The Bifocality of Dance in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: An Analysis of Shakespearean Dance Adaptations

Drawing on Lynsey McCulloch’s notion of Shakespeare in dance and Shakespeare as dance, this paper explores the bifocality of Shakespeare and dance in Twelfth Night. In Illyria, a realm of fantasy, dance is a measure of dismantling, whilst maintaining, a cosmic order. Taking a psychohistorical approach, I draw on Alan Brissenden’s 1981 Shakespeare and the Dance, which delves into the moral implications of dancing in Shakespeare’s time. Moving from print to performance and screen, I venture into an analysis of Boris Eifman’s 1986 ballet-film adaptation of Twelfth Night. By adding layers of fiction as both a ballet and film, Eifman’s work enhances Shakespeare’s utopian/dystopian realm of Illyria and taps into the aforementioned psychological undertones. Eifman’s literal use of dance transforms the play into a psychological sensorial experience and delves deeper into the implications of dance hinted at in the text. Most interesting, by adapting words to movement, Eifman uses dance to both conceal and reveal elements of the story. By engaging in an analysis of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night text and subsequent dance adaptations one may witness the bifocality of Shakespeare and dance, and the complexity it brings to our understanding of Shakespeare then and now