I should start this by admitting that I know very little about dance, especially what makes professional dance good. I also went into this event expecting to dislike the majority of the performances, and “Concerto” did little to dispel these expectations. I found Lucinda Childs’s “Concerto” to be overly repetitive, as both the music and the dance seemed to loop. Fortunately, the rest of the performances were very entertaining. “Neue Suite” by Semperoper Ballett Dresden was a great performance because each segment was slightly different. The segments seemed to work from more classical ballet to more modern ballet, as both the dance and the music progressed. “AP15” by Sebastien Ramirez and Honji Wang was an outstanding display of chemistry. Both Ramirez and Wang were so in sync and were able to express a story through their dance. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s “Minus 16” was the most interesting performance because it was not a conventional dance. I felt this performance was designed entirely to convey a deeper message. While the other performances likely tried to convey messages of their own, they seemed more focused on sticking to a more conventional dance style. I would have to say my favorite performance on the night was “Neue Suite” because each segment was slightly different from the one before and each one took an incredible amount of skill.
Anthony Cacchione
I observed what you did in Semperoper’s “Neue Suite”. Classical music and dance transitioned fairly quickly into modern music and dance. I liked the classical dance segments much more than the modern dance segments. I think I missed the messages sent by the color of their dresses. What were the colors, and what did they represent?
In response to the previous comment: I think that the colors clearly differentiate the dancers from one another. However, more than that, I think that the colors of the outfits represented different moods, times and music. For instance, the last couple had black outfits and danced to modern music. I believe that this symbolizes our generation as a whole because, perhaps, we emphasize simplicity and a natural state of being much more. As a result, the dancers were dressed in dark outfits that highlighted their movements.
I felt the same way about the loop in the music you’re talking about. I was okay with the dancers looping their choreography, but what bothered me the most was how you could distinctly hear where the music looped, and it just seemed out of place or unprofessional, although it may have been intentional.