Essay on 'West Side Story' Analysis

There are several roles of the choreographer one of them is to be able to communicate well with not only the dancers but with the whole production team, this is an example of an interrelationship.

Apart from the dancers who are a main part of the production, there was Irene Sharaff who was the costume designer. Lenard Bernstein was the composer. Arthur Laurent was another person he was the screenwriter and author, he helped guide everyone through the musical. Stephen Sondheim was the lyricist. The co-choreographer was Peter Gennaro, and of course, there was also the camera crew.

I got this evidence from the 1961 Original Film Credits West Side Story

This dress was made to help define Anita`s movements. And this is what the costume designer created with the help, of interrelationships.

This dress was made to help define Anita`s movements. And this is what the costume designer created with the help, of interrelationships. For this movement to happen with the flowy dress, Robbins had to explain his idea to Irene Sharaff, who was the costume designer. They had to have a conversation about this so she could find the perfect fabrics for that type of dress, it also had to suit the Puerto Rican culture style.

For this movement to happen with the flowy dress, Robbins had to explain his idea to Irene Sharaff, who was the costume designer. They had to have a conversation about this so she could find the perfect fabrics for that type of dress, it also had to suit the Puerto Rican culture style.

The costume designer has clearly shown a good understanding of what fabrics to use e.g. felt as they allow the dresses to flow with the dynamic content.

A simple example of this interrelationship is how the choreographer would have to communicate well with the costume designers because he needed to explain the messages he wanted to give across to the audience. He also needs to communicate with the costume designers, because the style of dresses can affect the movements of the dancers during a choreography, an example of this is in the scene ‘America’ Anita has to have a flowy dress because, in the choreography, Robbins included movement with a flowy dress, it helped to define Anita`s movements. Anita does a high kick, which makes her lift her dress so she can fully extend her leg. Evidence to show this is West Side Story (410) Movie CLIP - America (1961) HD - YouTube from [0:50-1:00] and [1:18-1:32].

The choreographic process is a process that choreographers use to make the choreography the best it can be, however, this can also be applied to many other things for example a costume designer could use this process. The first step in the process is Research everyone who worked on West Side Story would have had to research, for example, a costume designer would have to research the era the musical is going to be set in so they know what style of clothes they have to design they would also have to research what type of clothes Puerto Rican people would wear.

At this stage of the choreographic process, Robbins would need to work closely with the set designer because they needed to work out between them how big the set would need to be. They would have done this towards the beginning of the production so Robbins could choreograph the dancer's spatial content, as well as them discussing where the play was based, which was New York. Robbins would also need to work closely with the costume designer so, Robbins could not only get their idea across by the choreography but also through their costume. Robbins would also need to explain to the costume designer, Irene Sharraff about what culture the characters were from, in West Side Story there were the Puerto Ricans, Irene would need to know this so she can do her own research on what style of clothes they typically wear. Robbins would have also had to explain the style of dress Anita should have, which would fit with the choreography, which was a light flowy, easy-to-move dress. This is all an example of interrelationships, between the choreographer, the costume designer, and finally the set designer. This interrelationship is important as it allows consistency throughout the musical, it also always the musical to be high quality because they are able to work with one another, when they do this the production is then able to run smoothly.

Robbins is not the only one who has to research the era, in which West Side Story is set in, it was also important for the costume designer to research it, so Irene could see what types styles of clothes they wore in the 1950s, once she found out what they wore she then had to search for what the materials were. In the 1950`s boys in New York wore t-shirts, chinos, barracuda jackets, and dungarees, these were typically subdued colors. They were usually stylized with jackets, that were also subdued colors. We see this in the Jets, for the women normally wore summer dance dresses which were in subdued colors. Whereas people who came from Puerto Rico wore similar clothes as the people who originated in New York however the difference was that they wore them in warm and vibrant colors. In West Side Story we see this for the Sharks, the women would wear warm overdone summer dance dresses, a good example of this is Anita`s dress. West Side Story (costume.com)Another person who would have had to research the era, would be the set designers, they had to know what the location would of look like in the 1950s. For example, what the shops looked like in New York. We can see that the set showed that the musical was set in the 1950s because in the prologue we see the cages, where people were playing basketball, nowadays you do not often see them (they are not common).

For Robbins to be a good choreographer he would have used the first step in the choreographic process which was Research. He would have had to research the specific era, which would include what dance style they used. For example, people who lived in Puerto Rico, usually used Mambo, when they danced. Robbins doing this research, helped the musical to become more realistic because he used their traditional style of dance. A strength of Robbins was that he specialized in jazz and ballet, however, this was not really helpful when he had to choreograph the scenes for the Sharks because they used mambo. This leads to him having a working relationship with Peter Genaro, who is the co-choreographer, for the mambo scenes. The interrelationship between Robbins and Genaro helped to make the choreography run smoothly because they were able to help one another, it also helped the two to learn to perfect their styles. This positive interrelationship can help the audience understand the work more clearly because it helps them to see the different gangs, because movements which they are well known for are shown in the gang`s choreography, for example when the sharks did the high kick jump which includes their full extension and posture, this movement involves a lot of action content an example would be, transfer of weight, stillness. This movement is shown in the prologue. This helps the audience to understand West Side Story because it gives them an idea of what will happen and what styles are used in the choreography of the musical.

The structure of West Side Story is narrative, and this would have been decided early on in the choreographic process because once they have figured out the structure of the musical, you can then fit link everything together, a structure is similar to a stimulus, it is the thing which the whole musical is based on and from that point which is narrative you know what to do next. We can see the narrative progress as the musical goes on.

Music is also important when portraying this message and narrative. This was what Stephan Sondheim was responsible for, because he was the lyrist, for him to do his role probably he needed to communicate to Robbins, these two need to work closely because Robbins needed to explain what style of dance, he was choreographing so Stephan could make a song which would suit it and worked with that type of choreography. This is a form of interrelationship. Stephan Sondheim also had to work closely with the composer Lenard Bernstein, they both had to be in type and they both had to understand the lyrics. Not all interrelationships involved the choreographer, and Bernstein and Sondheim would be an example of this.

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The music helps the audience to understand the message and narrative because it can help piece some of the missing pieces to a musical, it can also help explain what a character is feeling or going through. Which then helps the audience to see the message from a character`s point of view. For example, the lyrics in America help the audience to see the girl's opinions from the boys, the girls explain why America is a wonderful place to live, whereas the boys bring reality to the situation and explain from Puerto Ricans' point of view what they go through on a daily basis. Lyrics to support this are Life can be alright in America, if you`re a white in America the audience can see and understand what they go through. I think the reason why Sondheim included these lyrics is to teach people what was going on in the 1950s.

The music can also help the audience to see the different cultures for example the music the jets sing to if different from what the Sharks sing, this could not only be because of where they come from but could also be because of the style of dance suits different music, an example would be the Jets singing Cool and the Sharks singing America they are completely different, Cool is slower yet jumpy at parts, however, America is fierce, quick and dramatic because of the argument the different genders are having.

Furthermore, the set and costume are also significant because without this it wouldn`t be a musical it would just be like a drama piece, the costume and set brings all the ideas together, and it also helps the audience to understand more of what`s going on. The set and costume would need to be decided prior to the rehearsal process starting because the dancers would also need a costume rehearsal and they would need to know the size of the set so they can work on the dancers' spacing. The narrative relies significantly on the communication of the production team because without the teamwork of the production team, the narrative will not be shown through the musical and there will be no climax to the story, this is because everything has to fit together to make a story run smoothly. The costumes also play a big part in telling the narrative and understanding the plot because it helps identify a character and can help represent a gang or community, it can also give the audience a clue about their personality. This links to how the sets and costumes are used to support the movements of the dances, it can help define a movement or help to pinpoint an audience member's attention to a certain area of where a movement is. Good communication between the choreographer and costume designer is needed when creating the costumes so Robbins can explain how he wants a dress to be used in choreography or how he wants the sharks to be known or seen through their black bands.

Generating movement is another important part of the process which helps provide movement content for auditions. A choreographer would choose what dancer would have which role for example Robbins decided that the role of Maria suited and was best for Natalie Wood and the role of Tony best suited Richard Beymer. For West Side Story the main characters did not just need to dance but also act and sing which meant the musical team and screenwriter would need to be involved in this process too. This meant they had to work as a team, to get the best possible result, the dancers would need to be able to multitask, which means while they dance, they have to remain in character and remember the lyrics to the song. To do this they have to focus, it helps when there is related content in the choreography because it can help them realize, they are not alone, and they others are going through the same. For example, Maria`s strength as a performer and actor is that she can clearly show the emotion of her character, and she can portray these while dancing and singing.

Also, when generating movement Robbins would need to consider communicating his ideas with the camera crew. This is because they would need to see where to set up the camera, so they can get the perfect angles, to do this would mean the camera crew would need to see the choreography beforehand to plan all the camera angles, this interrelationship would have been crucial, so they didn`t have to change too many things last minute. However, it didn’t help when Robbins being the perfectionist he is, kept changing the choreography at the last minute, this would affect the camera crew because sometimes they had to re-plan where the cameras would go. This is when interrelationship was essential because Robbins would need to communicate any changes with the camera crew. Robbins might have avoided affecting too many changes by not changing the spatial content too much, e.g. what levels the dancers were on or what direction the dancers were facing.

Another thing that is clearly shown is the two gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, it's as if there is a line in between the two gangs.

Here we can clearly see the use of expressive skills, this helps to portray, their hatred for one another`s gangs.

An example of a camera angle used would be the bird's eye view, that was used in the prologue, which showed the set. For the bird's eye view to happen Robbins needed to be aware, of what he included in the choreography, he wanted to show this camera angle at the perfect time, so it would help show the formation of the gangs. Another example of a camera angle that was used in West Side Story was set wide shots, this was used during Dance of the Gym, and they used this to show the formation of both gangs. And finally, the last camera angle which was used was the closeups.

The set wide, camera angle in the Dance of the Gym helped to show the audience, the two gangs are different, and the separation and cultures are clearly shown. Evidence from this picture shows clear separation where we can tell the Sharks are on the left and the Jets are on the right. Rehearsals with Robbins were creative because his idea of separating the Jets and the Sharks during rehearsals gave an unusual atmosphere because they did not know who had the other roles, all they know was what their routines so when the cameras were rolling every facial reaction were real and because they had no friendship with the other gang, they did seem more territorial about their gang because of all the rehearsals they were seen as a team. Robbins ensured his dancers knew his intentions were clear by separating the gangs until the cameras were rolling this got the angry emotions across to the audience because they had never met them all they knew was that their characters hate them and they are dangerous as we see in the musical because there are several deaths, he demonstrated every movement which he wanted his dancer to do, as an example and this was when he was a perfectionist he showed them everything he showed all his dancer his expectations. During the process he developed the movements, so they were perfect, he did this many times until he was satisfied with it that is what made him unique, he never stopped. This is how he showed the dancers how he imagined it and it was never right the first few times.

Another example of the strong teams is through the scene Cool, we see this as they are close in formation, this not only shows how they have become close because of their rehearsals, but through their characters they seem very protective, which creates a view of a close yet dangerous gang, meaning if you bully or hurt one, you have the rest to deal with.

However, the rehearsals were all seen to have teamwork where everyone tried their hardest and helped others, especially with the consent changes that Robbins would make up until the very last minute, so they had to have determination. For the Shark scenes, Robbins did work with someone, Peter Gennaro, he was the co-choreographer because he had experience in the dance style mambo whereas Robbins did not know much apart from a bit from his research at the beginning of the choreographic process.

The choreographer must work well with the production teams because if anything is changed he has to be able to communicate to them to see if it`s okay or if they can change something which doesn`t fit in with the choreography for example if the music lasts a little bit longer than the choreography then Stephen Steinheim would have to contact Robbins to explain and he would have to add more movements into the choreography it`s all about their interrelationship this is when everyone in the production has to work together to achieve an amazing musical and this wasn`t a problem as we can see because West Side Story was extremely popular, everyone had to think of other especially if anything was going to change, for example, Robbins had to explain to the camera crew about his bird's eye view idea during the first dance, it was all about teamwork and working together. Every role in West Side Story was equally as important to achieving the success they could not have done it without each other. Good communication and teamwork helped bring things together because there are no arguments so everything ran smoothly, they also got it completed quicker because no one fell out the harder they worked together the quicker things would have moved along.

Finally, I think that West Side Story is an unusual, yet fun and creative musical, it was something different compared to what I usually watch but I would definitely watch it again, I think the more you watch it the more you like it, and the songs are catchy and every time I hear someone say America I immediately think of the musical.