This year was the ninth annual Fall for Dance festival. As always, it showed a variety of dances. Each dance had its own distinctive taste and nuances.
The first dance looked like a fairy tale between a princess and her prince. It was performed in the classical style. One issue that caught my eye was the other performers besides the prince and princess. It was a quantitative, not a qualitative, issue. There were thirteen of them. The number “13” always had a bad connotation. Maybe the choreographer didn’t notice it, but after counting them, I thought that it was going to be a not pleasant ending. Instead, the ending showed the both of them together, happy, and strong.
The second dance was a seduction piece between a woman and a salesperson that deals with shoes. The dance movements seemed modern, but they were powerful. The piece itself was shorter in comparison to the first piece, but it was very explicit. There was no guessing on what the piece may be about. There is a new expression that defines shoes (not diamonds) as a girl’s best friend. Logically, the best way to win over a girl is through shoes.
http://www.paternitypains.com/blog-images/albundy_shoes.jpg
The third dance seemed like an East Asian indigenous ritual. The movements were slow. At times, they were too slow and worn out. For five minutes, someone could hear a sea of coughs and iPhone ringtones. After their movements were done, the drums came. It seemed as a relief to the audience. Finally, there would be something dynamic. I thought the drums would change the aspect of the piece. Instead, it was worn out. The beats all sounded the same. It was very redundant and made me yearn for the piece to end.
The fourth and final dance was that of the gypsies in Southern Russia. The piece was performed in a gypsy dance. There were lots of shaking of the body by both of men and women. As someone who has seen a Russian gypsy dance before, there was something missing. It was the singing! When they sing, they don’t sing in Russian. It is a different language. It has certain sound of magic and mystery in it, which drew me in the first time I heard it. The dance performance was on key, but the singing would’ve made it better.
Another issue with the performance was the romanticizing of the gypsy culture. The dance represented the ideal gypsy life with people dancing. In reality, many of the gypsies are in poverty and they were prosecuted. In addition, I imagined the piece to be set around the Volga River. People who worked near the Volga River faced terrible working conditions. They needed to pull ships against the current on the Volga River. Many men and women died trying to pull the ships. It would’ve been interesting to see if there could’ve been an incorporation of the tough lives they faced. It would’ve provided a so called “reality check”.
http://web.ku.edu/~russcult/culture/cult_fig_xixcent/18volgaboatmen.jpeg
“Barge Haulers on the Volga” by Ilya Repin
Looking at each part, some dances were better than other. Looking at the whole, Fall for Dance succeeded at what it does best: to show the audience different styles of dance.
