Music and dancing go hand in hand, at least in my opinion. Before watching the actual Fall for Dance performances, I expected a lot of classical orchestral music, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the variety of cultural and jazz music being played. Two of the performances that especially interested me were the cultural Shivashthakam dance and the enthusiastic tap dancing Myelination piece. These pieces were particularly enjoyable for me because they involved live musicians producing the rhythms and sounds to which the performers were dancing.
The music of the Shivashtakam dance was very familiar to me because I’m Indian myself and have heard similar musical styles produced from instruments such as the bamboo flute and harmonium. This being said, I have never experienced a professional, live performance of a classical Indian dance before. The two dancers were phenomenal and I slightly followed the story being told by their slow and graceful movements. The motions they made were very slow and simple, unlike a lot of the flashy breakdancing seen in pop culture, but I was still impressed by their phenomenal balance in holding certain positions and the strength they needed to keep completely still. The music was very rhythmic and established the calm and peaceful tone of the dance, which was meant to reflect the greatness of Shiva. I found the vocals from the harmonium player Jateen Sahu to be especially soothing and was impressed by his strong vocal range. The music being played was synchronized with the ringing bells of the dancers, emphasizing the important incorporation of the heard sound with the observed motion and showing how powerful the dance is with such music.
Dorrance Dance’s performance of Myelination was very enjoyable as well, and was perhaps my favorite dance of the night because of the high energy and footloose nature of the performers. The singers, dancers, and musicians all seemed like they were having a great time and their vitality was contagious. Similar to the bells from Shivashtakam, the tap dancing also contributed to the “heard” portion of the performance and infused with the sounds produced by the musical instruments. The choreography was so seamless and I really enjoyed the fact that some of the dances were improvised by the dancers, as pointed out in the performance’s Playbill. The live performance of the music contributed to the improvisational vibe, as if the musicians were freestyling with the dancers as opposed to the dancers moving to a fixed recording of a song. The jazz sounds in this piece were very appealing to me because they most closely represented modern hip hop and pop music that I usually find myself listening to. Personally, I find dancing that coordinates with music to be much more enjoyable, which is why I think music is just as important as the actual body movements in a dance performance. These artistic mediums compliment each other to produce a phenomenal performance that can be appreciated by all.
