In discussing Swansong Christopher Bruce frequently parallels its style of presentation with that of Commedia dell’arte (a popular Italian improvised comedy, often with the use of masks, which flourished from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In this art form, performers became stock characters such as Arlecchino, Pantalone, Columbina, and Il Dottore whose improvised plays often made serious points in a light-hearted manner.
When the work was first performed, Bruce deliberately wanted his audience to watch it without background information. No programme note was included and he requested that no photographs showing the complete cast were published by London Festival Ballet in programmes or publicity material.
Christopher Bruce has frequently stated that he uses a number of sources for any work he creates. He has stated that there are two basic inspirations from which Swansong sprung. The first influence revolved from Amnesty International where Bruce felt compelled to say something about the situation of the prisoner of conscience. The other main inspiration was a more personal message. Bruce has stated that he felt the need to say good-bye to something and to him; it was saying good-bye to dancing.
Narrative and Location
Bruce has acknowledged that the sources he drew on for Swansong include the experiences of the Chilean poet Victor Jara under the junta of the 1970s, and the novel by Oriana Fallaci, A Man. In 1981, after meeting Victor Jara’s widow Joan, Bruce had choreographed his popular, provocative Ghost Dances (1981) which portrayed the oppression of Andean people to the accompaniment of South American music.
He followed this with the televised work for the Royal Danish Ballet, Silence is the End of our Song, again to South-American music and Chilean poems. For Swansong, however, his location was not specified by setting or music. The first section of Falaci’s A Man describes the torture of the hero, Alexander Panagoulis, condemned to death in 1968 for the attempted assassination of the Greek dictator George Papadopoulos. Saved from death he spends three and a half years in a cell with almost invisible windows. In the novel Falaci describes the process of torture and interrogation as if it was a theatrical production.
Swansong
The title, Swansong, is highly appropriate for the dance and has two meanings.
- A person’s last work or act before death or retirement.
- A song like that fabled to be sung by a dying swan.
The importance of a swan’s song is the belief that a swan sings only at the point of death. In this sense Christopher Bruce’s Swansong has a parallel theme to Michel Fokine’s famous and more literal solo, popularised by Anna Pavlova, The Dying Swan (originally called The Swan). It is an image that has attracted artists in numerous disciplines.
Many teachers of dance in education use Swansong as an inspiration for choreographies, performances and greater dance understanding. It is clear that although Swansong can be easily watched and understood by many there is a dark undertone to the work that must be explored. Swansong has an ambiguity to its content and topic and has proved to be still relevant today. A piece that will continue to show the issues of human rights and the result of human conflict.
A detailed analysis of Swansong can be found in further articles An analysis of Christopher Bruce's Swansong (Part 1 of 2) and An analysis of Christopher Bruce's Swansong (Part 2 of 2)
Amy Watson - Amy-Louise is Artistic Director of the dance theatre company 90 Degree Rotations and has a PGCE in Dance Teaching.
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