REVIEW: Michigan’s Best Dance Crew

Last night’s competition featured three judges: Valerie Postos, A.J. Ashman, and Josh Thurman.  The trio gave feedback to each team after their performance, which might have gone faster had their voices been audible.

The first group to dance was Dance 2XS.  They are a co-ed hip hop team that had excellent timing throughout their routine.  I also thought it was interesting that they formed pairs regardless of gender, unlike the other teams.  Their facial expressions also conveyed their enthusiasm.  There was a very well-timed fall at the end, which excited everyone.  One piece of feedback the judges gave was that their routine had a “great story,” but I personally didn’t know there was a narrative at all.

The second team was the RhythM Tap Ensemble, a student run tap dance group.  They choreograph their own routines, which is no small feat.  They have a show on January 15 at the Power Center, as well!  The beginning of their performance was dramatic, with a small portion of the team standing silhouetted.  The one note from the judges I agreed with was that the upper body is just as important to focus on as the lower body, even though their genre was tap dance.

Thirdly, and to the extreme excitement of the audience, was Izzat, an all male fusion (hip hop, Bollywood, bhangra) team.  The hype was so intense it was difficult to hear the music at first.  Izzat had a lot of stunts, like flips in their routine.

Izzat
Izzat

Their feet would barely even touch the stage, and their enthusiasm was tangible.  The team highlighted their skill during tempo changes, which they mirrored with their body language.  They spent time dancing on the floor as well, which looked very fluid and synchronized.  There was even an old team member in the audience, who knew all the moves and was very vocal about loving his team.

Izzat appreciation
Izzat appreciation

After Izzat was Impact, a small company of female non-dance majors.  The first part of their routine was contemporary and showed off the dancers’ flexibility.  Their music was a lot slower and emphasized flow.  I thought it was cool how they used their entire body when dancing, even their hands and heads.

The second part of their routine definitely had a more confident vibe to it.  It seemed more fun and less modest.  The judges enjoyed that the team combined different styles of music, which I agree made their performance more memorable.

The fifth team was Flowdom, est. 2015.  They are a multicultural hip hop and freestyle group.  They wore more grungy, black costumes, which my friend said reminded her of Rocky Horror.  They didn’t necessary have a uniform, but their styles all matched.  The team was initially rigid like marionettes, dancing to a haunting Nutcracker chime remix.  They later broke character for fluidity, which confused me because they lacked a consistent theme.  It did, however, make their performance more interesting.  The judges called their routine clever, a favorite being a segment in which the protagonist used a team member’s leg as a handle for her jack-in-the-box.

The sixth performance was from Michigan’s premiere all-female Southeast Asian fusion dance team: Michigan TAAL.  Their team wanted to emphasize the importance of both strength and femininity.  Their black costume’s matched Izzat’s.  They used their hands a lot, which was a nice change.  The team was very confident in their routine, and their ending was a synchronized point to the sky.  The judges approved of their smooth transitions.

Taal
Taal

The final team was EnCore, another audience favorite.  They initially came onstage wearing baseball caps and jeans but promptly threw their hats off their heads.  There was a team member who did the splits… while wearing jeans.  They were clearly a well-established team and are very comfortable with one another, which made their energy incredible.  They even did a mannequin challenge in the middle of their routine, which caused the audience to erupt.  The judges enjoyed their pose uniformity.

EnCore
EnCore

The winning team was Michigan Izzat, with EnCore coming in second and Flowdom in third.

REVIEW: SMTD@UMMA

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Image from @ummamuseum on Instagram

I arrived early to the museum, and I watched the people slowly drift in, until all at once the chairs were filled and people were standing around the edges of the room. From the front of UMMA’s apse, it looked like any other performance, yet the back of the room resembled a concert pit; people standing, craning to catch a glimpse of what’s going on, resigning themselves to peering between heads. The performance, Image in Motion, attracted a diverse audience; there were groups of students to parents to faculty. The dances were choreographed by students themselves. As they were inspired by UMMA’s collection Europe on Paper, which consists heavily of line drawings (which were described as very graphic by the museum guide), I was interested to see how the dancers would interpret the art. I chatted with the girl sitting next to me as we waited for the performance to begin, and she expressed her worries that she would not understand what was going on in the dances, having not seen the art. Once the show began, though, it became evident that – had we not known the source of inspiration – it could’ve assumed this was another “dance for dance’s sake” show. While the dancers themselves likely saw the ties between movement and art, in my eyes they were two separate things.

I came to the unfortunate realization that not everything I love, when combined, becomes better. For me, art and dance seem to exist in two separate hemispheres; both forms of art, yet there is not a direct correlation. Separate, though, I loved both. I commend anyone who is willing to put their art and talent up for display, to make themselves vulnerable to an audience. The first couple of dances were costumed in nude colors, embodying the Greek statues situated behind them in the space. The dancers themselves, though embodying a completely different collection of art, came to embody the statuary, giving the solitary figures breath, movement, and life. Many dancers chose to highlight the color red, pulling the inspiration from the prints. I enjoyed that, while the focus of the performance was dance, they did not shy away from involving the audience’s other senses. Some dancers spoke during the dance, or used breathing as a form of accompaniment in itself; one performance studied the interplay between a solo French horn player and a dancer, this specific piece causing me to question which performer was inspired by which? Before this last piece began, the audience was asked to stand and rearrange themselves in the back of the apse, creating a circle around the room. I loved this; I felt as though I was in the piece itself, and it caused the audience to rethink the classic mode of watching a performance.

While Image in Motion intended to explore the relationship between art prints and dance, the relationships between the dancers and the space and the accompaniment was much more dynamic. One of the most meaningful moments of the night was when a member of the dance faculty, preluding the show, discussed the current tensions and fears within today’s recent culture, and how dance and art serves as a means of expressing and strengthening oneself in the midst of outside turmoil.

 

PREVIEW: SMTD@UMMA

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from umma.umich.edu

If you’re an indecisive appreciator of art, or an enthusiast of all forms, the upcoming SMTD@UMMA performance, Image in Motion, is for you. In this collaboration between the Department of Dance and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, U-M Dance students will use UMMA’s new exhibit Europe on Paper as inspiration for the performance. The Europe on Paper collection features the work of German and Austrian Expressionist painters; dancers will interpret the works’ emotion and color through movement.

These two artistic modes lie close to my heart, and based on past STMD@UMMA performances, the beauty of UMMA’s gallery space only further brings SMTD work to life. This marriage of artistic forms is happening Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 in UMMA, and is free and open to the public.

REVIEW: Mark Morris Dance Group

The Mark Morris Dance Group performance was certainly a new experience for me. I have never been to such a mixed arts event in the past. Walking in, before the first people came on stage, before even the lights began to dim, you are immediately aware of the art of the performance because of the backdrop of the stage. There is this brilliant painting that sets the background for the entire performance, consisting of what appears to be large brush strokes sweeping across the canvas. The entire painting consists of only 3 colors, but as the lighting changes on stage, the painting changes colors as well. This sets the mood for the performance, as the rest of the dancers come out dressed in similarly bright colors.

At the beginning of the performance, a group of 4 musicians come on stage and perform a short piece that also begins immersing the audience into the world of Layla and Majnun. The music is accompanied by English captions above the stage, translating the story being told by the two singers in the group. Immediately, from the key of the music and the poetic quotations being presented in the captions, the audience gets a feeling for the tragic nature of this story.

Then, the entire music ensemble walks on stage. As the musicians begin playing, the dancers start to walk out two at a time. All of the female dancers are dressed in these brilliant pink flowing dresses, and the men are dressed in bright blue. This choice of colors perfectly contrasted the men from the women, as well as made the aesthetic of the stage come together beautifully with the painting in the backdrop. This can be seen in the image below, taken by Susana Miller.

layla
Photo by Susana Miller

Throughout the performance, one is entranced by the beautiful singing of Alim Qasimov and Fargana Qasimova, seated directly in the middle of the stage and surrounded by the music ensemble. They demonstrated an incredible control over their vocal range and ability to express such deep emotion in their voices. I do have to say I was biased towards focusing on the musicians more than the dancers, since my training is in music, not dance. This also meant I was new to the style of dance the Mark Morris group utilized. It was predominantly lyrical, trying to showcase the tragedy of this love story through the movements of the body. However, this also meant there was not a focus on showcasing skill, so the performance was much more centered on telling the story of Layla and Majnun rather than exhibiting the dancers. In this way, the choreography often included simple physical movements that demonstrated love and loss, repeated by each male/female pair in the dance group.

Overall, I fell in love with the beautiful colors of the stage and the voices of the singers and the talents of the musicians, but I found myself unable to stay focused on the dancers. My eyes kept drifting back to watch Alim and Fargana perform extraordinary cadenzas effortlessly. I would love to see the Mark Morris Dance Group perform in a more dance-central piece, but I was not able to experience the character and skill of the group in this performance.

by Kim Sinclair

PREVIEW: Mark Morris Dance Group

What? A performance of Layla and Majnun by the Mark Morris Dance Group, presented by UMS

Where? Power Center for the Performing Arts

When? Thursday October 13 at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday October 14 and 15 at 8:00 pm

How much? Starting from $30

Why? The Mark Morris Dance Group is one of the most well-known dance companies in the world, and this September is their world premier of Layla and Majnun, a tragic and beautiful Persian love story. It is a performance not to be missed.

layla

by Kim Sinclair

REVIEW: Penny Stamps Speaker Series — Performance Animation

One of the many wonderful things about new technology is that it can lead to entirely new genres of art. Performance animation is one of those genres.

First, we were introduced to two blank screens. Then, a flash of light and color as animated landscapes splashed across the screens. A silhouette stepped into view, and we watched it interact with the buildings and plants and animals that appeared. At times the message was a clear narrative, while at others it was more of a series of dreams transposed on top of one another. If that makes the show sound trippy in any way, then good, because it absolutely was trippy.

Miwa Matreyek is a multi-talented artist currently on tour performing the two pieces that formed this week’s Penny Stamps event. “This World Made Itself” seemed to be more of a love story, although love was by no means the only theme. The juxtaposition of her gigantic form with a city skyline, and her interaction with a tiny animated figure, had strong allusions to King Kong.

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Her second piece, “Myth + Infrastructure,” dealt with the biggest themes possible: the birth and death of the world, modernization, death, life, and the interaction of mankind with the natural world.

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Time and again we watched Miwa swirl through bodies of water, capture and free flying insects, blend in and become one with the Earth.

Several times it was like a magic show. The audience and I reacted with awe when Miwa sprouted wings out of thin air and her arm melted away into a swarm of white petals. “How did she do that?!” the people next to me exclaimed as they recorded the performance for their Snapchat stories. I wondered the same thing as I too recorded a clip for my story.

Shows like this are rare opportunities, and I strongly encourage you to see the show in Ypsilanti on Friday, October 7 if you can.

You can get a small taste of the performance in this TED video here.