My experience going to the Joyce Theater was definitely an exhausting one since I had to rush over to the theater coming from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx from my CUNY Cross Country Championship meet. Despite my hectic travels to the theater, my experience of the dance performance itself was an interesting one. When the lights dimmed and the curtain rose to show an older gentleman shirtless I was a bit taken aback and confused. Then as the rest of the male dancers appeared on stage I go even more confused. I was not expecting the dance moves to be so robotic in a way and not fluid dance movements.
The same went for the women performances. Many of the dance moves consisted of sharp, quick movements with the arms and legs, balancing on a leg, and doing random jumping. In my opinion, I did not consider these movements to be dancing since I am an avid watcher of Dancing with the Stars and have seen both of Derek and Julianne Hough’s MOVE Live on Tour. Nothing against the dancers themselves since I feel they executed the movements perfectly, but I feel the choreography wasn’t worthy enough to be called dance. I also found it weird to have same-sex partner sections.
One thing I noticed during the performance was that the majority of the numbers were to music containing no words. The performers moved to beats and counts. Only one number in the entire performance contained music with words.
Despite my dislike that this performance was considered to be a dance, there were some aspects of the performance that I enjoyed, such as the in-hold movements with male-female partners. I thought when lifts were included that they were clean and executed perfectly. Overall, my experience was enjoyable and I’m glad the class was taken to see this performance, however, I would not consider this to be a “dance.”
