Fall Dance Festival Critique

Burbank High school fall dance festival 2019 was one of my favorite shows I have been to. The show was a combination of several types of dances with Unleashed and Advanced dance performing. With the first routine Strike a pose, and the last routine Improv, I started loving contemporary and jazz because I find them to be the most relatable and interesting to watch. However, the dance of my choice would be Roxie, since the choreography was beautiful, sassy and fun to watch.

The dances strike a pose, Improv and Roxie all share common features, which are the song beat, movement of the body and energy.

The first routine that the Unleashed dance team performed for us was Strike a pose. The dance included a combination of jazz and hip-hop. At first, the dance seemed slow beat with dancers pose, but shockingly it picked up its beat and turned into a hip-hop dance. Some movements included pirouettes, chaines, flicks, high kicks, and chasses.

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The tempo of this dance was medium since the song had parts where it was faster than others, so the dancers had to move quickly. Strike a pose had lots of rhythms and most of the time dancers were together as unison. One thing that this dance-focused the most on was energy. In the first part, where the dancers traveled down from the stands, the movements were very sharp and heavy. However, after the pirouettes the dance was freer and light. Also, something that was very noticeable was the facial expression.

In my opinion, facial expression can play an important role while dancing, in terms of entertaining the audience and telling a story. So, for this dance, there was lots of facial expression among dancers, especially the first and last move where they had to pose. Besides, some of the travelings that were being used were hopping, running, chasses and sliding. Also, the stationary moves included, lots of pirouettes, bending and twisting. Dancers were pretty aware of their space, and most dancers had to be in personal space, except the few dancers who had to leap and turn in front of the stage. The costumes used in this dance was a business professional, so many dancers were either wearing black or white coat and leggings. Nevertheless, the most attention-grabbing part of this dance was the lights. The lights were dimmed and dark blue, both for the beginning of the dance and for the end. Throughout the dance, there were orange and green lights flashing which matched the navy blue for the background.

The last routine that the unleashed dance team prepared for us was Improv. This dance was contemporary and it was very emotional. The choreography was done by Ella Perkins. My favorite part from this dance was the beginning where all dancers were running back and forth the stage, while Ella Perkins was doing lots of contemporary movements, like battements, arch, turns, etc. The movements of the body and the shapes it created were symmetrical, curved but mostly straight. The tempo of this dance was slow since most of the time dancers were doing a freestyle of their choice but they kept the tempo the same for all of them. There was no rhythm in this dance because every dancer was doing something different the whole time like some dancers were leaping, while others were just doing pirouette turns.

Dancers used the general space throughout the whole dance and mostly they traveled in curved directions, with movements like skipping, pique turns and running. Additionally, the energy used in this dance was free, light and collapsing, except the part where few performers hit their thighs and everyone had to go from collapsing transition to completely straight in a sharp and strong movement. The facial expression during the whole dance was sad and nervous. I believe that dancers did a great job committing to the sad movement and facial expression. Costumes used for this dance were a light brown, long sleeve shirt, with back shorts and no props were being used. The lighting was brown at the beginning, which gave the feeling of 90’s and then it changed to red with green lights flashing all over the stage.

For the dance of my choice, I picked Roxie since it was my favorite dance from the show. This dance included many elements of jazz and the choreography was done by Sophia Warren. The tempo of this dance was fast and dancers were dancing together as unison. A few of the movements that were used were pirouette turns, chasses, leaping, arching and many more. There were all kinds of levels in this dance, mostly consisting of medium and high. The focus of this dance was mostly direct to the audience. The energy was the strongest feature in this dance. All the dancers were super strong and sharp. Initially, the facial expression used in this dance was flirty, sassy and happy. The relationship between the dancers was near and around each other.

Also, some moves dancers were using for traveling were skipping, turning and sliding. Unleashed dance team used black sticks, that gave the old, sassy 90’s vibe, which also glowed on stage. Then, for costumes, they used a bright red overall that was short with jazz shoes. The lighting for this dance played a big role. In the beginning, there was a single spotlight, then it changed super fast to a dark purple, with red, blue, green and yellow flashing from the top and side of the stage. Furthermore, in the part where all 8 dancers went in front of the stage to do their solo part, the lights turned to a single spotlight for each of the dancers, which brought the attention to the movements and dancers.

The dances strike a pose, Improv and Roxie were all amazing dances and there were few things that all the dances had in common. Starting with the song beat, all 3 dances had the same rhythm of music and beat. Then, movement of the body in which they all used a few moves from contemporary or jazz. Lastly, energy for all dances was the same amount because, with music, dancers need to have lots of energy to make the dance look interesting for the audience. Some things I can apply from the Fall Dance concert to be successful in the Spring Dance concert is energy, self-expression, and confidence. I believe that I lack in all of these 3 most important elements of dance, so from watching Unleashed and Dance 3 perform, I can tell on what fields I need to work more to be successful in Spring dance concert and the future.