Resplendence - Live Performance - In Development

In the summer of 1871 at his family’s summer home in Ukraine, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky passed the time with his nieces and nephews by creating a ballet based on the German fairytale Lake of Swans. Starring these untrained children, made on a whim, and with wild imaginations, this is the origin of what we now know as Swan Lake. Resplendence is a re-imagining of the first unbridled version of Swan Lake. Made in collaboration with children to stage their ideas about Romanticism, gender, archetypal myths and honouring their sense of heightened drama and untamed creativity. Think the Bolshoi, meets Lucy Geurin, meets Slava’s Snow Show.

Resplendence takes one of the most famous works of ballet, and freely reinterprets it through the eyes of children. The concept is informed by our contemporary theatre practice, combined with historical and performance research, and invites children and adult audiences to reconsider the heritage form of ballet storytelling. Resplendence critically considers ideals of hyperfemininity and hypermasculinity transmitted to children through fairytales, superheroes and more broadly gender roles in children's entertainment. This work intends to shift the balance from children being passive voices toward them becoming leaders of creative agency. Ultimately this show will be created with untrained child performers who re-interpret balletic convention into the form of contemporary theatre.

Directors

Jackson Castiglione & Tamara Searle