Author: mrajshahiwala

Fall for Dance City Center

mrajshahiwala

Miami City Ballet, Vincent Mantsoe, Trisha Brown Company and Dorrance Dance Company; that was the order of the program. The order of the dance pieces symbolized the message behind the program, this desire to detach from mainstream society and value what is different and real.

When looking at the order, I realized the first piece juxtaposed the second and the third piece juxtaposed the fourth. However, the third piece’s placement really connected with me and I am going to focus on that in my analysis.

When I initially reflected on the program after I got home, the Dorrance Dance Company piece was the most memorable due to its interesting music and incredible choreography. However, when I began to analyze the program as a whole, the Trisha Brown number kept bothering me, as if I couldn’t figure something out about it.

It was an eerie piece. The red light engulfed the dancers, giving them a warm but alien look. The off-sync imitation led the audience to highlight the other differences between the dancers, like the differences in haircuts and heights. It was as if Trisha Brown was trying her best to make the dancers seem like the same people, but they weren’t, and that was the important thing. Her off-sync imitation choreography spoke volumes to the message she was conveying to the audience. She gave commentary about the forced conformism that society mandates on people.  However, humans are not dolls that can be made to look alike. We all have individual beliefs and traits that make us unique. Therefore, Trisha Brown chose for them to have different haircuts and overall body types, to make obvious the differences they possessed and highlight their individuality. This is made further evident with the Dorrance Dance Company piece following the Trisha Brown piece. The Dorrance Dance Company piece was diverse from the get-go. It had no uniformity in costumes or dancers with spoke to the almost utopian goal of this program. It was as if the Trisha Brown piece was reality and the Dorrance Dance piece was a hopeful future. In the wake of this political atmosphere, the overall program was a refreshing reprieve and proved that though we are all different, we stand together.

Torch Song Analysis on Themes

mrajshahiwala

There were a few prevalent themes that were portrayed in Torch Song, like unrequited love, yearning for normalcy, and the struggle of identity.

The theme I was able to connect to in the most intimate way was the yearning for normalcy. The play portrayed the idea of “normalcy” through Arnold, Ed, and the mother and therefore gave the audience three different perspectives of what “normal” may mean.

Arnold wanted a husband or a lover that could live up to his potential, the “international stud.” He had created this image of an ideal man after being disappointed by so many men, and for Arnold, being with this man would be perfect. This is what he wanted out of his life.

Ed, on the other hand, wanted the perfect wife. The one he could settle down with and have kids with. Ed, similar to society, found his normal life to be with a wife, kids in upstate New York. Basically, everything he didn’t have with Arnold.

Similarly, the mother wanted Arnold to be “normal.” She wanted him to be like the other men who weren’t gay, had families and were respectable in society. She wished that Arnold could provide her with grandchildren and basically a legacy that she could be proud of.

The ironical thing throughout the play is that the characters get the polar opposite of the “normalcy” they crave and it all works out.

Arnold got Ed, who couldn’t be more in the closet about who he was, and was not proud to be with Arnold. Arnold desired a man who could provide him with emotional and physical support and instead gets a man who abandons him for a woman because he wants to be “normal.” However, through this disaster with Ed, Arnold learns to become independent and he realizes he doesn’t need a man to make his dreams come true. He adopts a son on his own and starts fulfilling his dreams on his own.

Ed gets Laurel, who is everything that Ed supposedly wants but that just proves to him that “normalcy” is not what Ed wants. Through the marriage and subsequent struggles with Laurel, Ed realizes that he is gay, and that is ok. He accepts his sexuality and he accepts that he truly loves Arnold.

The mother has Arnold for a son, who embodies everything she believes to be abnormal. However, this causes her to partially accept Arnold, specifically the idea that he is not going to change because of her. Furthermore, she does receive a grandchild, just not in the traditional way, and she has to learn to accept that.

I connected the most to this theme of desiring normalcy because what I desire is against the normalcy of society for the most part. Therefore, it feels like this constant swim against the current, similar to Ed’s struggle for most of the play. However, this play really shines a light on the concept of things always work out and we get what we deserve. I believe this concept does really play out in life, and never giving up for what we believe in does lead to something good in the end.