A Nuanced Way to Tap Dance!

This Tuesday, I had the delightful opportunity to attend the Fall for Dance Performance at the New York City Center for the very first time. I do admit, I had not had much of an idea of what to expect the days following up to this event because I had never really expressed much of an interest in dance, or its history. Now, I curse this type of ignorance, because I feel that I would miss out on such a rich art form, with an important history to share.

That being said, dance as an art form has truly come a long way since it’s days following War World II. It seemed that the war shifted American culture greatly; displaced Europeans tried to immigrant by the masses, and art did a complete 180-degree turn. In regards to dance, artists wanted to represent more insecurity and realism about human nature, from what I have learned in class, that we are mortal and fallible. In retrospect, after watching this performance, I believe that dance still continues to transform, even today.

The performance that I felt was my personal favorite was the one that involved the members of the dance company, Dorrance Dance. The entire performance was electrifying to me, and it is no wonder that Michelle Dorrance is a truly dedicated and gifted dancer to the tap-dancing world.

Of course, when I had watched a video of Michelle Dorrance tap-dancing in class, I was blown away completely. The type of tap-dancing I was used to watching were the ones that I had seen in classic movies and musicals, especially the ones involving the great movie pairing, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers. From watching those type of films, I had gotten this idea that tap-dancing had to elegant, and performed to classical music. Boy, was I wrong!

What Michelle Dorrance does so well, is take tap-dancing as it already is, and builds on it, in order to produce more nuanced dances. What I enjoyed most about the Dorrance Dance performance, was how everyone seemed to tap dance in harmony, whether it was the entire group of about dozen dancers or just a pair of partners on stage. Dorrance herself appeared to glide on stage, even when moving backward. She had made it seem so easy to the audience as if tap-dancing was just another form of walking for her.

Another aspect of the dance that I also loved was the atmosphere Dorrance Dance created, utilizing lights, sounds, and of course, tap dancing. For instance, when the tone of the performance shifted to something more aggressive the music sped up, and the lights on stage faded to a bright red color. Because I became so immersed in this dance, I actually felt my heartbeats speed up quite a bit. In general, the energy of the entire dance radiated into the entire auditorium.

In the days following this performance, I could not seem to get it out of my head. I found myself watching several more videos of the Dorrance Dance, still mesmerized at their dancing technique. What had surprised me the most, was the fact that I even started to noticed the BAM posters in the subway, which I never took time to even glance at.

To me, it truly is amazing how learning a new art form have such an impact on your life.