Week 3: ‘In Countenance of Kings’ by Justin Peck

In today’s session we watched two of Justin Peck’s videos one was about his choreographic process, which inspired our motifs for our solo and we also watched his piece, “In The Countenance Of Kings”. This was a very interesting piece formed with balletic and elegant steps however performed very strong and dynamic which is very contrasting towards one another. 

The piece portrayed the idea of freedom, as the dancers were wearing trainers, their hair was down and overall the steps and arm movements were very free however, again this is contrasted as the large cast creates a chaotic and unorganised scene with all the dancers, patterns and formations. When watching the piece, it seems that the time signature is slightly off again representing the idea of freedom.

In my opinion, the piece is about the girl realising her inner strength, this comes with reflecting on her past for the motivation and determination, as well as believing in herself and coming to terms with the fact she is good enough and she can do it if she works hard and keeps pushing through. The idea of the imagery also suggests the sense of achievement and her wanting to be better.

The music was very energetic and allowed the steps to come across the same, watching the piece it made me feel very happy and excited to see what was going to come next as you never knew throughout the piece.

Throughout the piece there were many choreographic devices, including; unison, canon, repetition, embellishment, inversion and argumentation. These again allowed the piece to become freer and when watching it I felt quite tense as I didn’t know which direction to look, as there was solos, duets, trios and smaller groups all going on at the same time.

The idea of equality is also shown throughout the piece, as it is such a large cast and no one is featured throughout the whole piece, they are all very equal with their roles. When watching the video of Justin Peck’s choreographic process, he said each ballet is about how he is feeling in that moment in time, meaning all of his pieces are very personal to him and this comes across with the story telling and the narrative. He also said that he listens to the music before creating the movements, which is why so many of the steps are jumpy and bouncy however, still very technical and balletic.

The formations in the piece throughout are very chaotic and they change constantly, to get these formations Justin Peck sketches and draws his formations to allow his piece to come alive, this is was what inspired our motifs for our solos as well.

I really liked this piece as it was very unique and something I had never seen before, I enjoyed how free all the movements were and how the dancers performed this which really got the narrative across about inner strength and always believing in yourself as well as realising how good you are even on the bad days. I found this piece to be really inspiring as it shown the dancers determination and progress throughout the piece.