Analysis: The Haunted Beach

For my final project I chose to put together a dance/video which was filmed in a variety of locations, and accompanied not only by Mary Robinson's “the Haunted Beach”, but supported by an instrumental soundtrack. Through the use of a somber, haunting setting as well as repetition, Mary Robinson's The Haunted Beach presents a fisherman's struggle coping with never ending guilt and internal endless negotiation with the dooming trauma of his actions. Set in eerie environments and accompanied by Agnes Obel's “Under Giant Trees”, my dance reflects not only the haunting, grave setting of the poem, but through repetition and contracting harsh, straining movements, reflects the fisherman’s bind to unending guilt.
The lulling and rhyming meter of the poem inspired me to choreograph a lyrical/ contemporary piece. Through the use of dynamic, complementary moves within the spectrum
The location and enclosed feeling within the “lone fisherman's shed (42)”, represents an isolated dwelling and evokes the idea that the shed is in fact the fisherman’s own mind/depression which imprison him. The lines “toiled and toiled (65)” suggests a repeated struggle of trying to unsuccessfully reason with guilt, and continues piques, soutenus and chaines, represent winding of oneself up in this struggle. A fouette jump with reaching arms in 2nd position on “flashing fires(71)” and upward port de bras on “Sands Illume (71)” express the flare the words portray and a final outward projection of emotion. The head grab/roll on “green billows play (72)” represents the internal anger and instability, and almost as if the billows are mocking him with their playfulness, their repetition suggests a perpetual loop. Similarly, the waves on the beach represent the way that the perpetual cycle of the waves mimic the reoccurring guilt which floods into the fisherman's