ABSTRACT
Noguchi created large symbolic structures for Graham which were both prop and costume: in Errand into the Maze (1947), the male figure, representing heroine Ariadne's fear, is presented as a menacing, homed, bull-like character who has a huge wooden yoke on his back. He is permanently attached to this encumbrance, and it gives rise to weighty, tortured movements. In Cave of the Heart (1946}, Medea is shown taking a spiky metallic construction from the set, and donning it like a cloak; it is the crown of serpents and she moves about the stage within its mass of sharp spines. A good choreographer will incorporate a prop imaginatively - the Garland Dance in The Sleeping Beauty uses the semi-circular garland base as part of the arm lines and spatial patterns. Ashton's use of satin ribbons in La Fille Mal Gardee (1960), particularly in the opening pas de deux of Lise and Colas, and later in the Eissler pas de deux, which also involves the corps of Lise's friends, is exemplary. Christopher Bruce's exploitation of the dramatic and choreographic possibilities of a single wooden chair, in Swansong, is masterly.
