I have never been to a dance festival before in my life, but after going to New York City Center’s Fall for Dance festival, I will try to attend more in the future.
The whole show was extremely entertaining and even though I may not have been able to decipher the meaning of every dance (for example, Acosta Danza, as shown above), I could still admire the physicality, the costumes, the coordination, and the rhythm of each performance.
Growing up, I took hip-hop dance classes for multiple years and loved dancing. But as I grew up, I no longer had the time to take these classes and slowly lost touch with dancing. I think it is safe to say that the Fall for Dance festival reignited the flame. I was amazed at the musculature of each dancer and how gracefully they moved through movements that would make me cramp up or plain fall down. I could see the very in-shape human form, for both males and females, and also a “dad-bod” during the salsa/tango dance performance.
Besides the “I need to go to the gym more” feeling after looking at the dancers, I looked at their costumes and was amazed at most of them. My parents both work in the fashion industry and I have seen a lot of it growing up, hence why I naturally gravitated towards their costumes. I especially liked the female costume in the salsa-tango performance. Her dress glittered under the spotlight and it kept me following her every move (she was a great dancer). I also really liked her high heels, which were unlike any other I had seen during the show (dancing in high heels, kudos to her). The costumes for Ballet Hispanico were also impeccable especially when they came out with the flowy skirts. The movement of the fabric accentuated each and every motion and their coordination was also fantastic when it came to that segment of their performance.
Ballet Hispanico also did a tremendous job of music selection as they had very peppy upbeat beats to dance to and funny spoken interludes describing the immigrant experience in America, something I can personally relate to. I also understood a good chunk of the Spanish spoken part (I am not fluent in Spanish, only high-school Spanish) and I thought it was very funny and entertaining.
One of the performances I did not enjoy much was the Alvin Ailey company. Overall I did not see a story, and their visuals were also not very strong. They had some strong moments with some of the dancers but compared to the other performances, I felt Alvin Ailey lacked in terms of physicality, rhythm, and meaning.
