Individual/ Group Dances Observation
With widened eyes and hands that cannot seem to cease clapping, this night is one that I surely will never forget. Now, looking back, I wondered, “well…how different could a group dance be versus an individual dance, it must carry the same story, the same feel, just a different amount of dancers, right?” Boy, was I wrong!
The two primary groups that stood out in terms of this distinction between the group and the individual were The Miami Ballet and Dorrance Dance Company. Two extremes of the world of dance as considered today. The Miami Ballet provided a classical and gentle take on dance, connecting music with movement precisely. However, the Dorrance Dance Company portrayed modern tap dancing, with dynamic and eccentric dances clashing and melocially adding to music, intertwining with it through the means of dance and movement.
Funny enough, each group attracted me for the opposite reason!
The Miami Ballet was overall delicate; the music and movement portrayed a traditional method of storytelling through dance. The groups tended to be more whimsical, prancing around the stage, the men with happy smiles on their faces, lively and joyous they were. My favorite however, were the individuals. The individual ballerina, the sole duos, they told a different story. They were solemn and somewhat acrobatic. This amazing sense of emotion flowed through their limbs as they danced. Nevertheless, developing this pattern of dance: quirky traditional ballet followed by melancholy and encapturing ballet.
Contrastingly, the Dorrance Dance company portrayed this dynamic street-style dance.Each individual portrayed their own personality while meshing together as a whole. The movements of the groups were rather in sync and spectacularly choreographed. They nonetheless exhibited feeling and mood as a group without muddling. They mirror in movement and use their bodies in magnificent ways to create incredible free-form movements. On the other hand, duos and solos as the individual portion, stood out from the group to tell their own stories, with their own set of emotions. Solo movements intertwined with one another and carried distinct individualism from the group. not to mention, the solos portrayed darker/heavier feelings than the happiness/lightness of the group dance, along with sharper almost “spazzing” movement.Thus, the group dances in this case turned out to be my favorite portions of the performance due to the incredible synergy and happiness/freedom they evoked.
All in all, the performances not only opened my eyes to the uniquely beautiful movements of the dancers, but to dance in general. Dance itself is such an art, from the emotions of the individual to the cooperation of a group, dance is not JUST a collection of choreographed pieces. Dance is feeling, dance is unique, and dance surely is something to Fall For.
