Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Contrasting professional pieces

Over the past year, I have seen many different dance pieces and styles. In particular my favourites have been seeing ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘The Hiplet Ballerinas’. 

I went to see ‘The Nutcracker’ at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The performance was a rendition of ‘The Nutcracker’ performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet. I have wanted to see this show for a very long time and when I found out that I was going to see it, I was very excited to see my first ever ballet. Here is a trailer for 'The Nutcracker':

I have been interested in ballet since an early age and have been taking ballet classes since I was about 7 years old. 

The performance was very sleek and eloquent. All of the moves were in the correct places and fitted with the music perfectly. The play was full of traditional ballet moves as well as some character dances in the second half of the show. Classical ballet is far from a contemporary dance style as it originated in the 15^thcentury in Russia. All of the music used within ballet has quite a slow pace to it and speeds up occasionally but is soft throughout. 

Hiplet on the other hand is a similar but very different performance to a classical ballet. Hiplet is a fusion of classical ballet and hip hop and therefore uses both of these types of moves within the choreography which is a clever skill to master. There is a massive contrast between both of these styles as ballet is very sleek and precise whereas hip hop is more free moving and random. Here is a link to the performance of ‘The Hiplet Ballerinas’:

As you can see from this video, this style of dance has got a much more contemporary feel to it than a performance of classical ballet. Although the moves are sleek and well performed, the choreography involves a lot more harsher movements than would be involved in classical ballet. Unlike classical ballet, hiplet is a very new genre of dance as it was created in 2015 in North America. The music that is used for hiplet can vary quite dramatically but normally has a strong beat to it and is quite modern. 

In conclusion, the main contrast between these 2 professional dance pieces is that classical ballet is very precise, sleek and soft whereas hiplet, on the other hand is much more free moving, modern and harsh. Although both routines can be performed en pointe, a different type of strength is required as different moves are being carried out for the different styles of dance. For example, in classical ballet your legs are always straight when you stand en pointe but for hiplet, your legs can either be straight or bent.