Fall For Dance

By popular demand: IMG_2962

When I arrived at the New York City Center for my first dance performance, I was excited to say the least. Many people do not know this but I really enjoy dancing (I have a short video of me dancing in my high school’s color war, ask to see it!). But unfortunately, I disliked most of the evening. I am into more of a contemporary style of dancing.

The first performance was called, “Shivashtakam” and it was an inspired by Indian culture. I was not impressed by the dancing (but I’m sure it required much practice and was not easy). It did not feel fluent and smooth, rather awkward and stiff. Their jewelry was meant to make noise loud enough for the audience to hear and the dancers stamped their feet. Many people might like that style of dancing but I personally did not. To me, I was just waiting for it to end.

The second performance, “Solo”, was by far my favorite. This may seem like an odd choice but I actually enjoyed it. The nimbleness of the dancers seemed to flow like a stream of water, peaceful and undisturbed. Some parts were actually humorous, which made the audience laugh. It was of a smaller duration than the other performances which made it short and sweet. It wasn’t so short that you felt like they just got on the stage but it wasn’t so long that you were just waiting for the finale. While I was watching the dance, I thought there were four dancers. But when they came out to bow, there were only three. I checked the names of the dancers and sure enough there were only three. I asked the person sitting next to me and she said she also thought there were four dancers. Maybe it was our angle or maybe she just felt bad for me so she politely agreed.

The third performance, Locomotor, was unsettling to me. No, not because of the homoerotic nature of the dance, but because it felt so unsynchronized. I am sure it was choreographed like that with that intention but it did not feel clean to me in regards to the movements of the dancers. In the beginning, there was a woman jumping around without any sound which made feel very uncomfortable. Usually, dancing is accompanied by music so the dancer can move to the beat, but that was not the case for the beginning of this performance. During one part of the dance, there was a beat that kept getting louder and louder to the point where I was afraid to hear the next one. Maybe the choreographers intended for the dance to be about movement without any sexual context but me and many other people felt like there was a homosexual undertone between two dancers. I was trying to make a story in my mind, maybe the dancer was confused about his sexuality or perhaps he was cheating on his female partner with a man, but the pieces didn’t fit together with the rest of the dance. But I actually enjoyed the dancing between the two guys because it looked really cool how he flips the other dancer over and the moves were very vigorous. Seeing the dancers’ sweat fly off their bodies when they spun around but that, they cannot help (but from what I remember this was the only performance that we saw the dancers’ perspiration). Other than that, it just felt too long.

The fourth and final performance was “Myelination”. It was tap-dancing and it seemed to be a crowd-favorite. I understand why people loved it but I simply did not. Of course, I can recognize skill and that it requires talent and much practice, but it wasn’t my favorite performance. It was upbeat compared to the other ones with its music. I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was shorter. It got the loudest applause, maybe because it stood out from the other dances and it appealed to the audience more because it diverted from classical music which they might have been expecting.

All in all, even though I did not enjoy all the dances as much as I would have liked to, it was one of my experiences on my journey to become a world cultural human being. I may have liked tickets to the Grammy’s more but this was still interesting (and I doubt Macaulay has the funds for that). What I realized is that I don’t mind ballet as long as it’s short or has a story, and I enjoy a smoother style of dancing. After the performance, I was tap dancing away.