Ballet: The Old and the New

Bare Repetition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rJoB7y6Ncs

Ethical Assemblage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsviLRprD0

For this post, we were asked to select too assemblages, one that represented Arola & Arola’s concept of bare repetition which is an assemblage that is identical to a previous one with no transformation or reflection as well as an ethical assemblage, an assemblage that employs significant transformation so the the work can be seen essentially as their own and has transformed a previous work sufficiently so that they have created new meaning.

For bare repetition I chose to analyze Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It is common practice for ballet companies to perform classical ballets that have been around for decades. The exact same music, choreography, costumes, and stage elements are used to show a mastery of the esteemed piece and shows respect for the history of ballet. No one has ever viewed this as infringement because it says more about how prestigious the many classical pieces like Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, etc., are. Aside from this, many of these works were composed outside of our country and copyright laws exist only within the borders of our nation thus it falls under public domain.

For the ethical assemblage, I used a Hip Hope version of Swan Lake. It starts off with a classical ballet dancer performing the same way my previous example did but then out comes a troupe of dancers in urban clothes and sneakers. They begin to execute movements that are similar to the original choreography but take a slight different direction in genre. The movements are heavier, less precise, and with less technique to show the style of dance that  they wish to convey. The music changes as well with beats being added to the original composition that gives it a more modern twist to the classical piece.

An assemblage that is truly hurtful should be investigated further. Was it this person’s intention? What audience was it for? How far did it reach audiences that it could potentially offend? All these questions serve to show if the act of assemblage  was malicious in any way or a product of ignorance. Circulation largely affects ethical assemblages because if I make a music video with my friends at my house to a popular song, mimicking the acts of the original performer and post it to a private social media page, am I being fraudulent? The video is obviously never meant to see the light of day and I in now way shape or form believe that the work is mine even though I don't attach a disclaimer. Whereas, someone that does a similar thing and uploads it to their youtube channel that has thousands of followers knows how far their video  has the potential to circulate and knows that it can be conceived as infringement.