This major exhibition explores the world of the influential artistic director and impresario Serge Diaghilev and one of the most exciting dance company of the 20th century, the Ballets Russes. The exhibition features 300 objects including original costumes, set designs, scores, props, posters and film clips and celebrates Diaghilev's enduring influence on art and design.
Exhibition designers Tim Hatley and Drinkall Dean briefed DALD that the lighting was to create a sensitive yet dynamic theatrical approach to the exhibition.
The installation is set out in three main galleries. On entering the first gallery a sense of drama is created with a large angled introduction wall being up lit in red by recessed fluorescents. This strong hue of colour is reflected into the entrance corridor drawing visitors in.
Sections entitled Dance Before Diaghilev and European Dance display paintings, prints and artefacts which are all externally illuminated from high level track lighting fixtures. DALD chose to use a limited palette for the exhibit lighting, which included AR111 based track fixtures fitted with a combination of spreader and diffuser lenses with internal dimming and energy saving lamps.
To evoke the idea of costumes in motion, the First Season section features a motorised circular plinth with a revolving display of costumes backed by large mirrors. To enhance the effect of animation DALD installed a counter rotating projected spiral that throws hints of light across the costumes. Carefully controlled washes of blue light are shone across the plinth to add depth and dimmed period light fixtures are positioned on the plinth for theatrical effect.
The next space, Poiret & Nijinsky, is framed by painted gauze panels onto which dappled light is projected to create a sense of smoke drifting across the set. Once inside the Nijinsky theatre space, rich amber washes of light are applied to emulate a gold quality.
The Rite of Spring is a bold space painted in a fluorescent green. Costumed mannequins positioned at different heights on a graded stage are top lit from acute angles, to accentuate their beauty and form. Animation to the space comes from a projected 'Fleecy Cloud'.
The North Court opens with a stylised 'prop store' incorporating typical back stage elements. Here low level fluorescents fitted with steel blue filters uplight the rear wall and five period prop lights with dimmed internal light sources are set within the display. Accent lighting picks out the exhibits from track fixtures. The 'prop store' is a deliberately dark space to evoke the back stage feel and create dramatic contrast to the next gallery.
Emerging out of the 'prop store' visitors come across the magnificent Firebird backcloth designed by Natalia Goncharova for the wedding scene in the 1913 production of The Firebird. The cloth is the largest single object in the V&A's collection, measuring 10 x 16 metres. DALD illuminated it (to strict conservation levels) from asymmetric flood fixtures and wash lights positioned one meter out from the top of the cloth. The lighting to the Backcloth was sequenced to fade up & down in conjunction with large scale digital video projections of dancers within the space.
On the reverse side of the Firebird cloth is Le Train Bleu front cloth, designed by Pablo Picasso in 1922 and painted by scene painter, Alexandre Shervashidze. The same lighting technique as used on the Firebird cloth was applied. Displayed on the adjacent wall are Picasso costume illustrations. These are part illuminated by three suspended period acting lights. Two recreations of the cubist 'Mangers' costumes are lit in intense colour to highlight their enormous scale.
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