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Author
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Comment
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(7/29/03 7:08 am)
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coming of age tales?
Our local community dance teacher, who teaches my children, and my husband, who wrote the music for the company's last spring performance, are looking to me for some help, and I thought I'd get some ideas here. Last year, the spring performance's story was based, loosely, on an African folktale. This year, they want to adapt another folktale, but since I'm going to be the one doing the adapting, I feel much more comfortable drawing from Western European or American sources. They liked the coming-of-age, with humor, kind of tale they used last year. A lot of the coming-of-age tales I keep thinking of are too violent and bloody, very boy-hero finds his place in the world. Or, girl stories with violence - a la Armless Maiden tales or the Twelve Brothers, etc., tales. The dancers are mostly girls and mostly young, humor would be preferable to fighting or violence. The story can be spooky, but not terrifying. And there will be no dialogue so any stories in which dialogue is essential, won't be useful. Any thoughts?
LauraMc
Edited by: Laura McCaffrey at: 7/29/03 7:10 am
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irongoddess
Registered User
(7/29/03 10:16 am)
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Re: coming of age tales?
I've been fascinated by the story of Rapunzel for some time - it's one of those stories that everyone is familiar with (at least in its most basic form), but that hasn't permeated the culture quite as much as fairy tales like Cinderella or Beauty & the Beast.
Rapunzel's arc from dependence on the witch to separation & marriage makes it a coming-of-age story that can be given a number of spins, and it has a lot of very strong imagery that, I imagine, would lend itself well to a dance adaptation. I also like that Rapunzel takes a much more active role in her own story (even in the versions where she's initially foiled by the witch) than your average trapped heroine. Take a peek at some of the versions of the story on the SurLaLune site and see if it might work.
-Beth
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(7/29/03 1:24 pm)
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Am I going for the obvious?
I think a version of 12 Dancing Princesses would be rather interesting. Most kids still don't know the tale all that well and there are various versions across cultures, too. Just seems a great way to make use of lots of little dancing feet. Wish my dance recitals had been creative enough to use it....
Heidi
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(7/31/03 3:30 pm)
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Re: Am I going for the obvious?
Thanks Beth and Heidi -
I love both those tales and will certainly consider them. I'm also searching through Irish collections, as my husband grew up playing traditional Irish music and would love to weave in some of that. We'll be developing this project over the next three months, so if anyone has more ideas they want to share, feel free.
LauraMc
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