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Mother GOOSE! premiered in March of 2005 at Florence Gould Hall in New York City. It was commissioned for and produced by The New York Theatre Ballet. The piece is an hour long ballet for children conceived out of the Mother Goose stories. The music for the piece was performed
on piano by two musicians and included phrases from familiar jazz and pop tunes as well as original music.
The conceit of the piece is that we encounter the Old Lady who lives in a shoe and her many children going about their day.
Some of the characters, like Contrary Mary are her children, while others, like the Three Blind Mice or Fiddlers Three are
characters the old lady's children are playacting. The stories occur as discreet events on stage and yet are woven together
through the framework of the Old Lady and her Children.
Perhaps one of the most delightful segments was the "Littles Section" where we meet Little Bo Peep, Little Miss Muffett and
Little Boy Blue. Here the 'Little' aspect is taken literally and each of the characters is played by two dancers, one working
the head and feet, while the other worked the arms. For this segment the house that is the shoe became a miniature stage
within a stage as these three small solos and duets were performed.
The Three Blind Mice, or rather their tails do meet with the famous tragic ending we all heard growing up. The strength of
the piece lay in its ability to take these very familiar stories and reinvent them for the stage. Throughout we see humor
and wit infusing these dances while remaining true to the stories.
The lighting for this took on the feel of a lyrical weekend day. A progression from cool lazy morning to a warm and soothing
sunset. The colors were a wide range of pastels. The softness of light through trees was a major point of inspiration
and we kept a feeling of sun dappled texture throughout the ballet. This was a charming and delightful ballet and while geared
for children demanded quite a degree of subtlety in working the light for the various sections.
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