Scribd
Upload
63 views5 pages

Julian Malone Ballet II/Maggie Pelton Vanderbilt Dance Company: April 7, 2016 April 19, 2016

The document summarizes a dance critique written by Julian Malone about the Vanderbilt Dance Company's Spring Concert on April 7, 2016. The concert featured a variety of contemporary dance styles telling stories and conveying moods. Three performances stood out for effectively using dance to tell a story: "All That You Touch", "Wild", and "For You". Two performances were less successful: "...The Heart is an Organ of Fire" and "Change: A Study in Sound". Overall, the concert effectively explored themes of the body, mind, and soul in creating change through different dance genres and styles.

Uploaded by

JulianMalone
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
63 views5 pages

Julian Malone Ballet II/Maggie Pelton Vanderbilt Dance Company: April 7, 2016 April 19, 2016

The document summarizes a dance critique written by Julian Malone about the Vanderbilt Dance Company's Spring Concert on April 7, 2016. The concert featured a variety of contemporary dance styles telling stories and conveying moods. Three performances stood out for effectively using dance to tell a story: "All That You Touch", "Wild", and "For You". Two performances were less successful: "...The Heart is an Organ of Fire" and "Change: A Study in Sound". Overall, the concert effectively explored themes of the body, mind, and soul in creating change through different dance genres and styles.

Uploaded by

JulianMalone
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Julian Malone

Ballet II/Maggie Pelton


Vanderbilt Dance Company: April 7, 2016
April 19, 2016

I went to see the Vanderbilt Dance Companys Spring Concert to write a dance
critique and it offered a variety of performances with different styles, giving me a lot of
information to discuss. Overall, the majority of the performances were of the
contemporary variety, sampling from ballet and jazz to tell a story or convey a mood.
There are a few performances that stuck out to me as being really great demonstrations of
telling a story through dance. In particular, All That You Touch, Wild, and For You
stuck out in this way for me. In terms of what didnt work in the best possible way, I
would have to say The Heart is an Organ of Fire and Change: A Study in Sound
were two of them. This concert took place in a theater that worked perfectly for the
dances. There was plenty of room for the dancers to jump, roll, and fill the stage as much
as they needed to. When the tappers came on to dance, they brought different flooring
with them that was easy enough to put down and take away. I understood the flow of the
theme with the different dances in theory, but I do think there was a difference in level of
execution.
There were many choreographers that had work included in this concert, but Im
sure that they had a meeting to discuss the theme of the concert in order to have a
cohesive plan. From what I saw, I believe that this concerts message, Creating Change,
was all about exploration of the body, mind, and soul. Some of the dances, like All That
You Touch, were physically about testing the limits of the body and making new shapes
and motions with another person. Others, like The Heart is an Organ of Fire, were
about the mind and how it works, while Wild was an example of releasing the spirit
that lies in all of us. All of these pieces were different styles, and spoke to different

people, but they all had the super objective of creating change. In terms of costumes,
lights, and set pieces, I didnt really see a correlation between the elements and the
message of the dances, but I do see how they were aids to the dancers, with the exception
of The Heart is an Organ of Fire, where the dancers got caught on their costume
throughout the dance, especially a long, flowing shawl that the main four dancers used.
This shawl that was supposed to maybe represent the girl taking a grip on her life that he
others had so clearly, was, once again, great in theory, but either the dancers werent as
aware as they shouldve been, or the shawl was just too big.
The dancers varied in level of acting skills, with a few truly sticking out as telling
the story. I think this was due to the choreographer clearly conveying their message to the
dancers and through the dance, connecting the movement to the message as best as
possible. There was a very strong message to be told in the piece For You, which
magnified the need for the African-American community to lift itself higher and unite to
achieve equality, which was also shown through the movement. Maybe its because Im
black, but I received the message loud and clear, and knowing what the choreographer
wanted the audience to know, I was able to watch the dance with a better lens. Even
though there were a few things technically, like toes fully extending and lifts soaring, that
I was able to point out as not the best, I still enjoyed this dance. Similarly, All That You
Touch and Wild both had messages that the choreographer told the dancers, but
instead of fully putting a story on the dance, they used the technical abilities of the
dancers to convey a mood or a thought instead and story plot. I noticed more that the title
make me think in All That You Touch, and the dancers demonstrated a thought of
creating these new shapes with a partner and flowing through different body parts, in

many ways, including counterbalancing each other, which I truly enjoyed watching. In
Wild the girls went wild, literally, letting their jumps explode and their kicks whack as
high as they could, in the best way. You could see in the girls faces that they were having
fun, and their costumes also reflected the title, simple black leotards with puffy, colorful
lace bursting from the backs and matching headbands of color. The technique of these
jazz dancers was very competition, but very strong, as they showed off their tricks to let
loose.
There were many pieces of different genres in this dance concert, and some were
better than others. The pieces I discussed, All That You Touch, Wild, and For You,
were very successful in telling their story or message while also dancing and ultimately
creating art. If I had to pick out pieces that werent successful, Id say that The Heart
is an Organ of Fire and Change: A Study in Sound were the two that came to mind. I
think that there was a disconnection in the dancers faces in the ballet piece, where you
could see the dancers thinking about the choreography instead of what the dance meant.
There were some brain slips that seemed to happen, but already lost in what the story
should be, the errors were much easier to pick out because the dancers showed panic
immediately. The tap piece just seemed a little too comfortable to be on stage, making it
seem more like we were sitting in on a tap class. The idea is fun, but it didnt really match
the polish of the rest of the concert. Also, there were a lot of sounds that didnt happen, at
least from looking at their feet and the expressions of embarrassment covered up by
giggling. Overall, however, this was a very interesting concert to see and I paid attention
closely to the technical part more than I wouldve a year ago. I looked closely at the feet
and the extensions of the dancers, picking up on the terminology that Ive learned from

being in ballet. Also, Im sorry, I only saw the first act of this concert because I had to
film a dance reel for a senior so blame Neal Buckley if I didnt talk about the second half!

You might also like