Outside Dance Critique: The Snow Queen

The music changes now as the musicians start to play a march. The dancers then remove the flower from their hats pull their hats down low to resemble a soldiers headwear. In addition, they turn their canes upside down holding them as if they were guns and start marching off stage. Simultaneously, the lights turn dark blue on stage and the dancers faces turn serious. Their once extravagant and lighthearted movement is now stiff and somewhat serious. The audience however, laughs at this shift in theme. All the dancers march off stage except the center girl, she continues to march in a circle making faces and poking fun at the others. Finally, she leaves the stage laughing loudly and dramatically at herself. She comes on one more time only to

While observing this dance ballet, there were many things that caught my attention. First, the theater itself was extremely large with a big stage, which gave the dancers plenty of room to move and perform their routines. There were many dancers, and they all played various roles that ranged from Clara, Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, the Rat King, the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many more. The dance was divided into two acts, with Act One, Scene One being The Party, Act One, Scene Two being The Battle, Act One, Scene Three being The Kingdom of the Snow, and Act Two being the Kingdom of the Sweets.

While observing this dance ballet, there were many things that caught my attention. First, the theater itself was extremely large, and the stage itself was big, and the dancers had plenty of room to move across the stage and perform their routines. There were many dancers, and they all played various roles that ranged from Clara, Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, the Rat King, the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many more. All of the performers wore vivid costumes

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

Ballet is one of the most beautiful, graceful dances known to the dancing world. From the tutu to the pointe shoes the need to see the expression of the steps given. Being able to see how the illusion of a flying princess is one of the most mysteries that come with a ballet show. The history of Ballet has evolved into one of the most well-known type of dances in the world this is from only the men having roles in the ballet to women being able to express emotion.

The seven dances were divided into two parts with an intermission that gave the audience time to stretch their legs. Before that intermission the performance, Playful Musings, took the most unique route in my opinion for the dance. It started out like any of the other dances with a low lighting, but right away the first dancer made his appearance on stage with style and a light-heart personality. It catches the audience right away with laughter, and filling the small concert hall with a totally different vibe compared to the other performances so

My immediate response to the whole performance was astonishment. When I say astonishment I mean that the whole show was like nothing I’ve seen before. I would call the Dance Theatre of Harlem more of a modern ballet instead of classic like Cinderella or The Nutcracker. It was interesting to see how ballet is interpreted by a different company such as the Harlem Theatre of Harlem. I

The movement is, above all else, gestural. The gestures start out as being removed from meaning and feeling, but eventually become more sensual and fulfilled. The gestures are also what could be considered taboo. Both dancers grab their breasts, groin, and thrust their lower bodies repeatedly throughout the piece. As the dance progresses, the movement goes from being placed and calculated to becoming something more reckless and passionate. There is also a lot of

This dance was very elegant. The lighting and the costumes complimented the qualities of the dance to have that effect. Libeslieder Walzes, meaning “Lovesong Waltzes” in German, started off with a group of woman all wearing dresses. The dresses themselves looked like they were seasoned for spring, which is why I think the intention of the dance was to epitomize the feeling of love being “in the air.” That is said because in the Elizabethan period, the season that most people started to court was in the spring. The most noticeable and pleasing thing about the dance, from a technical point of view, was that the dancers all brushed their feet through the floor when they needed to. At certain points where the music was quieter, the brushing of the feet could be

The concern is fascinating. It is so beautiful to watch. I really enjoyed the concern. In the concern, I said “Awesome! Beautiful and good job guys” so many times. I appreciate choreographers, people who take care of music, sound effects, costume designer, and all dancers to give a fantastic concern for audiences. Each dance represents its meaning and messages that dancers want to communicate with audiences. For example, in “Rain Goddess”, I saw the eight birds are flying through raining on the ocean. I saw light rain, heavy rain, and heavy wind on the ocean. It was fantastic that by dancing, performers can bring audiences to the ocean and feel everything that dancers feel. I also love “The spell”, dancers look like angels. I saw purity, innocent,

I really enjoyed the positioning of the dancers in various sectors of the stage, particularly in three dimensions. The dancers towards the back of the stage tended to jump higher or release their snow vertically, while those who had moved to the front tended to have lower movements. This layering accentuated the curved scaffolding on each side, enclosing the action in a set, curved space. This made me think of a snow globe, or possibly looking through a device into a fantastical other realm, giving permission to let earthly concerns fall as one marvels at another world.

I felt very indifferent to the music because it sounded like Stravinsky took random notes from several keys at the same time and threw them onto paper without caring about beauty. In addition, I absolutely hated the dancing (or should I say stomping) that I saw! Although we Parisians requested Russian ballet with an exotic and oriental character to it, stomping is not necessary! It mocks the elegance and grace that so many dancers work so hard at perfecting for performance on stage. When The Rite of Spring finally reached the Sacrificial Dance section, it messed with my already upset ears and mind even more than any other section of the ballet.

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

The costume that the dancers were wearing seemed very interesting. The costumes looked very comfortable on the dancers.