Pas de deux

In ballet, a pas de deux [pɑ d(ə) dø] (French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well-known ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle. It is most often performed by a male and a female (a danseur and a ballerina) though there are exceptions, such as in the film White Nights, in which a pas de deux is performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines.

Grand pas de deux

A grand pas de deux is a structured pas de deux that typically has five parts, consisting of an entrée (introduction), an adagio, two variations (a solo for each dancer), and a coda (conclusion). It is effectively a suite of dances that share a common theme, often symbolic of a love story or the partnership inherent in love, with the dancers portraying expressions of affectionate feelings and thoughts between romantic partners. It is often considered to be the pièce de résistance and bravura highlight of a ballet and is usually performed by a leading pair of principal dancers.

Pas de deux (film)

Pas de deux (released as Duo in the United States) is a 1968 short dance film by Norman McLaren, produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

The film was photographed on high contrast stock, with optical, step-and-repeat printing, for a sensuous and almost stroboscopic appearance. It shows a ballerina (Margaret Mercier) dancing by herself (or rather, with images of herself), before being joined by a male dancer (Vincent Warren), to perform the pas de deux of the title, as choreographed by Ludmilla Chiriaeff.

The film is choreographed to Romanian pan pipe music.

Awards

Pas de deux received 17 awards, including the 1969 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film and an Academy Award nomination, as Duo.

References

External links

Pas de deux (disambiguation)

Pas de deux is a ballet duet in which steps are performed together.

Pas de deux may also refer to:

In ballet:

In other uses:

UND

UND or Und may refer to:

Howard Barker

Howard E. Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright.

The Theatre of Catastrophe

Barker has coined the term "Theatre of Catastrophe" to describe his work. His plays often explore violence, sexuality, the desire for power, and human motivation.

Rejecting the widespread notion that an audience should share a single response to the events onstage, Barker works to fragment response, forcing each viewer to wrestle with the play alone. "We must overcome the urge to do things in unison" he writes. "To chant together, to hum banal tunes together, is not collectivity." Where other playwrights might clarify a scene, Barker seeks to render it more complex, ambiguous, and unstable.

Only through a tragic renaissance, Barker argues, will beauty and poetry return to the stage. "Tragedy liberates language from banality" he asserts. "It returns poetry to speech."

Themes

Barker frequently turns to historical events for inspiration. His play Scenes from an Execution, for example, centers on the aftermath of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and a fictional female artist commissioned to create a commemorative painting of the Venetian victory over the Ottoman fleet. Scenes from an Execution, originally written for Radio 3 and starring Glenda Jackson in 1984, was later adapted for the stage. The short play Judith revolves around the Biblical story of Judith, the legendary heroine who decapitated the invading general Holofernes.