Dance, Dance, Dance!

By Teleathia Gardner

Being a part of the audience of the 29th Annual Choreographers' Showcase helped me confirm the reasons for an event taking place for such a long time. It was an experience that everyone should live, even if dance isn't your forte. The dancers demonstrate a diversity of choreography that swept me off of my feet. Although I have such a minimal dance history, I know that this showcase housed spectacular techniques from start to finish.

The first performance, "To Darwin," showcased dance technique that showed the processes of evolution in terms of two newborn beings agreeing to commit and accept all means to manifest change. The dancers wore underwear to be appropriate, but it represented the birth of evolution or from my perspective, Adam and Eve or man and woman. Perhaps I would say that there were choreography that was inappropriate for an audience that was under 18, when the two dancers were body-to-body to represent what many refer to as "Ying and Yang."

The last performance before intermission is one that I enjoyed most, next to the second performance after intermission. The performance "Cosmic Love," consisted of fast-paced music with dancers that demonstrated tap dancing. This is by far one of the best tap performances I've ever seen. The dancers showed a lot of emotion to tell the story that is based off of grief and heart break. I must say that this is one that everyone can relate to being that we all have or will experience heartbreak or the loss of someone close to us. The props consisted of rose petals and red paper hearts that were torn by the dancers during the performance to demonstrate the pain of being hurt.

After intermission, it seemed as though the audience is eager to see how the show end. The audience was kept awake by "Body Music," a performance that was a dance composition of rhythmic blend of tap dancing and body rhythms. This performance was amazing. Personally, I wish this was much longer than what seemed all of a bit of four minutes.

Altogether, the choreographer was energetic and went far beyond my expectations. My analytical tactics don't describe how great the performances were in person. I cannot wait to attend another dance performance, just expand my knowledge of dance.