With the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Year coming to a close, our beloved Central Student Government will be hosting its very own Illuminations World Showcase (not to be confused with the spectacular IllumiNations performance at the World’s Happiest Place on Earth!). However, with a similar approach to that of Disney’s Epcot World Showcase, CSG’s intent is on celebrating the diversity of its student communities here at the University. Although the Bicentennial Year comes with celebrating the University’s history and milestones achieved, the Illuminations Showcase is intended to foster a vision of the legacy we strive to see the University uphold for its many years to come.
This event is comprised of two parts: a food fair of numerous authentic, international cuisines followed by a performance exemplifying our students’ talents from across the globe. Some of the groups you can expect to see are the African Students Association and Arab Students Association along with many others.
The food fair will be held at Ingalls Mall at 5 PM and the culture show at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in the Michigan League at 7 PM. Both events are entirely free with no tickets necessary.
The Ragamala Dance Company is a group that performs the South Indian classical dance bharatanatyam. This performance will be based around the game Paramapadam (from which Snakes and Ladders originated) as well as the 12th-century Persian epic The Conference of the Birds. The board game will be represented by paintings projected on the floor, done by Chennai-based visual artist Keshav. “The live music for Written in Water is composed and performed by Amir ElSaffar, interwoven with original South Indian Carnatic compositions by Prema Ramamurthy” (UMS).
I have never been to a bharatanatyam performance with live music before, and ElSaffar’s music is a really beautiful blend of different styles. Furthermore, the fact that they are blending visual arts, music, and dance is so exciting. I can’t wait to see how they blend those types of art into the Hindu and Sufi traditions that form the context of the performance. The performance is Friday, October 20, at 8pm in the Power Center. Tickets are available at ums.org.
While EnspiRED is a fashion organization, they described the showcase last night as their annual multimedia event. The purpose was to highlight the work of all artists around campus, making last night “more than just fashion.”
There were two paintings and a photo print making up the display part of the event, while the majority of the night consisted of live performances. There were no labels on the visual art but I got a photo of the canvases near the door.
Chase Garrett, a poet, was the first live performer. It was a political narrative preaching optimism even though the state of America is less than favorable at the moment. It seemed to resonate with the audience, who was very responsive throughout the evening.
Next was a singer/guitarist, Jake Lemond. While he reminded me a little of The Lumineers’ main singer, he was unique with his stage presence and skill with the guitar. He played three songs, most of them alternating between a Travis pick-style verse and a strummed chorus. There was a lot of strum pattern and vocal variation which made each song different. He even used harmonics at the end of his last song!
Dennis London, another poet, came next. His first piece was a rap in the middle of a song played over the speakers. His second was, in my opinion, a love poem. He called himself a “photographer by day” and talked about his newly-published book. The book is about how happiness is earned. The motivational speech he gave at the end of his performance seemed to be a snippet of that message.
After that, the dance group Ambiance performed. They were an all-female group. Their performance was an interesting mix of modern dance, showcasing fluidity of movement and form. They also incorporated some ballet movements into the piece (which I only recognized because of a history of dance class I’m taking this semester) as interludes between dance exchanges. I was sitting near the back, however, so it was difficult to see what they were doing sometimes as there was a lot of groundwork.
Unfortunately, my phone died during intermission and I was unable to take notes for the second part of the night. It was, overall, a very cool experience.
Looking for something to do tomorrow night? Interested in fashion, the arts, campus culture, and free food? Stop by North Quad space 2435 for all of these things and more! ENSPIRED presents The Art Experience, featuring dance performances, art, fashion, photography, poetry, and more!
What a night. I started walking over to the Power Center with my friend five minutes before the concert started to find a building packed with students. Before the first group took the stage, the organizers announced that this was the second sold-out concert in a row.
Some sold-out concerts don’t feel sold out. You can spot empty seats and the audience is tame. Not so for this young, rambunctious crowd that hooted and hollered names of friends in the dance groups all throughout the event. Between the energy of the audience and the students moving around on stage, the 2.5 hour event felt like taking a shot of espresso.
When things get hot and heavy on stage
First off, I have to apologize at not being able to keep track of the names of the groups. Every group that took the stage was incredibly talented in their own unique way. Alas, I did not have a program with me during the concert so I could not tell exactly which group was on stage at a particular time.
I can’t imagine it’s easy to fit a wide variety of student acts into one concert, but Dance Mix 17 pulled it off through smooth transitions between more traditional ballet (top left picture) and decidedly modern hip-hop (top right picture), as well as dancers that both to the melodies of ballads and rock songs alike.
One of the highlights of the group was Revolution and their stringless yo-yo performance. Countless students walked across the stage slinging their plastic yo-yo’s like divine beings levitating rocks. Those plastic yo-yo’s flew across the stage and around the slingers and every trick drew fresh cheers from the crowd. Even the tricks that failed still felt like successes, and I was definitely not the only one entranced by the performance.
Later, Photonix performed in the dark with glow sticks, producing images like the one you see in the header photo of this blog. Towards the end of the performance, they unleashed hundreds of mini glow sticks into the audience.
The audience being composed almost entirely of students, everyone went wild.
Another highlight of the night was a Bollywood rendition of Top Gun (by Michigan Manzil I think). The story was a cliche telling of a young fighter pilot who loses his friend in a fight, but this isn’t a Hollywood film and the performance was one of the standouts of the second half of the night.
The Bollywood-esque peformance went through half a dozen wardrobe changes without a hitch, in addition to props and set pieces, and above all it was entertaining as heck.
Rounding out the rest of the night were performances by EnCore (picture below), Outrage, and FunKtion again.
I’m incredibly glad I was able to attend this event, and if you’re reading this blog and didn’t go this year, you NEED to attend next year.
Reading the synopsis of this play online had done little to prepare me and my friend for the powerful, and emotional journey into the US’s dark history of slavery that awaited us in the intimate space of the Arthur Miller theater. This interpretation of Robert O’Hara’s 1995 play was brilliantly adapted by the Department of Theater and Drama into a nearly three-hour long production filled with twists and turns. O’Hara’s play is a time-traveling look into Nat Turner’s 1831 slave insurrection, from the point of view of Ron, a modern-day college student completing his thesis on slavery, and his 189 year-old grandfather, T.J., who was a part of the rebellion himself.
Before the play even began, I noted how intimate the Arthur Miller theater was, and that proved to only add to the emotional impact of the play itself. The set was minimal and yet entirely sufficient to capture the feeling and multiple locations of the play.
One of my major takeaways was that every single actor had their intensity dialed up to the very top for the majority of the play’s runtime. There were moments that left me breathless, as the actors went through emotions of extreme fear, anger, sadness in quick succession. In the second act this was particularly noticeable, as the few moments that were quieter in nature were even more impactful, soft whispers standing in drastic contrast with the high energy shouts and cries of other scenes. Most of the actors also played multiple characters, and I was shocked at how easily they seemed to switch from one to the other.
Additionally, the actors were clearly working hard physically, with a large portion of the play being heavily choreographed or strenuous to do. I noticed that many of the actors would be sweating by the end of a short monologue, which only added to the emotional intensity. While I know little about stage direction, it was an extremely lively play with never a dull moment, as the actors tripped, danced, and ran around not only the stage, but the entire theater. I wasn’t expecting there to be the amount or level of comedy in this play as there ended up being. Almost every other minute the actors sent the audience into a load roar of laughter. Considering the dark themes of the play, the comedy felt uncomfortable at times, but I assume that was part of the point.
I highly recommend attending future shows put on by the Department of Theater and Drama. I couldn’t have imagined a more entertaining or engaging weekend.
