This is a review by Claudia La Rocco in the New York Times. It was published the 13th of September, 2012. The piece was performed in the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Passport to the Arts
Donna Uchizono's Seminar 1 Class
This is a review by Claudia La Rocco in the New York Times. It was published the 13th of September, 2012. The piece was performed in the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Dance criticism is writing that describes a dance performance. They are usually written for potential ticket buyers however before a person critiques a dance, they must observe a dance. The Feldman Model of Criticism states that a dance critique includes description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation.
In this critique, Claudia La Rocco describes the dance in great detail. She describes how the room was dark, how the lights were shining in the back, and how the performers would “push their bodies through deep squats, undulations and hunched, thrusting attacks, in a movement palette both oblique and aggressive.” Her description is so detailed that it allows the reader to picture parts of the dance even though they haven’t seen it yet. Rocco also does an in depth analysis of the dance. She states that in this dance, an audience never gets a full picture. The dance is styled in a way that viewers hear movement before they see them, making the viewers wait for clearer and fuller pictures to appear, but the picture never appears.
Rocco interprets that Ms. Chipaumire, a Zimbabwean-born and New York-based artist who has sought to complicate traditional and stereotypical images of African women, withheld herself throughout the whole performance. She gave the audience bits and pieces of herslef, but never gave away a graspable whole. Rocco felt a bit confused, but intrigued by the performance. She states that Chipaumires distance with the audience is an understandable strategy, but a very limiting one.
Rocco feels bored and dismissive of the idea of power, however with “Miriam,” and its “absurdly dim lighting and pacing that rockets forward in strangled fits and starts, which isn’t especially interested in seducing, or even in making nice”, Rooco feels intrigued and states that this is a dance no one should dismiss.
I believe that Rocco’s critique grasps all the elements needed in a dance critique (as stated by the Feldman model) and I enjoyed reading her thoughts on this piece.