Category: Student Organization

PREVIEW: Resurgence: We’re Bringing Sexy Back by Pure Dance

sophiascribbles Leave a comment

I don’t typically frequent dance events, but with a name like “Resurgence: We’re Bringing Sexy Back,” I had to check this one out. 

Pure Dance is a student-run organization at the University of Michigan that welcomes dancers with a broad range of backgrounds. They will be hosting their annual showcase this Sunday, featuring member-choreographed dances and guest performances from an exciting mix of a capella, instrumental, and other dance groups.

Although I have long buried my childhood ballerina days, I am excited to see some of my friends perform on stage. Additionally, I look forward to getting to know some of the other performance groups on campus. While Pure Dance is known for doing contemporary and jazz dance styles, I have also been told to look out for ballet, hip hop, and K-pop!

Come support Pure Dance on Sunday, January 23rd at 6:00 pm at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater! Free tickets are available through this month’s Passport to the Arts.

Event info: myumi.ch/488My

REVIEW: Blue Bop Jazz Orchestra Winter Concert

Himaja Leave a comment

When a band says they only rehearsed their set for two months, I do not expect the level of quality and pizzazz that I heard at the Blue Bop Jazz Orchestra’s Winter Concert last week.

The Blue Bop Jazz Orchestra is a student-run swing band at UM! As they warmed up in the Hussey Room at the Michigan League before the concert, I marveled at how they got the whole band to fit in such a tiny space, music stands and elbow room and all. The rhythm section was tucked away behind the piano so sadly from my seat I couldn’t see them very well. The advantage was that their sound truly filled the whole room.

They alternated between classic jazz pieces and holiday songs, lending each one a great interpretation of swing and mood. Complicated, syncopated rhythms are one of the trickiest parts of playing jazz music. The student leader/conductor of the band was also playing guitar, so the players only got a quiet count off at the beginning and then had to find their own way without a conductor for the rest of the piece. They did a fantastic job of it and had such a strong sense of rhythm with each other.

Improvisation is another defining element of jazz. I could never do improv but it’s one of my favorite things about jazz. It involves players spontaneously coming up with melodies over the chord progressions and accompaniment lines played by the rhythm section. It’s basically music composition on the spot!

The improv soloists were all so impressive. When a player was about to solo in the middle of a piece, they would stand up from their chair and rock the room for anywhere from a few seconds to a minute while the other sections backed them up, then sit back down to wild applause from the audience.

Overall I’m so glad I discovered this group and I cannot wait for their next concert. Their last piece of the evening was my favorite. I included a short clip of the beginning of it down below…let me know if you recognize the tune in the comments 🙂

REVIEW: PandemoniUM presented by Amazin’ Blue

Himaja Leave a comment

Going to see Amazin’ Blue and State of Fifths rock the (very orange!) Rackham Auditorium was the perfect way to spend a Saturday Night.

If you don’t believe me about the orange part, just take a look:


It’s gorgeous. I wish the world had more monochromatic auditoriums.

ANYWAY, Amazin’ Blue is an award-winning a capella group at UM founded in ’87, and it is the only university-sponsored a capella group on campus. They try to create innovative music!

State of Fifths is an award-winning a capella group at MSU founded in ’08. They arrange all of their own pieces and perform a wide variety of music!

All of the singers and soloists from both groups were phenomenal and had me wishing I could sing because they made it look so easy! And best of all, every single one of them looked like they were having the time of their lives up there. They were grooving and bopping on stage the whole time looking like there was nowhere else they’d rather be. It made it impossible to not have fun down in the audience too.

Every so often in between songs someone from Amazin’ Blue would take the mic to introduce one of the “newbies” who had joined the a capella group recently! They read out fun, teasing bios for each newb and then asked them to mimic a certain sound on the spot. Some of the interesting ones were the sound of a vending machine, ripping off a piece of tape, and a plane taking off. All in all I loved their camaraderie on stage and how they made it clear they really think of Amazin’ Blue as a found family.

At the end they sang their alumni song and invited any Amazin’ Blue alums from the audience to come up and sing it with them. An alum jogged up to the stage and took over the percussion and absolutely DOMINATED it. It’s never too late in life for me to learn how to beatbox right? If I do I’m going to add it to my resume.

Something I didn’t know is that both Amazin’ Blue and State of Fifths release studio albums! You can check them out on Spotify here and here. Support your friendly neighborhood a capella groups!

 

REVIEW: Sa re ga ma pella

IseeUsee Leave a comment

Sa re ga ma pella by Maize Mirchi featured 8 songs, an intermission with Indian snacks, a dance performance by Michigan Taal and a really really excited audience.

The acapella singers did a good job harmonizing and it was nice to know some songs were independently set up by students. The introductions of the new members between songs was one of my favorite parts. The introductions were short, sweet and really funny. We got to know a lot about the companionship shared between the members of Maize Mirchi. The audience consisted of parents and friends of the performers and they were really engaged with the performances and cheering their loved ones on.

A point I would like to highlight is the cultural fusion of this group. They are an acapella group with a touch of Indian culture. I would say their group shows a kaleidoscope of Indian American culture. Less than half of the songs were in an Indian language and some of these were half English half Hindi. The western Indian mix was well carried by the performers. Their coordination really hit the sweet spot!

The soloists showed a very authentic image of Indian American culture and by the excitement of the audience it was obvious their supporters liked it. I think the song selection could have been improved to show more diversity but it was an entertaining show regardless.

The performance after the intermission by Michigan Taal was short and sweet. The size of the stage was very small but they did not let it hinder them. They had an exciting diversity of dances and their energy was infectious.

Being at the acapella concert was like being at an intimate event for family and friends where everyone knew each other and supported performers.

If you like Indian American culture and acapella then Sa Re Ga Ma pella can’t hit it more on the head than anything else!

REVIEW: Much Ado About Nothing

Madison Krumins Leave a comment

This weekend, the RC Players put on a fantastic rendition of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The choice to set the tale in a modern-day office environment was a good one, suiting well a story of drama, deception, and debate. Beatrice and Benedick can’t stand each other, but their scheming friends know they’re perfect for each other. While Beatrice’s cousin and Benedick’s fellow soldier friend await their wedding day, they scheme with Don Pedro to get the two fated lovebirds Benedick and Beatrice together. Through classic knowingly-overheard conversations and witty banter, the scheme works! But the besotted bickering couple can’t meet a happy ending without some scandal first, involving public disgrace and a rumored death…

Shakespeare, for the modern general audience, can be a little hard to digest, but director and assistant director Will McClelland and Darby Williams did a fantastic job of making the story engaging and entertaining on many levels. Shakespearean shenanigans were well carried out by the energetic cast who scarcely ever hesitated on a line’s delivery. I was especially impressed by Leonato’s scorning-his-daughter monologues performed by Laila Krugman and Maeson Linnert’s suave Don Pedro.

A truly great performance!

REVIEW: Choir Boy by the Rude Mechanicals

Himaja Leave a comment

The subtitle “…A moving story of sexuality, race, hope, gospel music, and a young gay man finding his voice” was already enough to get me to the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater on a Saturday night to see this play. Then I found out that Choir Boy was written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Academy Award-winning writer of the film Moonlight, and I was doubly sold. Something to know about me: I love any chance to walk in someone else’s shoes for a bit, especially those with vastly different stories than mine.

This production was put on by Rude Mechanicals, a student-run theater group on campus. They produce one play a semester and run everything themselves, from costumes to set design to the actors and crew. This was the first Rude Mechanicals production I’d ever been to and I was impressed. The trailer they made for the play was really cool and just shows how much work they put into it:

I won’t spoil the plot for anyone who has yet to see this gem of a play, but I will say that it is so very RELEVANT. A recurring theme throughout the story is intimacy: who gets deprived of it in society, who you’re allowed to have it with. The actors were so incredibly talented and displayed the intimacy of the play so well. My favorite character was Anthony, the main character’s roommate, for this reason. Whenever the cast sang together it filled the entire theater and gave me chills. They harmonized like they could do it in their sleep. The audience was super into it – cheering and clapping after each musical number, ooh-ing in sympathy when characters got hurt, hmm-ing to the lines of dialogue that struck the deepest.

I will say that I don’t think this was a very accessible production. None of the performers wore microphones which made it hard to hear them at times, especially when they were speaking with their backs to the audience. More than once I would hear the audience burst out into laughter around me and wonder what joke I had just missed on stage. The seating arrangement of the Lydia Mendelssohn theater is also not my favorite and isn’t tiered in a way that allows you to see the stage well from the rows that are not at the front. It’s a historic theater which is something to keep in mind. All in all I think the students did what they could with the space they had.

If you have a chance to go see the Rude Mechanicals’ production of Animal Farm next March, I highly recommend you take it!