Walking into Roseanne Spraldins “Beginning of Something” at the NYC Live Arts Performing Center, the audience is captivated by the atmosphere right away. The stage is a slightly raised rectangle, with a blue floor. Walls with small mirrors and a curtain of beads surrounds the audience, sitting around all four sides of the stage. A naked woman is already sitting on edge of the platform, slowly playing a bass in the dark while the spotlight is on some shiny material on the stage.

The seats fill up, and it becomes silent as the audience is captivated by the mysterious feeling inside the room. The woman seems to be playing a somber tune. The seats are level with and in a close proximity to the stage, with some of the audience members sitting on the floor. The dance begins with a high level of intensity as the woman hands over her bass to the band and puts on the beads as a head and shoulder piece. She walks across the stage naked, with such confidence, it is almost intimidating. At one point, there is no music and only the sound of the beads is heard. The dancers presence seems to be screaming “look at me!”.

Three more clothed dancers come onto the stage, not as confidently as the first woman. They perform a series of dramatic movements, to highly energetic music. The feeling is hectic and chaotic as they all move differently. At one point, the first naked woman with the beads reaches out to several members of the audience. This really involved the audience and showed that there was a point to the dance – these four women wanted their message heard and they needed the audience to sit and feel with them.

Eventually, all four of the women took off their clothes and very empowering music was playing. At this point in the performance the audience had already felt the dancers’ frustration as some of them seemed to be slowly building confidence and courage like that of the first woman. Finally, all of the women seemed confident. They even walked together across the stage like runway models, one of them screaming “do it!” and “now!”. It seems that the obvious point of the performance was the empowerment of women. However, the audience was supposed to also be involved in the journey that these women take, with powerful moments portraying the struggle and chaos.

In the middle of the dance, the mood became somber and chaotic again. The women seem to be convulsing, or stomping around the stage with no order. Yet they come together in unison at intervals. These moments are beautiful and almost make the audience feel a sense of ease until the dramatic and chaotic movements start again. The naked women leave the stage one by one, and come back clothed in a very feminine fashion. They strut up and down the stage again, a repetitive movement throughout the performance. They depict a sense of unity at those moments since they are walking together. They each start to take off their clothes again, in a dramatic way by walking forward and convulsing their bodies. Then they proceed to step backwards, still convulsing, and putting on each article of clothing again. This portrays the ups and downs of life, which is part of human nature.

Reading Oliver’s and Jowitt’s writings really helped me interpret the dance. Even though it was a new experience, I came in with an open mind and tried to really focus on the meaning behind the dance, not just the actual movement. I paid extra attention to elements of the performance that really make it an art such as the stage, music, and everything collaborating all at once. I even read into the booklet given to us prior to the dance. It was interesting to find that many of the dancers and musicians involved in Roseanne Spradlins “Beginning of Something” were very well rounded, some with degrees in Harvard and Columbia University. This made me respect them even more because the audience can really tell they enjoy what they are doing and put in a lot of energy and emotion. The performers do not use dance as their last resort, but are truly passionate about what they do.

This particular performance had deep emotion involved in it.  Even though the performance was very feminist, it was also very real and human. Although I thought it was very powerful, I was unsatisfied with the ending of the dance. The dance ended the same way that other scenes in the performance ended. I feel that the ending lacked emotion and power. There were many key moments that stick out in my mind but the ending is not one of them. Although I remember the dancers taking their bows, it is hard for me to recollect the few minutes before that. Regardless, the moments that I did enjoy and recall made the dance very beautiful and powerful. It was a great opportunity to experience a dance in a way I never have before. Overall, Roseanne Spradlin choreographed an effective and heart touching piece that really captivated the audience into connecting with the emotions of the dancers.

If I were to describe RoseAnne Spradlin’s beginning of something in one word it would be powerful.  Despite everyone’s preconceived notions of what the performance would be like, we all knew it would be intense.  After the performance ended, it did not matter whether you liked the performance; you were still able to feel something from it.

From the beginning of the performance, I was able to feel the intensity that would remain throughout the evening.  The room was small and intimate creating a personal feeling.  The mirrors surrounding the room made the performance interesting because the dancers and the audience could look into them at certain points to see themselves and others around them.  From the instrumental segment at the beginning, I was able to recognize the song “Don’t Make Me Over.”  To me this song paired with the first dancer’s strong walking across the stage in her headdress evoked a feeling of being proud of yourself and happy with who you are.  This seemed to be the main message throughout the performance.  In today’s world, people, women especially, are dealing with body image insecurities; however, this dance performance spoke out against these feelings in more ways than one.

The women in this performance did not have stereotypically perfect bodies; they were all different shapes and sizes.  They moved together at some points and as individuals at others.  This is similar to life in the way that people may feel included sometimes and on the outside at other times.  I especially thought that the facial expressions of the dancers contributed greatly to the intensity of the performance.  By looking at the dancers’ faces, you were able to feel their pain, stress, or happiness.  The pained faces were often accompanied by convulsing bodies, distressing movements around the stage, and moments of dressing and undressing, which evoked a feeling of intensity in the audience.  During the performance, the women would stomp and even scream in order to heighten the feelings in the room.  At multiple times the dancers would walk across the stage in unison with such power almost like models on a catwalk.  This aspect also shows the importance of being happy with your body and your individuality.

One of my favorite moments of Spradlin’s dance was when the band sang “Don’t Make Me Over” and the dancers took off whatever little clothing they had remaining.  Although the nudity may have made the audience a bit uncomfortable, the dancers seemed happiest at this point in the performance.  As the song played, the dancers moved about the stage with smiles as opposed to their usual disturbed expressions.  In this part of the performance, Spradlin greatly displayed the importance of loving your body and yourself.  Ultimately, Spradlin was successful in getting her message across and in moving the audience in some powerful way.

At first, the thought of watching a performance of women fully-naked on stage shocked me but the dance that RoseAnne Spradlin created was far beyond just nudity. The whole performance was a new and eye-opening experience. The dancers along with the staging, costumes, lighting, and music all journeyed through many ways, as I interpreted, women think and feel.

At the beginning, Rebecca Serrel Cyr with her guitar and silver beads, along with the dark music, dim lighting, and mirrors, portrayed confidence she felt not by what she was wearing- or in this case, not wearing- but rather with the acts she was preforming on the stage. As the audience trickled into the space, Cyr was not dressed, playing long, low notes on her bass guitar in a staccato manner. Her demeanor was calm and rather indifferent to those around her. She seemed content in her own world.  When the performance began, the lights were dim and focused on her. The musicians accompanied Cyr’s movements of putting on silver beaded headpiece and shoulder gear. The music was soft and steady as Cyr strutted across the stage as if it were a fashion runway. She had on a strong, bold face.  She represented elegance in her broad steps and straight lines that demanded the audience’s attention. It was a great start to the performance as there were many more strong fashion runway-like struts to come.

The three other women (Natalie Green, Rebecca Warner, and Rebecca Wender) wore different costumes and joined Cyr on stage, which started to display different manners of expressing the thoughts and emotions that women feel such as insecurity and vulnerability. Green came in a fur coat, Wender in a black coat and black lace, and Warner in a skirt and blue tape across her bare chest. All three of these women far more clothed than Cyr but still not fully dressed.  They strutted the stage with no expression but had a sway to their body and heads. Each reminded me of a pendulum moving back and forth creating a sense of time passing. The dancers were so grave in their facial expressions as if the days were passing right by.  At times, the dancers would leap into the air, perhaps expressing a search of strength that can only be achieved with support from others. They all moved to this dark and slow melody that really captured your attention. Each crescendo or accented note would make you search around on stage to find a contrast movement to their continuous struts and leaps in the air. When the dancers would stomp on the stage or convulse on the floor, you felt pain and vulnerability wash over you. When the dancers at some point shed off all their clothes, a climax was reached with a final mood of happiness. They walked around more confidently; as if they were more vulnerable with the little clothes they had on previously. The words that the singers were singing were: “accept me for what I am, accept me for the things I do”.  The whole concept of nudity was no longer attached to vulnerability rather being clothed was.  The dancers left the stage undressed and all smiles.

The last part of the dance really focused on how women deal with the interaction of others. The dancers came in all dressed in different costumes: Cyr in a lace and blue flowy material dress, Green in a beige and black high collar dress, Warner in a red and black stripped outfit, and Warner in a black shimmery wrap top.  They all started off walking a catwalk.  A sense of conformity came about as they walked in synchronized motions. Then, there were momentary outbursts of stomping and even screaming at a point. There was an irritation to this random movements that made you feel as if their encounter with other women caused them a sense of insecurity within themselves and chaotic thoughts to run through your mind. As I watched these loud outbursts, I felt as these dancers were just women judging each other while still feeling insecure about themselves, as many women feel on a daily basis. When they were just jumping around, the dancers looked like particles bumping into each other and reacting to each other’s movements. This reminded me of life. Their movements were random but when there was an encounter between two or more of the dancers, there was a scene created. No matter how random your decisions or journeys are, when there is a meeting up of two or more people, there is a connection, allowing each person to have a role, purpose, or reason to be there.

As I watched this performance, I let my mind just think, interpret, and feel the movements of the dancers, the tone of the music, and catch sight of the whole composition. Although I was in a state of confusion immediately after the performance, I had all these thoughts floating around in my head that I was compelled to write out all that I could on my phone on the train ride home. A movement in this last part that I really gravitated towards was when Natalie Green was stepping over the bodies of the other three dancers that were on the floor. It instantly conjured up the feeling of how there is always that one woman that will do anything to succeed even if that means stepping over others. These movements along with so many of the other movements in the performance made me think of the inner working of women’s minds. I really enjoyed the performance and it allowed me to explore experiencing a performance not just with my eyes and ears but really trying to find my own interpretations and explore my own thoughts.

The ominous mood of the dance was established before the dance had actually begun. Even as the audience enter the dimly lit theater to take there seats around the dance platform they were exposed to uneasy material. The audience was greeted with a view of a naked women sitting on the stage, strumming somber chords on a guitar. This introductory image was a preview of the astonishing things to come in RoseAnne Spradlin’s “Beginning of Something”.

The lights dimmed, the small musical group began to play, and the woman who was playing the guitar, now clad in silver adornments, strode across the stage while exchanging expressionless stares with the audience. This lone dancer would eventually be joined by others who were sparsely dressed. The dancers made different movements, occasionally coming together to stride across the stage in unison, or to take turns lifting each other. Their spins and leaps were interrupted by moments of intensity. They occasionally went into fits of convulsing and jerky, violent movement. The dancers all exited the stage and returned fully clothed. Once they returned, they continued to dance across the platform. The dancers then began screaming and unclothed themselves while shaking violently, but soon redressed themselves.

RoseAnne Spradlin’s “Beginning of Something” was a startling, but entertaining dance. The spectrum of the choreography in the dance varied from graceful all the way to violent. I believe Spradlin’s dance was meant to portray self consciousness and its effect on individuals. The dance had many shifts in atmosphere that I believe represented the highs and lows we experience as we struggle to feel comfortable in our own skin.

When I first found out that our class would be viewing a contemporary dance performance, I was intrigued and enthusiastic about what we were going to see. However, when Donna later elaborated that it was going to be an emotionally driven show complete with naked performers, I cannot lie when I say that I was feeling a little confused and apprehensive. Not too many teenagers my age can say that they have viewed such a mature piece of art and dance. But, taking Donna’s words with a grain of salt and using the knowledge gained after reading Wendy Oliver’s “Dance Critique”, I attempted to approach the performance with an open mind.

My first impressions of the show were of the perplexing sort. The stage—which wasn’t really a stage at all but more of an elevated floor space surrounded by seats—had nothing on it. No props, no anticipatory lights, no grand aura about it. There was, however, a naked woman with short, pixie hair strumming a rather uneasy set of chords on stage left (from my seat at least). Eventually, the woman stopped playing and went on to put on some interesting beads that made her look like Egyptian royalty. She walked around the audience and gave certain members of it concerned, almost angry stares. Then, the band off-stage began playing, and if I recall correctly, the bulk of the performance began.

As the show progressed, three other performers trickled onto the stage, all women, and each had their own unique look. I feel as though Spradlin had chosen these women because of their different body types. One was larger than the rest, while the other three filled in the rest of the body types that society considers the norm. The women seemed to be upset with their body types or their clothing because they eventually stripped and performed naked. At one point, they all left the stage and came back fully clothed. A few moments later, they danced but “seizured” out of their clothing. This was extremely powerful, and I am certain there are some meanings behind this that Spradlin purposefully put into her work.

The dancers were very sporadic in their movements. Aspects were either very blunt and short or flowed more and included more ballet qualities. They stomped around the stage, acted as if they were having spasms, but they would then transition into lifts that were quite elegant. At one point in the show—when they had all stripped of their clothes—the dancers walked as if they were on a runway. It was powerful and meaningful. One of them screamed “Do it!”, and they would turn. I’m unsure about this aspect, but if I am correct, I believe it was supposed to be reminiscent of society and how society always tells women what to do.

“beginning of something” had to have been an emotional satire about society and how it treats women. The women wore clothes but were unhappy in them. Perhaps they are wearing these articles of clothes only to please those around them. The runway part of the performance exemplifies my point. The woman who screamed “Do it!” was, in my opinion, mimicking the loud noises of a negative society. The women did not want to be in their clothes. The clothes could have represented society; they wanted to leave society and be their own people.

Another way of viewing the performance is solely through the eyes of a woman. I am not a female, but after having talked to a few after the show I felt a new perspective open up. Perhaps the women were unhappy with their bodies. Perhaps the reason they hated their clothes was because of their unhappiness with their bodies. Their clothes could have, once again, represented society; society is like a poison sometimes. It can slowly kill people when people feel like they do no fit in, and this is something the dancers were trying to convey.

At the end of the show, after all of the seizures, spins, awkward stares, and dances, I felt like Spradlin put together a powerful performance that is relatable to most people and generations. Society can target people—women especially—and tear them apart. Through the use of minimalistic tactics, Spradlin was able to showcase a huge, negative facet of our society. Perhaps we can take what we saw at this performance and make for a more accepting society.