Rock-A-Bye
BalletX, 2018 Sumer Series
Choreographed by Penny Saunders
Original music by Rosie Langabeer
Set Design by You-Shin Chen
Lighting Design by Michael Korsch
Costume Design by Martha Chamberlain
Photo by Candice DeTore
view clips from the performance here
Press
Broad Street Review "“Rock-a-Bye,” with set design by [You-Shin Chen], costumes by Martha Chamberlain and lighting by Michael Korsch, perfectly merged music and dance to present a story of connection, mother to daughter to mother."
Culture Vulture "Saunders weighs down Rock-A-Bye with exposition at points, but mostly this is potent dance-theater. Set designer [You-Shin Chen] set of a kitchen area, long table with the musicians at one end and moveable patch of yard, works well in tandem with Michael Korsch’s lighting designs are particularly dynamic in collaboration with Saunders’ fine sense of stage composition throughout the ballet."
Fjord Review "The set suggested an Edward Hopper moodiness, with low-lit living room and long kitchen table where the musicians sat on the far end. The original live music created by Rosie Langabeer, Tara Middleton and Gregg Mervine cannily matched the mood. Behind them, a wall of analog clocks gave the tick-tock theme to this alternately warm and tense family drama."
It was interesting that people read those items on the wall as clocks; there was only one real clock, the rest were round objects from kitchens, like pans, pots and colanders...etc. But "time" was definitely one of the themes in this dance piece. Penny, Rosie and me were all drawn into the circular shapes of those kitchenware. I had lots of fun selecting specific ones with Rosie and saw how those were used in music development.
below are two sketches at the beginning of the design process. It is kind of fun to look at them again after the production.
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