Ivanov-Erickson Coming Home Analysis

In the second section it represents the women fighting for their freedom. The movements are a lot more circular in this section. It uses more contractions, releasing & vibratory movements. In the first two sections, the dancer shows the struggle being not only physical but emotional also. She does this by the powerful expressions she uses on her face. She even imitates a couple of screams that play in the song ‘Been On A Train’. This gives the audience a clear understanding of the how she is feeling.

In the third section Ms. Donna Wood looks like an African goddess and her body has an unexpected gracefulness. Even stage color was bright reddish, warm atmosphere around the dancer, like a sunrise in the morning. Stage would fill with colors. Music and performer are singing together. A sound of music tempo gets faster. She has the happiest face ever, no pain and no slavery. She jumps, she swings her leg and arms, and even she pulls her dress up and shows her leg an entire dance. Sound and lightening create the environment and good mood. She uses high level of dance than in previous two sections. She moves in between melody. I liked how she uses

Some of the movements executed by the dancers are similar to those executed by dancers in a stepping performance and also in a tap dance presentation. This presentation falls into the group of the new trends of modern dance, in which the choreographer are taking more and more liberty with various dance combinations, and including strong messages in their work. I would definitely attend other dance performance, not only from this company, but also by other companies; and would also recommend this performance, especially to people going through a dark period in their life. This performance finished convincing me that dance is surely the most communicative of the art forms, and that a single presentation can convey more than one

The melody sounds somber and serious and the energy of the dancers suddenly changes. A spoken word takes place and all of the dancer begin to tell their stories of pain and struggle through movements. The spoken word talks about the journey of men and women who overcame social injustice. In the dancer's movements you could clearly see how they correlated together. Movements were powerful and restraint at the same time giving the audience the idea of the women were pushing through something that was bearing them down. There was a lot of expansion in the chest, back, and arms followed by contractions in the body. As soon as the spoken word was finished the mood of the piece change again and the pianist began to play a upbeat tune that brought the dancers back in to a more positive and high spirit. A lot of polyrhythms take place as the dancers jump high and move their arms back and forth moving throughout the space. This happens in unison at first and then solos, trios, and duets happen in this section of the dance. The expression on their faces add charismatic charm to this piece. Their expressions continue to move them into different emotions and feelings that are relatable to everyday

The Repertory Dance Company Fall Dance Concert was held at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center. The dancers involved in this dance concert are part of the University of Southern Mississippi Dance Department meaning they are either pursuing a degree in dance or teach dance at a university level. Both students and faculty had the opportunity to present work during adjudication to be chosen to be presented at this concert. I particularly enjoyed this concert because, while all of the dances presented were a part of the broad genre of modern dance, each dance had such a unique aesthetic so the concert still provided a great amount of variety to keep the audience captivated. The two pieces I have chosen to review represent this variety very

At 3:00 PM on Sunday April 13th, 2014, I attended the performance “Shared Graduate Dance Concert at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center-Dance Theatre. Walking into the theatre I had anticipated experiencing an upright performance. This sensation came as I visited the website for the Shared Graduate Concert and saw a breath taking photo that entailed a person behind a curtain holding their hand up and a fuzzy person in front of a curtain. Also, I knew I was in for a good ride after I saw Meghan Bowden in the pamphlet.

The dance that I will be focusing on is entitled: thinking sensing standing feeling object of attention. The dance, to me, symbolizes the socialization of persons in Western civilization concerning gender roles. In the beginning there are gestures that are separated from emotion and full-embodiment, but as the dance progresses the gestures become more meaningful and recognizable. The lighting starts out very specific and narrow, then the light encompasses the entire stage, and eventually the dancers are silhouetted as they return to a familiar movement motif in the end. The music is mainly instrumental with occasional soft female vocals, and the lyrics suggest emotion, which is interesting because the dancers do not convey emotion until

The movement started out very literal to the story that was being told. It was characterized by a lot of hand gestures, stillness and walking. In the same way, the dancers’ narration of the conversation between Bill T Jones and Dora was separate from the dancing on the rest of the stage. However, as the story evolved, the movement became for poetic, interpretive and full-bodied. The dancers often uncontrollably shook different parts of their bodies, and stomped around the stage. Yet, there was a sense of awareness among the dancers as they were constantly watching each other. The movement was very gender-neutral especially in lifts and there was a lot of experimenting with the weight of other humans. It is also important to note that language was the majority of the sound score for the performance, and that the dancers began to speak while they moved. The tone of the narration was mostly calm, serene and factual; however, certain phrases would act as a gateway to Dora’s emotion that would explode into music and dance. The contrasting and interwoven simple but complex movement and music served to convey a lot of ideas. The idea of evolution returned through the way the movement evolved from literal to poetic and the narration changed from separate to inside the movement. Essentially, this idea of evolution in costume, props, movement and music allowed to performance to not just tell the story but to become Dora’s story. It seemed to mirror the idea that when someone recalls a memory it is easy to become submerged in the thought and nostalgia for that moment. At the same time, this conveyed how history is still alive, that the past is always part of the present. The narration was not laden with historical stories that often can alienate an audience. It was very personal, which allowed the audience to connect on a human level with Dora’s story. The audience was able to

Just recently I went to view the Dance Plus Spring performance on Saturday April 23rd, 2016. Overall, the show was unique and exciting at the same time. Each of the performances were very different and they conveyed their own separate messages and themes, which made them all so exciting and fun to watch. The performance that I will be critiquing in this paper is “Excerpts from The Rambler.” Choreographed by Joe Goode and Melecio Estrella, this piece was performed in a proscenium stage because the whole idea was to have the entire audience engaged and have them view and understand the message they were trying to communicate.

The music style can be related to the Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey style of music for dancing due to the pace of the music and the type of movements. In addition, the music would have been more touching if it was sang by a female rather than a male to have more association with the female dancers feelings. The music is a key element throughout the performance because it allowed the dancers to dance to the rhythm of the melody and perform with confidence because of the guidance from the music. Given these points, the rhythm, melody, and pauses the music brought to the performance was prosperous for the choreographer, which brought a gloomy mood to the audience with a unique type of music and

This event is the cultural event to replace my second event when I wrote about Stick Fly accidentally. The Terpsichorean Dance Company 2016 spring concert was phenomenal. It was an evening of dance, art, and culture at Ogden Hall. The concert began at 7 o’clock p.m. While watching I ruminated about a Greek myth on Terpsichore which means “delight in dancing”. She was one of the nine muses and goddess of dance and chorus. I thought that was very interesting. When the first performance began everyone was in a stand still position. It was similar to mime. Three elements that I constantly saw throughout the performance were kicks and the flow of energy from one dancer to another. I have been to many dance recitals where the dancers were not

When you go to one of their Ballets created by Vaslav Nijinsky, you will see dancers fly gracefully through the air with utmost grace. As you watch the play you reliaze the story is about a puppet who is killed and comes back to haunt his tormenters. You watch the play with horror, amazement, and happiness

During the first performance, I watched the dancers perform to the hip hop song “Worth It” so of course their choreography was hip hop combined with a little street dancing or “twerking”. During the second performance, the girls performed a jazz routine to the song “Shut Up and Dance With Me.”

On Tuesday, April 19, 2016 I attended a guest artist modern concert that was performed by Contra Tiempo. This performance was held at the Watson Theater here at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. Contra Tiempo is an Urban Latin dance theater that is based in Los-Angeles. Contra Tiempo is known for creating physical, visual and sonic vocabulary that collages Salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance with theater, text and original music to bring dynamic multi-model experiences to the concert stage. The company’s work has been seen worldwide including countries such as North America, Central America and South America, as well as being represented abroad in Europe and Asia. (Ana Maria Alvarez) The Company members that traveled

To begin, the particular videos that we will be discussing are Paul Simon’s diamonds on the sole of her shoe, Kinobe’s kora performance, and Youssou N’Dour’s song daan featuring American singer/ rapper Akon. These three particular videos relate to the west African musical culture because they all involve singing, instrumental music, and dancing which are all characteristics of this particular music. Most of their music consist of a beat that you can dance to and that is usually how you can tell whether it is or is not this type of music. Rhythm and melody are two key factors of west African music and all three of the videos consist of both characteristics. The songs above were very unique to me. It may have been the beat that makes me want to dance, the calmness of it, or it may have even been uplifting to me. They all presented something different that drew my attention to them.