Textual Analysis Of Dance Performance

always been known for the risky and powerful movements which are often why dancers retire from the company. The dancer’s movements were often very intense and emotive, such as the “throws” across the stage in which the dancers would, almost violently, launch themselves across the stage in different forms (leaps, falls and flips to name a few). Another section where the movements were emotive is where the dancers were thrusting their hips in different positions to perhaps show sexuality in “self”.

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

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.

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

On the day of October 1, 2016, a few dance friends and I attended Nuit Blanche and our first stop was Asalto Toronto. When approaching the installation, I was open-minded because this was my first experience at Nuit Blanche. When I saw the piece, however, I was unsure of what was happening and what its significance was. I noticed that it was, in fact, pedestrians in the projection, and I initially found their vertical crawling to be slightly off-putting and animalistic. Nontheless, the more I observed and questioned the piece, the deeper my understanding became. I chose Asalto Toronto due to its relation to the community and society, the overall message of overcoming, and the opportunity to view this installation as a form of ethnic dance.

The next minute the man pushed with his legs the woman as they were getting into an argument. The music “God Help the Girl” complimented the dance with its quick beat. Another interesting part of the dance was when the two dancers sat around the table as most people in the world do during dinner time. Moreover, the man put his legs on the table and as he was waiting for dinner to be served. This reminded me of how many cultures around the world are patriarchy oriented where the men are the bread makers and the women’s role is to take care of the children and all the house work. However, the woman’s costume was a representation of how women in the twenty-first century have grown to become career and goal oriented and not settling for the “Homemaker” position that society is used to. Another interesting part of the dance “Folie a’Deux” reminded me of something I learned in Dance 1010 class and it was a dance similar to the Lindy Hop. The duet came to the front of the stage, between the table and the couch, very close to each other and started hopping and moving very quickly. However, their upper bodies were also moving and their arms were flopping back-and-fourth. Overall, the dance moves were concentrated in the middle and upper space. Their bodies were straight while stepping heavy on the floor turned towards the audience. The dancers made eye contact with the public but also

The first piece was entitled “You, Me, & Us”. Due to having troubles catching the MARTA bus, I missed a good portion of this performance and had to view the rest of the performance on the teleprompter. The dancers were moving in a circle with a person in the center and all of the dancers were wearing earth tones. The music was very serene and at the conclusion of the performance, all of the dancers hugged each other. From what I saw, this performance represented how all humans are interconnected on this Earth, this can be seen by all of the dancers hugging in the end and also the title of the piece.

Furthermore, “Gemini”, the second piece from Innovative works, choreographed by Sarah Harkins and music by Frédéric Chopin, was a male duet based on improving and sharing weight. Within the duet, the two males initiated an interaction with the audience in another language saying, “Konnichiwa”, which automatically provides the idea of the company being diverse. However, during the interaction to keep the audience engaged, one of the dancer’s remained in the stage space.

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

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.

The Washburn University Department of Music was honored to host two solo vocal artists. The guest artists were Dr. Anthony Radford of California State University, Fresno and Dr. Andrea Garritano of Washburn University. Each artist had their own type of voice range. Dr. Anthony Radford’s voice range was baritone, meaning that he has a voice of medium compass between bass and tenor. Dr. Andre Garritano voice range was soprano meaning she has the highest female singing voice. The musical instrument that was played along with the solo singer was the piano, which was played by Patricia Gibson. The piano is apart of the percussion instrumental group. For any instrumental group the smaller the instrument the higher the pitches are.

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

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.