Spring Thesis Reflection

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.

The two live dance works viewed this year were “Emergence”, performed by Sydney Dance Company, choreographed by Rafael Bonachela, performed at the Princess Theatre and a recorded dance performance titled “Image”, choreographed by Jason Northam and Liesel Link. The two dance performances substantiated were exceedingly diverse and dissimilar. The two performances juxtaposed their intentions and interpreted opposing elements through diversity in movement vocabulary, structural devices and form, performance skills and technical elements.

This was evidently appreciated by the audience as it permitted them to understand the background of the piece better. Correspondingly, being that there wasn’t a conductor, the body language was interesting to watch, as the performers organized and timed themselves accordingly. I found that the passion in the duo was more prominent than in past concerts. You could see this reflect on the audience as after the end of every piece, the audience couldn’t help but burst into applause as the passion and exhilaration built up till the very end of the pieces. Moreover, the pieces that where performed felt more intriguing using a wider range of music styles, from jazz to classical waltz. Therefore, the pieces ranged in dynamics, tone and mood evoking many more moods and

Music makes a significant touch on dance and make either enthusiastic or boring. The chorographer of the first show, the process, did not use any music in the dance, and the only sound that we were hearing is his breath since the hall is quite. That actually makes the audience focus on the movement of the dancer only without listening to any music. The music of the second performance was soft and quiet and pauses when the dancers talk. It influenced my feelings and reaction where it clearly illustrated that it is a romantic dance. However, the music of the last dance, Breakfast Burrito, was creative and affective, and make the audience more interactive with the dance. Moreover, the

The first dance that I will describe is called “Folie a’Deux” presented by the choreographer

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

The space, time and usage of dynamics were powerful yet elegant-elements that added to the overall quality and tone of the work. The solo dancer used her body to perform various movements with specific ranges of motion, showing her ability to control, express and properly connect to the audience through her performance. In this performance, there seems to be a spiritual side when the dancer, Marilyn Banks, sits on the bench and starts to swing her arms in wide semi-circles to show looks of anguish and despair. Ms. Banks also varied movement by quivering her hands-movements such as a shaking or slight trembling with her hands when reaching outwards. She also used a lot of ornamentation or embellishment through her movements. Her body and her path of movement embellished her gestures since she was performing spins across the stage.

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

My overall response to the dance concert is spectacular because each dance piece was moving, remarkable, and motivational. Each dance had an astounding affect on me and allowed to me repelled into the performance. These impressions came from me analyzing the dance pieces, “A Brief Study of Recent History and “One Heart, Two Worlds”, for the Spring 2016 Studio 115 Dance Concert Series at USM’s Dance and Theatre Building on May 4th. The first performance, “A Brief Study of Recent History” was choreographed by Elizabeth Lentz-Hill and introduced by the dancers Jennifer Alafat, Megan Bradberry, Shaquille Hayes, etc. While the second piece, “One Heart, Two Worlds”, was choreographed by Dejonelle Gleeton and the performers were Brittain Allgood,

The directors endlessly drilled their individual pieces down to the very move in order to make sure that every dancer picked up the essentials. Like engine components, everybody was required to work together seamlessly and undergo maintenance in order to produce the greatest visual effect. To achieve the desired image, our directors casted us into their designed formations, deciding which part of the machine we would be. From there, it was a matter of repetition in order to ensure that the overall choreographic set kept its fluidity and would not rust over

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

Dance was not a new element in the theatre realm. It had been used for years as a way of interpretation of feelings of a character that the writer or director wanted the audience to feel visually. Through movement, expression of those feelings was portrayed and helped the audience to somewhat

The movements were very specific and showed the story of the dance. The partners used many movements that contained many body

For many of these dancers it was just another performance, but not for the dance one class. Dance one consists of seven members, all of which whom were extremely coordinated. The dance was complex and looked like it was hard to create, but it was all worth the struggles in the end because the audience was very pleased. They cheered during the funny parts of the dance, which for the dancers means that their hard work paid off. Everyone performing

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