Tag: Encore

REVIEW: 58 Greene Presents: Greenie Night Live

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

 

While several other a cappella groups performed last weekend, 58 Greene was the only one that mattered.

EnCore performing.

Now I guess I might be a little biased given I know and would die for Teddi Reynolds, one of the members of the group, but by the audience’s hoots and hollers throught the night I think it can be said they were also objectively good. Paired with two fabulous dancing groups (EnCore and FunKtion), the performance was smooth and stylish and properly varied. The song selections were a bit conservative, tending towards the classic, softer side, but that was nice. Flashy, chorerography-heavy performance is clearly not their style. In most of their songs they stand in a group, moving rhythmically, but not dancing. Instead they prefer to let their lyrical power enthrall the crowd. Not exactly reminscent of Pitch Perfect, but that is an unreasonable expectation for groups of all styles.

My only real critique of the performance is the lack of understanding some of the members have about their vocal range. While Scott McMillan’s performance of “Slow Dancing in the Dark” was wonderfully sweet and rich in tone, he had trouble reaching some of the high notes. I would have loved to hear him perform the song with pitch adjustments to better fit his range, or another song entirely. A few others had this problem in some spots, particularly with the higher pitches. While it is great to showcase one’s range, it is more important to focus on emphasizing the tones that come naturally. I could not begin to estimate the number of men I’ve heard singing in a falsetto voice when they definitely should not.

I was supremely impressed with the variety of voices within the group, from Danny Kim’s soft, soft high tones to Sarah Kleppe’s perfect mixing with Desirae Nelson’s voice in their “No Peace” duet. Teddi Reynolds and Rikvah Levine both gave me the shivers with their soulful selections. There were voices deep and high, singing like the soft wind and like the crashing sea. 58 Greene must have an awfully harsh audition process, given how talented their members are. Despite this assumption, for a flash of a second at the end I had a vision of joining the group myself. Then I remembered my non-speaking role in the eighth grade production of Mulan (I was the cricket) and promptly forgot this dream.

If you are more talented than I in the vocal arts, do try your hand at auditioning for the group. They are having winter auditions for Bass and Tenor parts on January 10th, 6-10pm in room 1405 of East Quad. Break a leg!

REVIEW: Michigan’s Best Dance Crew

Aria Gerson Leave a comment

All reality shows have an opening number, and Michigan’s Best Dance Crew was no different, kicking off with the emcees lip-syncing to The Cheetah Girls. That’s when I knew it was going to be good.

The show was an hour and a half of unadulterated fun. Each crew — all student-run and choreographed — had a different flavor, making for a well-rounded and entertaining event. Here’s a peek at my judging sheet*:

*I was not an official judge for the event

Dance 2XS (pronounced “To Success”) were a great start to the competition. The hip-hop crew was poised and energetic. They weren’t as flashy as some of the groups that followed, nor did they break out a lot of big tricks, but the eventual third-place winners still made an impact. They didn’t stand out as much as some of the other groups, but they had no real weaknesses either and set the tone for the rest of the night.

Michigan Izzat fuses hip-hop with the traditional Indian styles of Bhangra and Bollywood. I had no idea what to expect, but I ended up loving them.  You could tell from their performance that they genuinely enjoyed every moment up on that stage, and I thought the way they combined the styles worked really well. They didn’t place, making them my biggest snub of the night, but that fact truly speaks to the level of all the crews that performed.

Impact Dance brought it with a sassy jazz medley. I couldn’t take my eyes off one particular girl. She was front and center through most of the number, and her flawless technique, poise, and personality really carried the piece. One of the hardest parts of jazz is getting turns and leaps in sync, and Impact struggled with that at times, though their performance quality was good enough that it was quickly forgiven.

EnCore is one of the more popular crews on campus, and here they showed why, taking home second place from the judges as well as the People’s Choice Award. From the moment they walked out onstage in personalized black jackets, you could tell they were a force to be reckoned with. EnCore stood out because of their polish, difficult moves, and technique, and their number left the audience cheering.

FunKtion hip-hop crew blew me away with their innovative choreography. Their music was a medley of hip-hop, R&B, house, and even EDM songs. They incorporated traditional hip-hop moves as well as animation and breakdance and made it flow seamlessly, impressing the judges enough to win them the grand prize. FunKtion wasn’t quite as synchronized or polished as EnCore, but their passion for dance was clear at every moment, and they get bonus points for ending their routine with jazz hands.

Cadence gave the audience a completely different look with their contemporary number. I was impressed by their choreography, as often contemporary numbers start to feel like a mere series of leg extensions. This wasn’t the case for Cadence, whose dance really told a story. The emotion of the choreography was occasionally betrayed in some of the dancers’ faces, but for the most part, they sold their emotional piece, and it carried them to a third-place tie.

The party didn’t end there. While the judges tallied the votes, members of Michigan Izzat, FunKtion, and Dance 2XS came onstage for a freestyle dance battle. FunKtion captivated with their popping and ultimately won the largest share of the applause, the cherry on top of their overall win.

Michigan’s Best Dance Crew was one of the most fun on-campus events I’ve been to this year. If it’s renewed for another season, I’ll be back, and you should come, too.

REVIEW: Dance Mix 2017 The Galaxy Edition

Phillip Wachowiak Leave a comment

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.

REVIEW: GROOVE

nina.j

GROOVE

On Friday night, the student group Groove put on an energetic, fast paced performance in the Michigan Theater. The bi-annual event has a different theme each year and this season the subtitle was “Innocent Until Groovin’ Guilty.” The evening opened with a spoof film of a criminal case in which Groove members were prosecuted for making too much noise. The convicts were detained in a cell and when they were finally freed, they sprang forth from the silver screen onto the stage and began drumming with spirit. Using non-traditional instruments, such as garbage cans, bicycles, ladders, umbrellas, newspaper, and more, the show turned regular objects on their heads and made them entertaining in a whole new way. The performers also demonstrated their talent with traditional instruments, like guitar, drum set, electric violin, and keyboard. Each scene told a story using a variety of wild costumes and lots of bold singing and acting. One of the funniest sketches was a rap battle between two sections of a middle school band in which the lyrics spoofed off of popular rap songs but using lyrics associated with pre-pubescence and the terrible awkwardness of middle school. Another memorable sketch was a play on the James Bond theme, where some Groove members were taken hostage while others came to the rescue, all the while hammering away a beat.

The audience was totally packed and seemed to love every second of the show. It takes a lot for a student group to pack a full house at the Michigan Theater!  Some fans were also there to support to opening acts, EnCore and Rhythm student dance groups, as well as interluding musicians James Cornelison and Julian Allen.  The exciting evening concluded with a sentimental- albeit comedic- farewell to the senior Groovers as well as an audience shout out from a large sum of Groove alumni who had returned to Ann Arbor for the special event. It was a totally energetic evening, full of comedy, musical talent, and pure entertainment.


REVIEW: Michigan’s Best Dance Crew

Heather Burcham 2 Comments

The Michigan’s Best Dance Crew Competition took place Thursday night at 8 p.m. in the Union Ballroom. The ballroom was packed with students and families cheering on their favorite dancers–the mood was electric. Many crews auditioned for a spot in the final show, but only 8 were chosen to compete for cash prizes in the finale. The ballroom was transformed to resemble MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC), complete with large projector screens on which videos of each crew would play before they made their entrance on stage. Also like ABDC, three judges were chosen to provide feedback after each crew performed. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t provide much helpful feedback for the audience. They said a lot of nice things to each crew, but they didn’t provide any sort of objective critique. And I’m not sure that they were all the most qualified judges. One judge had no dance experience whatsoever, but liked to party and knew how to dougie. How does this make one an expert on dance? (I should have been a judge!!)  The night was hosted by our resident comedian, Eli Yudin, who also opened up for Russel Brand at EMU.

First to take the stage was Encore, a huge hip-hop dance troupe. They provided a really great opener for the show. They were incredibly energetic and had a good mix of hip-hop and techno songs in their performance. I have to give them props for having so many people on such a tiny stage, all dancing in sync together. But, I thought there were too many songs mixed in their set, with awkward transitions. In part of the performance the music transitioned from a techno/hip-hop song that was building in intensity, to an R&B slow jam, where the dancers slowed down to some lyrical hip-hop, then picked up the pace in the next song. That song choice sort of caused them to lose momentum and energy in their performance.

The Arabian Dance Ensemble was next to perform. The belly-dancers were the most unique dance group of the evening. They were really entertaining to watch, and I loved their costumes. It made me want to take a belly-dancing class! However, it was really difficult to judge such a different dance style against the predominantly hip-hop style of the show.

Also not fitting into the popular hip-hop style was Rhythm Tap, a tap dance troupe,  and Impact Dance, whose dancers do a variety of styles including lyrical, jazz, and hip-hop. It was great to see a variety of dance styles represented in the show. However, I don’t feel that they really fit in to the overall idea of a “dance crew,” which insinuates a hip-hop style. I think they realized this too, so in order to compensate these groups chose hip-hop music to dance to in their respective styles, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I couldn’t hear the dancers’ taps when Rhythm performed because the music was so loud. Being able to hear the dancers’ taps is important in judging for accuracy and togetherness in the movements. Impact Dance also performed some jazz/lyrical steps to hip-hop songs, which didn’t seem to fit with the choreography. I think they sacrificed a lot artistically in doing this. Even though they may have stood out more from the other crews, and may have been more difficult to compare to the other crews as a result, at least they would have shown the audience the best of their respective dance styles, rather than trying to mesh with a style that isn’t their own.

Several other hip hop dance crews performed in addition to Encore, including an all-girl group called Dalliance, who performed to a montage of 80’s and 90’s hits by popular R&B and rap artists. The choreography also included a lot of popular dance steps from the 80’s and 90’s. Dalliance had a lot of great energy and really gave the performance their all. Vertigo was another hip hop crew that performed, unique in that the crew is comprised of only medical students. Though they were lacking a bit in technique, they really seemed to enjoy dancing, and they ended their dance with a cute medical reference–a heart monitor flat-line.

Dance 2XS is another hip-hop crew that performed. These dancers are incredibly professional–I was impressed. They were all dressed alike in white button-down dress shirts and red ties, boys and girls alike. What I really liked about Dance 2XS is that both the guys and the girls perform equally difficult technical dance steps. The other crews that performed hip-hop throughout the night were guilty of filling their choreography with cheaper steps–booty-popping and sexier movements. I really respected Dance 2XS for never letting up the technically difficult hip-hop isolations and movements throughout their performance. They used a lot of interesting formations, and persisted with sharp, strong movements in unison. Most of all, you can tell they all LOVE to dance. Even after the performance was over and the DJ played music while they were counting votes, they all got back up and starting dancing around, just for fun, while everyone was leaving. They never stop. (Can you guess who I voted for? 🙂 )

Finally, FunKtion finished out the night as the last performance before voting opened. This all-male, multicultural group was incredibly entertaining. The guys came out on stage to “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO, flexing their muscles and strutting their stuff like they were in the club trying to grab all the girls’ attention–it was hilarious. I liked how they could do a variety of things within their style, from comedic routines to more serious, hard-hitting hip-hop, to really sweet, romantic songs that charm the girls. They were pretty versatile as hip-hop dancers, and really fun to watch.

I’m sure by now you’re dying to know who won. And the winners were…. In third place, Encore! In second place, FunKtion! And in first place…. Dance 2XS!

I was so delighted to see how many great dance opportunities there are at the University of Michigan for non-dance majors. Watching everyone else perform made me really miss dancing myself. I’ll have to keep an eye out for auditions to some of the crews that performed at the show! Maybe next time you’ll see me up there dancing with them…