Dance Performance Observation

On May 18 2016, I attended the La Costa Canyon Dance Recital, “A Night At The Movies”. The show was performed by the school’s dance team, Dance Mavs, and was well executed and rehearsed. The show provided an interesting interpretation of famous movies and their impact on the audience. Famous dances and themes were portrayed throughout the night, allowing for not only an entertaining experience, but an extremely memorable one. The amount of work put into the show was evident and allowed the audience to appreciate each dance with more respect and admiration. It is obvious these shows can take a toll on those performing, so it must be all the more rewarding when it turns out as great as the recital did.

Dance has always been a part of my life, and it was always fun to look back at old pictures and reminisce about all of the dance issues I had when I was younger. But as I got older and better, the growing stopped. I wasn’t learning as much new stuff, just perfecting old choreography. Ballet has never been my favorite dance style, my studio is more invested in lyrical and performance styles, like tap, jazz, and musical theatre. I originally only wanted to take ballet here because I wanted to be in the Nutcracker because it was something my studio doesn’t do. But this class brought me back to ballet basics, and I have seen major growth in my ballet technique, enough for my mom to notice. I’ve gotten a lot stronger at certain ballet barre warm

Sally Banes is an American writer and dance historian and critic. She is also a professor of theater history and dance studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Banes has written multiple books and contributed to many documentaries and films. The book Moving History / Dancing Cultures, which Banes contributed to, includes the article “Choreographic Methods of the Judson Dance Theater”. This book was published in 2001.

event that Morgantown residents can always look forward to is the biannual performance of Morgantown Dance and the Morgantown Ballet Company at the Metropolitan Theater in downtown Morgantown. The programs vary, but every other year theater-goers can expect a performance in November of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, a classic tale of Clara, her Nutcracker Prince, and a magical journey to the Land of Sweets. In past productions, guest dancers from the Pittsburgh Ballet have taken part, allowing audience members to see professional dancers from a national company. Other performances at the Metropolitan Theater have included The Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Romeo and Juliet. Each production has been a showcase of talent from

Today, our third choreography day, my group was assessed by our peers. We did not finish the piece before the review, which I believe did contribute to some unusual mistakes. This contributed to many areas where we may had been forgetful and off time from each other simply because we were working before hand at a pace faster than our brains could comprehend, just to finish the dance. Realizing this, I definitely know that it is more beneficial to progress at a slower rate and remember the piece, than to vigorously finish the piece and tarnish all of our previous rehearsal time trying to remember other sections. Our peers had identified a very obvious flaw during the presentation: lack of expression. Again, I believe that because our minds were

Throughout my time at the O’brien Center of The Arts, performing has been a tremendous part of my ballet experience. The long hours and demanding rehearsals often creates a stressful environment, but the effect of this has helped me develop the ability to successfully cope with those pressures while establishing a quality production. I love the feeling of dancing on stage, challenging myself, and doing things I never thought I could do. I have danced numerous performances at the Spreckles Theater at Rohnert Park, and have been given very difficult roles. The discipline needed to perfect the choreography, and stay in sync with my fellow dance members is colossal, and takes a tremendous investment of my time and practice. This may seem somewhat

once a week the students will practice music and dance with Ms. Linda from Lincoln center. The students will engaged in the lesson of Dancing around the campfire.

Coming into this semester I was very apprehensive about what to expect. However, having just come from Dance Technique and Performance II, I learned the importance of not othering experiences and to embrace them and use them as a learning tool. I felt that course helped me enter dance partnering through a different mindset, but I was still a bit unsure. In life, I tend to have trust issues. I need to really get to know someone well before I start opening up and disclosing aspects of my life and my thoughts to him or her. Because this is a pattern found in life, it translates directly into my dancing as well. In dance patterning, trust is a major component. When dancing with someone else, it is important you listen to the partner and trust him

Dancing on stage in front of a 600 person audience is a feeling like no other. The sweat in my palms, the roar of the crowd, the emotion in the music and the chills down my spine is a rush unlike anything. For months, I practice day on out to perfect my routine, yet the nerves are still there during show time. There are many aspects that are included when it comes down to single dance number. When picking my music, I try to look for a song that can captivate a story or create an emotion. The symphonies and instruments used can make my number even more spectacular. The high note tones of the piano or the low tones of a bass guitar help me time my eight counts. One and two, three! Four! Five, six, seven and eight. My dance instructor yells this out at every high kick and every turn that is used in the dance number. My graceful movements flow to the

When it comes to contextual analysis and dance history, we can see how dance connects emotions, stories, and new movement creations together. I feel that these aspects are a key concept to understand within this course. This is needed in order to understand how dance is performed and connected. For example, when we view a dance, we can see how the dancers body language emphasize the movements being shown. Also, we can see elements from other dance forms  within other styles of dance. For example, within modern dance, we can see similar foot positions and circular arm structures similar to the style of ballet. Modern dancers take these aspects of ballet by molding them into an emotional story or piece to emphasize a common theme. Through using

On November 3, 2017, I want to see a live performance performed by a student in the Dance Department at the University of California, Riverside. Before the performance stated, I was excited because I had never attended a live dance performance. I was pretty satisfied because I was really engaged with the work of Hyoin Jun. I thought that his dance was really unique since I had never seen this type of dance before.

I initially did not enjoy this piece, for I felt as if there was no substance to it. I had trouble connecting with the dance because I constantly searched for a meaning or waited for it to evoke a response from the audience. Because the dance failed to deliver either, I ultimately felt disconnected and dissatisfied. It was not until I had time to process and reflect on the piece that I grew to admire it. I realize and now appreciate how the dance presented a literal rather than an abstract or symbolic interpretation of its title. I find it innovative how Spruill strayed from the norm of theatrics and story-telling found in mainstream dance performances, focusing solely on motion instead. Spruill strategically choreographed it to ensure that

For hundreds of years dance has been seen as a way for cultural expression. This is true not only in Canada but in countries all over the world. Dance has always been an important part of Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples culture and religion. The traditional dancing of the Aboriginal culture has been held onto by the Aboriginal peoples and many Aboriginal choreographers use the traditional dancing with ballet and contemporary elements. This gives Canada a very diverse culture and art scene. Having Jazz dance in Canada exposes Canadians to a new culture and a new way to view the art world giving us even more diversity in more ways.

I liked the dance piece because the dancers were limited physically in their bodies, but their dancing was beyond limited and astounding. At first, I was a bit doubtful and sceptical before watching the dance because I thought the dancers were going to perform with very minimal and stiff movements. But to my surprise, the dancers moved gracefully on stage. The two dancers used quite a lot of space. The dancers used all levels of space from low to high. For example, the dancers executed amazing leaps, jumps and lifts in their performance that represented as high levels of space. The dancers movements were grand; however, they were also whimsical, sharp, circular, and clean. The dancers utilized most parts of the stage. The pattern of the space that performers used was more curved than linear. There were two dancers in this piece, the male dancer that had only one leg and the female dancer that had only one arm. The genre of dance that was performed was a ballet; though, in my observations the dance seemed to be more contemporary than ballet. For instance, the tempo of the dance was slower and had less rhythm than most classical ballets I’ve observed. Also, there were a couple of pauses and rests during the performance. The dance

On December 1, 2017, in the University Theatre at California State University, Dominguez Hills, I observed the fall dance concert Rise. It was choreographed by Amy Michelle Allen, Marco A, Carreon, Sarah Cashmore, Jeff Hendrix, Erin Landry, Doris Ressl Acosta, and Kenneth Walker, with the long cast of dancers. The production was pleasing, and would not have been believable without the work from production designers, Frederick Depontee and Cheryl Sheldon. Rise is played out in eight different dance routines, which were Xtra Xtra, Scar Tissue, Hart Broken, Things Are A Stirrin’, and the rest are intermissions such as Female Energy, Women, Exotica, Strength In Numbers, and Makina.