Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

Over the Christmas break I went to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake in Sadler's Wells. It was a great ballet and provided a new and controversial take on the well known Swan Lake. The entire time my eyes were captivated by the beauty and skill of the dancers and choreographers as well as the scenes, lighting, music and costumes; and so was my brain in continuously seeking imagery and symbols in order to link and understand the dance to the story. Matthew Bourne takes the story of the importance of love over rules and power and shed's a whole new light on it. He uses both men and women in the piece yet the chorus is only men; I feel this is greatly linked to providing the audience with an abundance of male beauty in the theme that any love is powerful and should be thought of as more important than any rules or laws put into place in stopping people from expressing themselves. Dance is a great form of expression as is art and personally I believe that ballet is an art form especially when combined with the scenes, music and costuming to create such amazing imagery. it is the forms and shapes that are produced by individual dancers and them as a group which allow the audience to feel and to be moved or affected by the work. This ballet is seen as very controversial and I love it as I think it is extremely relevant at a time when gay rights are a major topic around the world and although many people in the western 21st Century can see that it is purely love and nothing but; many countries and individuals are punishing those willing to express their sexuality.
This ballet I'm sure left some less liberal members of the audience feeling uncomfortable and I think this is a great thing in art and in illustration I feel this is important too; in order to affect people and change or challenge peoples opinions or even just to allow them to reflect on topics; you must provide artwork that is not just safe but that means something.
In regard to the beauty of the dance choreography, costumes and scene; the lighting, textures, materials and colours greatly affected the experience for the audience. I will keep these factors in mind when creating illustrations as it is important to create an experience when looking at artwork; you want the audience to see or feel something.