At the dance show, I analyzed the dance movements, gestures, face expressions, music, and costumes in order to figure out what story was being told. The entire production that night was split up into three completely separate dances. After discussing the narrative component of the dance in class, I realized that other people had different interpretations of the story than me, which is totally fine because the nature of dance itself is very flexible. No one is directly telling a story, so it is up to each viewer to make his own interpretations.

The very first dance was about the processes and progression of life for new couples. In the beginning, three couples come on stage (and one extra woman that alternates between the couples) and the mood is very jolly. They all had smiles pasted on their faces, and it seemed as though they were living a “honeymoon” type of life. Their dance motions were very free and uplifting.  We were able to sense the progression of life when the dancers’ smiles vanished after some time and the music became a little more anxious sounding. Every day life can become monotonous after a while and various sources of stress come about. In one scene at this point in their life, one male dancer appeared on stage and continuously made jerky and nervous movements as part of his dance solo. It was almost as if his life was going downhill and he didn’t know where to turn. Then eventually the couples get back to their first dance routine. However, this time around they weren’t smiling. This symbolizes how you can never exactly return to those happy times in your early life after you have been through so much stress and hardship. After looking it up, I found that this dance took place in Poland in the 1950s, during a war. This makes sense with the dance and what I have explained because until the war came and ruined their life, they were happy-go-lucky people.

In the second dance we were immediately oriented with the shriek of the lady sitting in the pitch black- “Maximillian!!!” After she had yelled for him, he appeared on stage in his red royalty garment, and her in her red dress. Through the movements of the dance, it seemed like they were in a relationship that was not approved of, and that they were secretly together. Maximillian kept on looking around, as if he was afraid that someone would catch him. He tried to pull away from the woman multiple times, but she was very strong and always grabbed him back. Their secret relationship reminded me of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn where Hester Prynne was having a forbidden affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. Eventually they are caught, and Maximillian is taken away and killed by officers. The female dancer is left in total despair, and this is seen by her spinning around so many times while breathing heavily.