penguin café’, I still think there should be a small point made about the penguins environment as this is the only scene were the café is shown during a dance as a main part, all of the other dances stay with the animals surroundings across the back drop and do not change. However the Southern cape Zebra is a prime example of this as the backdrop remains the main focus point for the audience throughout the entire dance, the backdrop or scenery does not change at all apart from a few minor changes in lighting. The backdrop for the zebra is of an African plain the dance begins with the lighting beginning as a sunrise but as the dance progresses the lighting dims until eventually it ends on a blackout. The backdrop lighting is important to the dance as this lighting tells the story as the lighting begins to dim as the zebra’s territory is being damaged and eventually results in a blackout when poachers for peoples modelling careers finally kill the zebra.

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These two set designs are different in many ways such as their regions the animals are from, the title and the role it plays in the penguins dance and the way the set does and does not change. These two dances were the two most different dance scenes that we looked at in our set work and as I have proved the settings are very different but they still cover animals, their habitats and their movement.

Lighting:

The lighting in these two scenes were very different although the same techniques and lights were used, the main lighting differences were ...

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