Lucas Benjaminh Krech

Le Combat was a revival of the William Dollar choreography produced by New York Theatre Ballet with choreography reconstructed by Paul Sutherland. The piece tells the tale of two knights who meet on the battle field. One of the knights, a woman in disguise, is the lover of the other.

The movement, intended to be evocative of the severity of war, using very sharp severe movements, wanted to be heightened by the lighting environment. We used almost exclusively low sidelight at head height with a touch of color on the floor to shift the emotional landscape through the piece. Upstage was a blackout curtain.

By using only sidelight and a hint of backlight we were able to maintain sharp lines on the bodies of the performers. When the woman is felled in the duel, and takes off her mask to reveal her face, a single pool of light opens up around her.