With the opera Rigoletto still fresh in my mind, I have set my expectation high on the dance. I expected something equal or even better quality, because I could see tons of people lining up to get into the building. Even though later I found out that there were other Macaulay students, it was still a lot of people.

The first dance was a flamenco dance, performed by Rafaela Carrasco. I was confused when the woman started singing. This was supposed to be a dance, not a music contest. Then, the dancers came out and performed an energetic dance. The woman and the man showed a romantic and passionate love. It was like watching the fire. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. I was amazed how their dance movements and the music were so in sync. They came to my mind as one whole action, not two separate things.

The second dance was Red Angels by the New York City Ballet, which was shown briefly in our Art Seminar class. The music started, but it was not the music I expected. I was looking forward to hearing the music that was played in my class. It finally came out in the last scene. Even though the other musics were not that impressive and ear-catching, the dancers’ movements astonished me. They were so flexible that it felt like they were trying to show the limit of distortion of the human body. Although the piece was quite abstract, I could concentrate on their body movements rather than the plot.

The third dance was performed by the Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zane Company, and frankly, it was boring. I fell asleep after few minutes. The only thing that caught my eyes was the background, which reminded me of a chess board. I didn’t know what the music was saying. I think I heard Jesus but I didn’t know how to interpret that with the choreography.

The last dance, performed by the Companhia Urbana de Dance, was worse. At first, it kept me interested because it seemed like it was going to have some kind of plot and meanings. However, it went on and on. I couldn’t figure out what the story was anymore, and just hoped that they would end this piece soon. After many fake endings, the dance finally ended.

In conclusion, this event did not give me much impression. Maybe it was because I was too tired and could not concentrate. But I definitely would have enjoyed it more if the last two dances were replaced by others.