GOOD CIRCULATION

Sarah Fahey

This being the last of the shows I went to, I have to say it was pretty good! Unlike the other shows this semester, it was in the basement of Krannert in a dance studio that they transformed for the sake of the performance. It has a cozier feel- that may have also been because I knew that the majority of the audience was a vast majority friends and family of all the dancers.

The second dance, was entitled “Cast-Offs.” While the performance itself wasn’t as captivating as other, the creation process was really neat. What the choreographer, Renee Wadleigh, did was experiment movement which she arrived to entirely through he assembly of still photo images and from that created a sequence which developed into this number. Knowing that, it was cool to watch as I could clearly see the process speak through the dancer. Sarah Aker, the dancer’s, movements were slow and every now in then held poses. At the end of the dance, I can remember seeing Sarah’s position and pose and at the same time envisioning a picture of a mermaid laying on the beach.

Following “Cast-Offs” was “The Things You Can’t imagine.” While watching this dance I was confused yet intrigued. The number had 4 dancers, and started with a series of movements in which each dancer used a different way to get across the floor. At times, the dancers motions seemed to play off of each other and reminded me of one of the activities we did in class using the same concept of copying yet putting your own twist on something. Throughout the dance, I noted the varied use of levels which added a cool visual element. Several times the dancers touched their face with weird, almost confused, yet concerned facial expressions. I thought the dance was pretty neat just in the different styles, speeds, colors, and levels the choreographers used. However, towards the end the music was interrupted by the recording of a man’s voice saying “I just saw a crazy hippy lady..carrying a creature that looked like wood.” This gave me a new perspective and tied what I watched back to the title of the piece. After hearing this, I saw the piece as a whole depicting this unimaginable creature that appeared a little bit differently to each person and each dancer.

While I would not like o go into much detail about the 4th dance, “lineage” I did think it was interesting to note that this was the only dance in the whole show in which the choreographer was also the one performing it.

After a 15 minute intermission, was “FINAL GRRRLZ.” Through this piece I found it interesting not only to watch the dancers but also to observe the audience.  Several members of the audience were laughing and quite often at that. I on the other hand did not think it was funny and while it had its light hearted parts I saw a different dance than those laughing did. There was no music, just the sound of the dancers movements and voices. At different times during the piece one or both of the dancers would say the same list of adjectives in different inflections/tones of voice: “over powered, useless, makeshift, weapons, shaking, murder, dead.” Each time as they said dead, at least one of the two dancers would fall to the ground. I think I saw this as the expression of how different people view murder and death.

Courtany Schick

The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts teemed with chattering concert goers at promptly 2:30 pm on the 27th of April. Proud families, supportive fans, and eager students alike gathered in the burrows of the basement halls and appraised the culmination of the seniors’ dance education, their Spring Thesis Concert. A broad range of concepts emerged among the several performances, so I will consider a few of the works that resonated especially with me.

I’m prone to most anything that goes along with the compelling track Ghostwriter by RJD2 and the reevaluation brought through the dance, The Things You Can’t Imagine, topped off the experience. Moving back and forth in the room comprised much the movement. At first, their transportation remained rooted to the ground. They rotated through their legs like windmills, crawled forth like an animal on fours, and kicked up their legs and slid backwards.  Planks and wide pushup forms ascended to rigid walking and playing with everyday motions, like scratching their noses and performing yoga poses.

Andrea Chim choreographed and soloed in Lineage, a beautiful contemporary ballet number, which accompanied the precision and intensity of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C, K.545, performed by Mitsuko Uchida. In it, she is music and life. The piece begins with a calculated rhythm. In her purple flowy skirt and lighter leotard, she tells of the process of learning the rules before you learn to break them. Methodically she incorporates dance basics into her repertoire, sometimes getting challenged along the way. As the music turned minor, she had rushed into a lost frantic. Then she poses standing away. There could have been a mirror in front of her with how her contemplation evoked form. Advancing and mastering skills, she continued progressing, all the way until she had spun like the finely coordinated ballerina in a music box and finally stood facing us, bowed, and walked off stage.

Double Exposure reeked of energy and a fierce resilience beyond insecurity. Jazmyne Thomas brought it in the first piece of the day and brought it right back for this solo. With all the confidence brought by the gods of rock Van Halen and Led Zeppelin, her focus is invigorating and downright badass. Tapping and clapping, she does what she wants. Suddenly, without the music, a façade artificializes her demeanor into something it’s not or something it wasn't.  Feverish laughter accompanied a manipulated smile and high heels lifted her into her domain. Her balance and ability impressed, but all too soon steps backward gave way to applause and Jazmyne left an enraptured audience.

Jorge Corral

              The final dance I watched for the semester was the senior spring thesis concert, i. This concert was perfectly named after what it gave; different perspectives from different choreographers and dancers. The first dance, “Seen and Unseen”, used young girls and the instrumental version of the song To Build a Home. The song is a calming song that can be dance gracefully to, which is exactly what these girls did, their movements were flowing. They moved to a soft rhythm and melody as each proceeded the other. I found it significant how they seemed to be separated into two groups, one group with two purple girls, and one blue, and the other group had two blue girls, and one purple. This seemed to signify what is meant by the unseen and seen, how somehow from a different color group is still able to work together with that group in order to make the performance really good.

            After that performance ended it went unto “When I find it, You’ll be the Last to Know” while it was a good dance, it did not fully catch my attention. The following performance did though, “With Her Withering”, which I also found to be the most interesting of all the dances that night. This performance had six girls and one guy in it all who seemed ready to be on their feet to dance, throughout their dances it seemed as if their dance moves came from other popular dances. This seemed to be their purpose though, as if they wanted to prove the point of reusing old art to recreate into newer or different art. The performance also includes a TED talk, “Embracing the Remix” by Kirby Ferguson. I watched the TED talk and it talks about how no idea is original, everything has an origin, and anything can be remixed. In which remixing involved three steps; copying, transforming, and combining. “You copy old songs, you chop them up(transform), and put them back together to create a new song,” but this isn’t just for music, it can be applied to all forms of creativity even dance. For example, this dance tried to recreate that idea by using dance moves from other dances to recreate something new. This dance could also be connected to the discussion in class with Beyonce and her songs. Such as with her music video for Countdown where much of her dance was comparable to Keersmaeker’s choreography. While Beyonce did not use the whole dance in the exact same way, both dances are noticeably similar.

monal patel

Last Saturday, I had the privilege to go see the Senior Thesis Perspectives Concert, which was filled with nine different dances done by the senior dance department. All 6 dances were totally different from each other, with the exception of The Aftermaths of Mr. Jones, which was in two parts, which was cool to see each one not really having the same tone and message than the others. Unlike the other shows, I felt this one was more casual and easier to comprehend, which I appreciated as a fellow audience member, as I could enjoy the performance more than just spending time trying to figure out the heck if going on.  Here are my takes on my two favorite dances of last Saturday night.

                The first dance was really surprising, as I was expecting college students to come out and dance, but instead we get these little girls, in their young or mid pre-teens age group, come out and perform a delicacy of a dance, that was both very sweet and beautiful to watch. The dance “Seen and Unseen” choreographed by Abby Brandolino is very contemporary and very jazz-influenced with all the ballet techniques and movements. The little girls all were wearing pale pink outfits with long pale tinted skits, further exemplifying their innocence in not only their appearance but also in their movements. The one part of the dance that really struck me and even changed the tone of the entire dance was when all of the girls held hands and started skipping and running in a circle together, kind of like ring-around-the-rosie. That whole ring-around-the-rosie segment made me realize that the dance was much more serious and dark than what meets the eye at first. This whole segment signified the notion of death, or a plague as the nursery rhyme is meant to connotate. The title seen and unseen might be used to help show how we as the audience sees all these delicate movements and grace by these young girls and just see innocence, but maybe we are all missing another message from their performance, the most important, hence the “unseen” part of the performance.

                The dance right after that was the most fun and interesting performance of all the eight. Choreographed by Leila Henry, When I Find It, You’ll be the Last to Know, the dance opens up to this girl wearing a pretty floral dance rolling around the floor like a five year old throwing a tantrum, thrusting her hips and pelvis in the airs and throwing her limbs everywhere carelessly while the sing “I Feel Pretty” plays in the background. It seems to be that her character is expected to be all “pretty” proper and primed but she doesn’t want to be like that so she and her body rebels against it. The next segment of this dance transitions into a hip-hop/contemporary style of dance from the performer Ashley Cizmar, who starts dancing all “not lady-like” and  breaks into modern hip hop movements to the song “Look at these Hoes” by Santigold. I love the way the performance shows how this girl is physically rebelling against what I assume society wants her to be and behave like, and being true to who she is and wants to be in life.

Jenny Aguayo

For my last blog, I will write about the Spring Thesis Concert, entitled "Perspectives." I really enjoyed how different each piece was. I didn't feel like it was one long concert; each one was its own performance instead of a part of a bigger performance. The first dance really took me by surprise. At first glance, I remember thinking that the dancers in "Seen and Unseen", were particularly short. Soon I realized that they were children! I get really soft when I see children in performances, especially on the college setting where it is really unexpected. That's probably because seeing young girls that age remind me of my little sister. I think that's why I liked this dance the most; I thought about my little sister a lot while watching this piece. The way they ran around, jumped around, and carried themselves projected very fruitful energy. Maybe it was their skill in dancing or maybe it was the fact that I was seeing children doing something great that made me feel the fruitful energy. Either way, it was delightful.

            Another piece that really stood out to me was the one entitled "When I Find it , You'll be the Last to Know." I really liked this one because I felt that it was a "juicy contradiction." If you aren't familiar with the Starburst candy slogan, "juicy contradiction," here is a quick clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQdCaTv6H5Y. However, the reason I consider this piece a "juicy contradiction" has nothing to do with the Starburst candy at all. First of all, the dancer was wearing, what I would consider, a fairly reserved dress; almost like what one would wear to church. The dress was a summer dress, knee length, frilly on top to cover the entire chest, boring, and plain, and overall a contradiction to the dance that I watched her perform. It began with the lights off, with simply sounds of her seizure-like movements hitting the floor hard. When the song "I Feel Pretty" began to play, it sounded almost eerie. Her movements didn't fit the music but I felt that it fit the concept very well (more contradiction), if I understood it correctly. My conception of the piece became clearer when the song "Look at These Hoes" by Santigold began to play. The change from "I Feel Pretty" to a hip-hop song really said something about the piece as a whole. She seemed to be a wild child stuck inside a reserved girl's body trying to escape that. The quick and sudden outbursts of movements, the way she groped herself from time to time, her facial expressions (sometimes blank, sometimes full of desire), all portrayed some kind of battle. I really enjoyed the contradiction in her "character" as a dancer, the movements and the music.

Bingxin Zhou

This month, I watched the show called 69 degrees South in Tryon Festival Theatre. It was based on the real story that Ernest Shackleton’s ship sank at latitude 69 degrees south in 1914. It reminded me of the other prestigious work about the sunken ship, Titanic. Although these two share the similar theme, there are parent differences when it comes to the means of performance and spirit of the works.

I watched Titanic when I was a little child and last year I enjoyed the three-dimension version. Fully deserving the Oscar Award, the movie knocked me out. The most famous scene “You jump. I jump.” was so romantic and touching that I could not help myself crying. Titanic mainly focuses on depicting how miserable during the process of collapse and how love could defeat the tragedy. However, 69 degrees South utilizes a large proportion of the show to display the toughness of the exploration. The journey is considered as the representative of the pioneering leadership.

One interesting detail of the performance was that the rope was gradually let down from the ceiling and then gradually pulled up in the end. The dancer in the white costume seemed to make full efforts to seize the rope. In my opinion, the rope can be a symbol of hope. Forced to staying in the dark and dangerous abyss, those pioneers were eager to grab a rope which can bring them back to earth. On the other hand, hope was the only thing that survivors could not give up. To endure all the sufferings, they had to maintain the hope in their hearts. When the performers were sitting in a circle around the rope, the background music was altered into slow and soothing rhythm. The faith that they can finally get rid of the sufferings drove the fear of death away. I think the faith of live is the spirit that creators of performance want to convey to the audience.

Speaking of the way of performance, it was creative that dancers were standing on the stilts and manipulating the puppets. At first, I was confused since I could not identify who were puppets and who were performers. But I realized that those puppets were a little bit smaller compared to the normal size of real people. So I was asking myself why the creators of the show had made this innovative decision. My guess is that the creators wanted to represent the cruelness of the inevitable destiny. Everyone is controlled by the destiny and countless accidents and coincidences have occurred in daily life. Those survivors were trapped in the deserted place, but they did not become submissive to the difficulty. When the captain was injured and dying because of the exploration, he behaved peacefully and said goodbye to his crews with the proud. His movement reminds me of an old saying. “Even if you are not capable of changing the current situation, at least you can change your attitude.”

The acoustic effect of the show was amazing since the band was playing the music right next to the stage. When the team of survivors encountered the snowstorm, the music became harsh and loud. The audience was involved in the cruel environment. I can imagine how hard the crew was striving to survive the terrible weather. Effective background music is supposed to guide the audience to the imaginary world.

Marenth Medina

Mengyue Zhou

Tonight I went to see the studio dance in Krannert Center. It is a brand new type of dance performance I never get in touch with, so I feel it’s very fresh and attractive. The whole performance is divided into eight parts and these eight parts shows their great difference whatever in the style or the meaning of choreography.

I personally divided these eight performances into two parts by my own understanding of them. One type is multinational, which means it uses some tools or technology to make the whole performance become more integrity like two of them focus on the music and personal emotions in the performance. The other type is pure dancing without music or personal emotions.

One example of the first type gave me the deepest feeling about modern dance with team cooperation and emotions’ transition. Its name is Turn to Dust, choreographed by Skylee Trimble. This dance performance was showed by eight people and just in about ten minutes it told all audience a short story about the process dust gather together to become a strong foundation and in the end it must separate, turning into their original look---dust. This performance is the first one to pull all audience out from the previous monotonous and individual dancing performance. From the beginning, all eight dancers showed their strong dancing skills. All female dancers showed their body’s’ limpness as much as possible, a lot of highly difficulty movements like lifting which perfectly finished by two female dancers quite shock audience a lot. Then everybody is this team seems went through a hard part because everybody is different so there must a struggle to stay together. They started to change themselves to cater others and this is the most complicated part I think because from the start I didn't know what they are performing but I heard at this time the music started speed up I realized there must be some turning points happened. All the dancers started to pull each other and at the same time they showed their struggling faces so I deduce this. Finally, all dust stay together happily but in the end its time for them to spate, turning into dust. In the end the strongest piece of the foundation is left standing and the whole performance ended. One last thing I wanted to mention is that the choreographer chose very suitable music for this dance performance. The music is Turn to Dust from Ma Fleur by the Cinematic Orchestra featuring Patrick Wilson. The sharp contrast on the rhythm shocked me a lot and also I didn’t realize the climax of this song give me a lot of happiness. It makes feel very joyful and actually bring the whole performance energy.

The last performance named Micro Love also gives very deep feeling. It choreographed by Ming-Hsuan Szu- tu who is from Taiwan. This is my first time to watch an Asian choreographer’s performance which make me feel very proud because all the time Asian guy are being defined as nerd or geek. Her special choreography told audience although people have different body, have different cultural background and speak different language. They will meet and fall in love with each other, showing their specialty to attract each other. Why I like this performance because I think it told my words which is form the deepest part in my heart. Right now I live in a totally new country and meet a lot of strangers every day, speaking a language which is unfamiliar to me. Just because I experienced a period of similar life, I know the adventures must be very wonderful.

Disha Koul

On April 20th, I watched Studio Dance II at the Krannert Performing Arts Centre. In my opinion, compared to the last performance I watched, Phantom Limbs 69 S, this performance was much easier to follow and was more entertaining as a whole.

The first dance, Dinosaur Jesus Boom Boom Balloon, was performed by a single male. I can honestly say that the title of the dance was just as confusing after the performance as it was before the performance because the dance itself made no connection to the title. The dance itself was weird to me and my least favorite dance because there were lots of sharp movements and I really had no clear grasp of what was going on. Even though “The Oracle” was a one-man performance, it really captured my attention throughout because the dancer’s movements were engaging. In this dance however, the movements were too sharp and it gave the dance an overwhelming feel of urgency.

The second dance, Her Adored Reborn, was performed very well. The stage was used up evenly the bright colors really caught my attention. The three female dancers each did their own thing throughout the dance but then would dance together at certain parts of the performance. In my opinion, it fit the description of a typical choreographed performance where each dancer expresses her role in the dance by having their own part but making it a combined production by having pieces of dance in synchronization. All in all, it was pleasing to watch because the stage was brightly lit in such a way that kept my eyes and attention glued to the performance in front of me.

The third dance, Walking A Thin Line, reminded me a lot about the dance that I learn, Kathak Indian dance. I made this connection because Kathak is a story-telling dance in which the dancers attempt to recreate a story with their movements. Likewise, in Walking A Thin Line, the dancers utilized props and their voices to somehow articulate a story through their movements. It was more of an intellectual dance which can be compared to Phantom Limbs where there is a story connected to the performance. Even though I struggle to understand the exact story associated with this performance, it was interesting to watch and much different than the previous flashy performance full of bright colors.

The fourth dance, I Am Slowly Becoming My Mother, danced by choreographer of the first dance, was different because it was a very popular-sounding song. All of the other performances that I attended at the Krannert had music accompaniments that I had never heard of and were mature-sounding tracks. This dance was to an upbeat song and was interesting because of the music selection.

The fifth dance, Turn To Dust, was very graceful. Once again, I enjoyed it because it utilized the entire space of the stage like the second dance did. To me, when dancers utilize their space, it makes it seem like they are very comfortable with their surroundings and are not afraid to move freely and openly, and that makes the performance more appealing. There was a sense of tight knit unity during most of the dance and some breakage of that unity at other parts. The last scene was especially nice because the majority of the dancers were on the floor while a few were separating from the group. The scene was beautiful.

The sixth dance was a very fluid dance, and was supposed to represent the fluidity of a body of water. The dance was eerie in a sense and wasn’t really my favorite. The movements were slow and sulky.

The final dance was Micro Love and was my favorite. It had a wide variety of actions including arguing, running, chasing, and then picture-posing. I believe that the point of the performance was to highlight diversity and that people from different races and ideologies can bicker and fight but then in the end, we are all human and all have the same basic needs and rights. It was a very thought provoking performance and a perfect way to end the show.

Sarah Fahey

When buying my ticket, I thought that this performance would be similar to that of February dance. However, as soon as I walked into the studio theater, my expectations were dropped. Unlike the other performances I’ve been to, the audience for this show was much, much smaller. If I had to guess, I’d say the maximum capacity of the theater was about 100 people, but only 30 people or so were actually in the audience when I saw it. I think this set a totally different expectation and atmosphere for watching dance. For me, the lack of audience members limited distraction and really immersed me into the dances themselves and I felt as if I was able to better understand these dances than I have in previous shows. I thought this show had a good variety and was the perfect length- it kept me interested. Rather than talking about the performance as a whole, I’d like to focus on a few pieces as individual art works.

“Dinosaur Jesus boom boom balloon” was the first dance. Before the dance started, I thought it was interesting to note that this was choreographed by Nico Brown; however, Charles Gowin was the sole performer. He did not choreograph any of the other dances, nor does he have a blurb about him in the profiles section of the program. Anyways..

                I thought this dance was one of the more unique dances in the show. Unlike many of the others, I was not able to attach a story or specific meaning to this piece. That said I was able to make a few connections. When I first looked at the title, I was interested to see the dance itself and how the title fit it or gave it meaning. In the middle-ish of the dance, Charles was what I’ll call dancing heavy on his feet. His motions were rough and made loud noises as he took steps or landed from leaps and turns. I connected the pounding of his feet against the ground to the “boom boom” in the title. However, I did not attach a specific meaning. Towards the end, the made sweeping motions with his arm that looked to me as if he was opening a set of double doors, he then walked to the back of the stage and proceeded to walk through the imaginary doors to front, center where he then did some sort of pose and repeated the sequence- walking to the back, turning around walking back to the front and “posing.” I interpreted this as he was walking through a set of open doors and presenting himself. This made me think of the “Jesus” part of the title- was this supposed to be a representation of heavens doors opening for him to walk through and present himself to God?

I was able to make some connections between the dance itself and the title. However, when looking at the piece as whole the message or story was not as clear. What I concluded was that the randomness of the title matched the somewhat randomness of the choreography. The choreography included sliding and rolling around on the floor, elements of ballet-ish styles, leaps, spins, stomping, walking, running, and standing still. Furthermore, the dance started to the sound of background music (the sound of people in a hurry, moving around and talking). The noise then stopped and later soft and soothing music was on.  Ultimately I decided that the seemingly randomness/ variety of the choreography matched the unique and seemingly confusing title.

The last thing this performance brought up for me was 2 connections I was able to make to class and my experiences rather than to just the performance and the title. The first being the use of space. We’ve worked in class with the idea of really using the space you’re given and I think that this piece really did a good job of demonstrating what it looks like to fill and take up a space. The other thing I thought of while watching this was in relation to the music. Honestly I’m surprised it took me this long to make a connection or think of this. As I watched the parts without music, I wondered is the dancer doing each move to counts in his head or is he doing the motions without counts and rather to his own rhythm and feelings? Consequently, I decided that either were viable options, in which case it would depend on the music. Therefore, I wondered about when the sounds were cued. In high school I was on crew for some of the plays and musicals. In theater sounds and music or the orchestra are cued by the actor’s lines not by time. So I wondered if this was the same way. Was the music cued by a particular part in the choreography, in which case it was controlled almost completely by the dancer himself, or was it cued by time, in which case the piece would be controlled by the people in the sound booth.

The next dance I’d like to talk about was also choreographed by Nico Brown, who if anyone was wondering has a terrifically interesting mustache. This time he was not only the choreographer, but also the dancer. This was the 4th dance and was title “I am slowly becoming my mother”. I liked this piece. It was clear and easy to follow the story and it was funny.

                Like the title implies, this piece showed a transformation from a more aggressive and youthful character to a more gentle and slower figure like a mother. This story and transformation was achieved by contrasts. Nico started with quick, loud, aggressive movements and would quickly transfer to softer, slower motions. At one point, I remember him running to the front corner of the stage and acting as if he was punching a punching bag- a aggressive, physical, and very masculine activity. He then turned around, put his hands up and walked around slowing almost as if he was confused. I think this was a great example of the type of things he used throughout the performance to depict the transformation occurring throughout the dance. The other thing I really enjoyed was the juxt of position between a light orange background and no music to a blue background and the upbeat, song In da Club by 50 cent. Not only was this change cool to see but this moment also helped tell the story. Normally when you hear a song like that you wouldn't do minimal, slow movements like he did during this part. This also showed that maybe he was letting go of his youthful spirit and becoming more like his mother.

                The only question this dance brought up for me was what, if anything was he trying to say about gender roles through this dance? As a male choreographer and performer, he could have easily title the piece ‘I am slowly becoming my father,’ but he didn't.

Going back to the 3rd dance, “Walking a thin line” by Jazmyne Thomas I thought this dance also was easily to follow through contrasting movements or lack of movement. I thought it was easy to see the different feeling and emotions that one goes through each and every day through her work. I also thought she did something really cool with the lighting that made her piece all the better. The dace started of very dark, she was walking across the stage singing (side note: she has an incredible voice) “I can feel my heart beating faster.. can you feel it?” holding a lantern with a little light in it. Once she got to the opposite corner of the stage she set the lantern down and turned the light off. As she did so the background lighting slowing turned on. She did her dance. Then again at the end the lights started to fade back to darkness as she turned the lantern back on. I think that the slow fading of the light and the difference between light and darkness was really cool. It also clearly set the stage for her performance as it showed the difference between night and day.

                I also really like her costume for this piece. (Costume coordinator was Jess Gersz) She was wearing pink parachute-like pants and a orangeish-brownish-pinkish cropped tribal pattern top. I also noticed that her hair was died a orange-ish color which matched her costume. I don’t know if that was planned or not but it added to her costume and looked cool. All in all, I thought Jazmyne did a really great job with this piece.

The last performance I’d like to talk about was the 5th dance- “Turn to Dust.” It was choreographed by Skylee Trimble and one 1 of 3 dances that featured multiple dancers. I think I’m going to have to say that this dance was my favorite for a few reasons. Not in a particular order, but the first being it was what I will deem a “traditional dance” meaning it was to Turn to Dust from Ma Fleur by the Cinematic Orchestra featuring Patrick Wilson through the entire performance and the motions matched the tempo of the song. It also contained parts of synchronized dancing which many of the past performances I’ve seen for this class did not necessarily have. The second reason I loved their costumes. The dance was made up of 7 girls and one boy. All of the girls were wearing white lace dresses and Thomas was wearing black pants. While I cannot say for certain that it was planned this way, I think it was interesting to note that all of the girls were Caucasian and wearing white and Thomas was African-American and wearing black. While it may not have been intentional when picking the dancers for this piece, I find it very hard to believe that the costume choice was purely a coincidence. Throughout the piece, I was trying to find a correlation between gender/ race and the message or meaning of the dance. I did not find anything. However, I did find a very clear and relateable story which was the third reason I think that this was my favorite.

Payal Vazirani

On April 20th I went to watch the Dance Departments Studio Dance 2. Unlike Studio Dance 1, this dance showcased a plethora of dances which were all interconnected at the end. All the dances were different and yet analogous in their own way.

The first dance was entitled Dinosaur Jesus Boom Boom Balloon. The name did not make much sense to me. It had one male dancer dancing and trying to convey something I am not too sure of. There was again a wide variety of rather appreciative dance movements but at the end I am not too sure what the dance was trying to convey. The second dance was named Her Adorned Reborn exhibited wide ranging colors and this dance had immense visual appeal. It made me feel joyful and content. The space on the stage was efficiently utilized and in general this dance made me feel happy and had a very positive vibe to it. Dance 3 titled Walking A Thin Line had someone on stage singing and carrying a lantern. She made me feel like she had embarked on a journey and was narrating the story of how the journey was making progress. At times I felt like the dance was just portraying the story of one’s life, which can be fast or slow paced with different events interwoven. At the end, one learns to strike a good balance between these events and emerges to be stronger and a composed person. The next dance was named I am slowly becoming my mother and the title immediately caught my attention. This dance made me eagerly wait for it solely because of the title. The dance was once again a solo performance. The dancer made good use of space on the stage. The dancer performed rather slow movements but occasionally ran from one end to the other maybe just like how a mother’s role in reality is. She constantly needs to keep up with the pace of events. The fifth dance was my most favorite. Entitled Turn to Dust, this dance consisted of a group of dancers in beautiful outfits. Sometimes the dancers would get together and perform intricate yet gorgeous movements and other times the dancers would separate and do their own thing. I enjoyed every bit of this dance and to some level I could connect to the dance and the vibrancy it bought on the stage.  Up next was an untitled dance. There was no music in this dance and it had an eerie feel to it. The dancer performed slow movements but I am not sure what she was trying to express, but all her movements did keep me involved and wondering what the dance was about. The final dance was named Micro Love. It beautifully captured commotion, diversity and multiplicity. There was a lot happening on the stage in a very short span of time. A very interesting part of this dance was that the dance included the dancers conversing in different languages. This was very intriguing and made me eagerly wait for what was going to happen next. It tried to emphasize on diversity and maybe different cultures coming together which was encompassed strikingly in this piece. The fast paced series of events happening one after the other kept me on the edge of my seat and definitely wanting more. After Turn to Dust I enjoyed this dance the most.

Courtney Colvin

            The Dance department’s Studio Dance II was by far the most enjoyable performance I had seen yet at Krannert. It consisted of many multi-faceted concepts, and was able to hold my attention the whole way through. First I will break down the performance into its 7 sections for review, followed by and arching overview of the dance as a whole.

Dinosaur Jesus Boom Boom Balloon

            This section was the first section, and was a single male performance. The steps consisted of many fluid and precise movements. The choreographer notes that this dance included “tightly woven movement sequences to create a bumpy and irrational relationship to time and rhythm”, but there was no music to provide rhythm. Instead the audience was left to interpret the rhythm. The dance in fact did alter the interpreted rhythm in a cool way, by executing sharp, swift movements and then longer drawn out moves that required the dancer to come to a stand still. In combination, with this, the fluid and precise movements helped the dancers form and portray a sense of urgency. For example, in one section, the dancer ran a lap around the dance area, and it made my heart race just watching.

Her Adored Reborn

            The setup of this section was three girls dancing. The choreography was like what I had seen multiple times before: choreography that was in sync at certain moments, but in other moments the dancers were dancing in their own separate spaces. This sections was the one of the most catastrophic with lights, music, and color as well as choreography. This had the effect of causing my eyes to dart all around the stage just to take in the concept of the setup and what was happening in the scene. This interesting mitch-match of elements kept the attention of the audience until the very end. The contrasting and different choreographies and brief moments of synchronization led to a great utilization of space given in an interesting way. I feel this section was a great example of capturing the audience’s attention and holding it.

Walking A Thin Line

            This performance started off with someone singing and carrying a lantern. This surprised me because up to this point, the other performances did not include speaking, and let alone singing. When the choreography came, it was very tribal in nature. The dancer flailed their arms, and utilized almost constant foot movement, but al like the other performances, utilized slow sections as well. This contrast of fast paced to slow paced provided an atmosphere of fierceness and calmness at the same time. The dancer transitioned from leaping to laying on the ground, and provided a sense of balance surprisingly.

I Am Slowly Becoming My Mother

            This dance was a solo performance by the choreographer of Jesus Dinosaur Boom Boom Balloon. The surprise in this section was that the guy was dancing to 50 cent In Da Club. The author notes that this dance was to examine the structures found in popular music. What was captivating was the combination of dances that took place within the space. He utilized slow moving dances to a song that would be considered very fast.

Turn to Dust

            This was a group dance, in which there was a group of girls and one guy. This by far was my favorite of all the performances. They all danced together and gradually did their own dances as the dance progressed. The choreographer even said that they came together to create a strong foundation, and then fade away and separate. Coming together was symbolized by them all utilizing the same dances and separating was symbolized by them doing their own dances in their own space. In the end, the whole group is on the ground, with only a few individuals walking away to further symbolize the separation of the group. This performance was the most graceful and by far the most entertaining because of the groups utilization of space and togetherness.

Untitled

            This dance utilized constant movement with no pauses. The dancer kept moving to symbolize the curves of the Mississippi river, as the choreographer notes. She also dance in multiple directions, including with her back to the audience. This was an interesting concept since I see the Mississippi everyday back home and think nothing of its many turns and such. The steps were very subtle, and reminded me of the fluidity of water. They were very slow yet constantly changing but also maintained their mystery.

Micro Love

            This was the most entertaining by far. It incorporated conflict, different languages, different spaces, and lots of calamity. The display began with the group arguing, and then the slow introduction to all the other members. The next thing you know, they are chasing each other around the space, and saying things in different languages. In the end the group posed for a picture of some sort, and a light flashed to symbolize the photo. This was very entertaining as I said before, and was able to capture the audience’s attention all the way through. The calamity on stage caused the audience to interpret what was happening on stage.

Marenth Medina

Marenth Medina

Kayla Bekermeier

easy readings for mon, april 22

http://www.culturebot.org/2011/10/11496/anne-teresa-de-keersmaeker-vs-beyonce/

http://ncartmuseum.org/untitled/2013/01/beyonce-borrowing-and-the-beast/

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/35200/lets-all-stop-complaining-when-beyonce-steals-things-from-youtube

see you.