Dance GCSE Nutcracker and Perfect

Choreographer: Kevin Finnan and Dancers

Company: Motionhouse

Date of first performance: 2005

Dancers: 3 women and 2 men

Theme: The struggle for perfection. Time as a force that shapes and ages us. A race against time.

Dance style: Combines dance theatre and aerial work.

Starting point (stimulus): Themes of perfection and time. A book called 'The History of Barbed Wire'.

Accompaniment                 Sophy Smith and Tom Dickinson

Costume                                                   Claire Armitage

Lighting                                                          Mark Parry

Set                                                            Simon Dormon

Film                                                        Caroline Bridges

Choreographer: Matthew Bourne

Company: 1st performed by Adventures in Motion Picture, now performed by New Adventures

Date of first performance: August 1992

Dancers: 24 in total

Theme: The Nutrcracker story retold with references to adolescence, escapism, fantasy and satire.

Dance style: Contemporary and balletic.

Starting point (stimulus): The classical ballet and the music. Also images of Victorian childhood.

Accompaniment                                                     Tchaikovsky

Costume                                                               Anthony Ward

Lighting                                                             Howard Harrison

Set                                                                          Anthony Ward

Scenario                            Matthew Bourne and Martin Duncan