Floating in the Eyre

Let's begin with some dance news. Written on the Body by the COLective Dance Company is performed today and tomorrow in Huntsville as we can read in The Huntsville Times:

Margi Cole, the artistic director of the Chicago-based modern dance company the Dance COLEctive, looked into the world of literature for her latest production, "Written on the Body."
The piece, which uses images of power, strength and intimacy, is based on the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.
The Victorian sisters penned such classic books as "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." But, because of the time period, the sisters wrote under male pseudonyms.
" 'Written on the Body' is an exploration of the masculine side of the sisters," Cole said.
The Dance COLEctive will present "Written on the Body" today and Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Arts Center, 2211 Seminole Drive. Tickets are $12.
The Dance COLEctive will be joined by local musician Phil Weaver. (Jon Busdeker)

On the Flying Monkey Arts Center's website we find some more information:

Throughout the Huntsville visit, The Dance COLEctive will focus activities on Written on the Body, a work which uses the lives of the Brontë sisters as a point of departure in its exploration of gender roles and stereotypes. The hidden identities of authors Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, as well as the hardships they endured throughout their lives in Victorian England, provide the framework. Cole interprets the Brontës’ masculine and feminine personas, using images of power, strength, vulnerability and intimacy, exploring how each attribute can be related through movement.

More dance news, now on the other side of the pond. The Ilford Recorder highlights that one local dancer has been chosen to participate in the upcoming (May 15th) London Children's Ballet performance of Jane Eyre:

GRACEFUL young dancer Ella Murray has been chosen from hundreds of children to dance in the London Children's Ballet's West End performance of Jane Eyre.
Ella, a student at Redbridge Classical Dance Studio, was one of 600 children to audition for the show, and, at nine years old, is the youngest of the 54 dancers chosen.
(...) Ella said her favourite part of the Jane Eyre ballet is the ballroom scene, because of the lovely dress she gets to wear.
As well as appearing in the ballroom sequence, Ella is one of the Lowood School orphans, and is also in the ballet's famous flame dance.
Mum Bernadette Murray, of Copthorne Avenue, Ilford, said: "She's loving it. Every Sunday when she gets on the Tube with her packed lunch, she says it's like going on a big day trip. After the five hours rehearsing, on the way home she's incredibly tired."
Ella will perform in Jane Eyre at the Peacock Theatre in London's West End from Thursday, May 15 to Sunday, May 18.
The ballet, based on Charlotte Bronte's novel, focuses on the early part of Jane Eyre's story, when as a young orphan she is brought up by her mean aunt and bullying cousins before being shipped to the grim charity school Lowood.

The Independent reviews the Sheffield Crucible Studio's performances of Celebrating Linda Smith (until next April 5) and remarks on her hilarious Charlotte Brontë's sketch:

She was one of the few to appear on all three of the BBC's most popular comedy programmes, though something of her relaxed approach to panel banter or her adept way of making political points gets lost in translation here. But nothing could diminish the pleasure of Smith's spoof on Charlotte Brontë's diary or her ironic send-up of the rules of engagement of Anita Brookner's introspective librarians. (Lynne Walker)

The sketch can be read for instance in her last book, I Think The Nurses Are Stealing My Clothes.

On the blogosphere today: Some pictures of Haworth on 新天地を求めて and My stream of consciousness posts some icons of Jane Eyre 1996.

Categories: Dance, Haworth, Humour, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre