The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

I’ve been through this before. The first time that I went to see a Broadway show with my TDF program, I was expecting to  be bored to the point of sleep, confused, and quite frankly, uninterested. All my doubts about Broadway were proven wrong, however. So, when we were waiting for the dance performance to commence, I think I had a little more optimism than some of my fellow classmates. However, I did not expect it to captivate me or fascinate me in any way.

I was wrong.

The first thing I noticed while watching the performances was all the timing and coordination that the dancers had with one another. One great advantage that our seating allowed us was the ability to hear the “lead” dancers, Christina and Derek, give slight cues to the rest of the dancers throughout the piece. I heard a lot of different breathing cues, as well as movements that cued other dancers. It was fascinating to be able to see the intricacies and the subtleties while also being able to see the whole piece. Usually performances like this can feel a little distant, as if the dancers are somehow in a different world than we are. However, something about this performance felt more relatable. I think witnessing all the energy they were exerting and the work that they were putting in helped me appreciate what they were doing more.

Another one of the things I liked was the variety of the dance pieces. I heard at least one song I knew, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”, which is one of my favorite oldies. They played the Nina Simone cover, I believe. The mix of tunes led to a wide variety of dances. Some were deliberate, some were energetic. They balanced it very well, and I never felt like I was getting the same old thing again and again. The incorporation of one particular piece really struck me. The musical piece, where there was actually a guitarist on the stage, was one of my avorites. Seeing the dancers in fairly common attire impressed me even more. Doing the kind of moves they did could not have been easy in jeans and sweatshirts. The inclusion of this piece made the entire production a lot more relatable than it would have been without a urban piece.

Even if dance isn’t something that I would look to do in all of my freetime, I have gained a new respect and understanding for the work and dedication that dancers put into their craft. I would describe my experience as a kind of culture shock. I only knew dance from what the people I knew said about it. But the problem with that was that they were just as uninformed about the true difficulty of dance production as I was. I’m happy I went. If I have a group of friends together, dance will certainly be on the list of things to check out. Even if I get a few stunned stares and laughter, I will convince them that it’s worth it to expose yourself to different forms of culture and entertainment.

-Ben

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwXai-sgM-s. Apologies to Nina Simone, but this version of “I Put A Spell On You” is just bone-chilling.