from an arabesque to a baryshnikov

just hammering my thoughts on male dancers in the world of competitive dance. #boysdancetoo

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Holden Maples — Aquatic (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners) 

Competition: The Dance Awards Las Vegas (2018) 

I’ve been wanting to do a review on this dance for a while now because it’s one of those solos that’s so memorable. 

I didn’t really follow Holden’s dancing prior to Aquatic. All I knew about him was that he was the 2016 Junior Male Best Dancer. Even if I knew this, I still never had the impetus to watch his dances. It wasn’t until i) I heard that the news that he (deservingly) made it into the top three for Teen Male Best Dancer ii) his amaaaaaaazing improv at TDA, that I then took it upon myself to watch this dance. 

To say that I was blown away is an understatement. For some reason, I genuinely felt unadulterated bliss from start to finish. -insert soothing ahhhh- It’s this type of dancing that reminds me why I loved watching dance in the first place.

Technical highlights include the control in Holden’s attitude turn into the reverse rond de jambe into a parallel passe, and this very cool turn section (which I, unfortunately, do not know how to accurately describe) when there was like a chassé into a float turn into a fouetté rond de jambe into a coupé and a developpé extension (all while turning, if that makes sense). The control and balance were exquisite. -insert internal screams-

Another technical shoutout to the butterfly and the good air time/ ballon -insert louder internal screams- and the really good recovery after the butterfly, seamlessly transitioning into an attitude into a low arabesque turn, step into four coupeé turns into a very nice leg fan kickesque extension. -insert 100000x internal screams-

Indeed, the choreography itself was stunning. I loved the texture of the dance with nice moments of pauses for emphasis, accents and small movements in between. This was really apparent in his well-executed contemporary work which was infused with some breakdancing (hip-hop? pop? lock?) elements, as well as being accompanied by great musicality, and of course, impeccable technique.

I also absolutely love the music. The dance really complemented the music because Holden is so fluid and moves like... water (hahaha).  

On a minor side note, Holden also has beautiful feet. 

While I’m sad that Holden didn’t win 2018 Teen Male Best Dancer, receiving second runner-up is still an outstanding achievement, especially when going up against very talented dancers. In sum, Aquatic to me was contemporary dancing at its finest. The choreography was unique, refreshing and looked great on a dancer with beautiful technique. And as a minor plus point, it wasn’t a typical leggy contemporary dance.

 I can easily say that Aquatic is my favourite solo, not only from Holden but also the whole of 2018. After watching this dance, Holden has also become one of my favourite dancers (if not my favourite full-stop), and it’s always such a pleasure watching him move on stage.  

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Master Ballet Academy — Tribe (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners) 

Competition: JUMP Phoenix 

I once read a YouTube comment that Master Ballet Academy apparently stretches their dancer(s)’ feet to the point of breaking them (yuckkkkk). How much of this is true, I don’t know. But one thing for sure is that the school produces some very fine dancers because of their focus on ballet. Take Sophia Lucia, for example. 

However I’m not entirely familiar with MBA’s male dancers. This is probably because I have a bad habit of skipping videos of companies/dancers I don’t know well. Tribe is definitely a good introduction to the school’s male dancers since it’s an all-male group number! 

It’s been a while since I’ve watched all-male dances. They are somewhat a novelty, at least to me. Firstly, they are very very very rare. Secondly, a group of boys dancing together has a certain unique charm— it’s a contagious combination of masculinity, athleticism, and charisma that hypes up the crowd. (Of course, there’s also the superficial aspect of it that excites the predominantly female spectators as well, but it’s not a can of worms I’ll open now). 

I think Tribe certainly embodied this. It wasn’t your typical soft or leggy contemporary piece but a hard-hitting, athletic and challenging dance that accentuated the male physique. The boys all looked like they were fully committed to the dance — their facial expressions and performance actually gave me life. 

A technical shoutout to the boy at the end (stage left) at one point in time when they were in a single file who did an amaaaazing tour. The butterfly and the développé kick on the floor were really good too because they were in sync and technically outstanding! 

I also appreciate the choreography actually being contemporary and not contemporary-infused-with-a-lot-of-lyrical-and/or-jazz-but-still-called-contemporary. 

One of my other pet peeves is dances being named something abstract/fancy, but otherwise have nothing to do with that name. Tribe’s choreography actually made sense and mimicked the feel of tribal dances to the tee. 

I also liked how there were sections where the dancers did everything together, weaved with moments when they had their own unique movements that still looked coherent as a whole— I think this brought a lot of meaning to the name of the dance. 

While I loved this dance however, I think I can see why it didn’t place. All these flaws just needed a bit of fine tuning, but they probably costed hefty points since JUMP is such a harsh competition. 

Firstly, the spacing was a bit off at times. I think this was mainly because there was a lot of travelling as a group. For example, there was a section where everyone did a double-stag jump, THEN chaine turns INTO an en dedan pirouette, and THEN a sissonne AND roll on the floor. Everyone travels slightly differently, even if a dancer has good spatial awareness, and as such, the formation was loosened. It’s such a shame because in terms of technique and difficulty this particular section would’ve scored so well if it was executed perfectly. 

Upon a closer look, there were one or two extremely minute timing issues as well, such as the bobbing of the arms or the legwork— some were doing it at different times, or a bit differently. It was unfortunately very obvious in the fouetté attitude leaps, even though some of them were just late by a strand of hair. It wasn’t a grave mistake, but for me, moments like these, where timing was only a bit off, slightly impacted the overall aesthetic of the dance because it was not as tight or clean as it could’ve been.

I’m a bit iffy about the costumes as well. It was okay but not the best. On one hand, I thought they could’ve painted some symbols or tattoos on their bodies to evoke the tribe essence more. 

On the other hand however, I understand that this might’ve been time-consuming to put on and take off as some these boys may have needed to compete in other numbers as well. Painting symbols and tattoos maaaay also have been viewed as cultural appropriation and consequently might have gotten a lot of backlash from the audience/judges. It would’ve also been egregious if symbols and tattoos of great cultural significance were misappropriated.

On a minor note, I was actually worried that the pants were gonna drop though because they looked so loose haha. When the dance ended with no wardrobe malfunction I was so relieved. 

Overall though, Tribe has left a very lasting impression in terms of the calibre of MBA. I’m definitely looking forward to the school’s dances, especially their male dancers! 

The review of the actual dance ends here haha, but to digress a little, and a bit of a fun (or not so fun) fact, I’ve heard that male dancers in general score extra points just for being male (Abby Lee from Dance Moms calls this penis points). Put a group of boys together and they are on their way to dominate a dance competition. Apparently this is because judges want to encourage these male dancers in a female-dominant art, though I’m not entirely sure if this is true. I’d like to think that the technical execution still needs to be on point, otherwise it’s a massive disservice to other dancers with exquisite technique. 

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Chase Peterson — Mysterium (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners) 

Competition: Radix Rochester

Improv has always been an interesting component of dance competitions. Some improv are completely thought of on the spot, some may incorporate combos done in class or past choreography, while others learn a few counts of choreography backstage and come up with the rest while performing. 

An improv dance is somewhat only ever performed “once” in the sense that, even if the dancer watches a video of what they have thrown together on stage and relearn the choreography, it can be difficult to mimic what they’ve done in terms of emotions exuded or the “vibe”.

Improv then can really go either way. Some improv dances look very shaky and not well executed, while others genuinely look like they were choreographed from start to end. As such, emotions are running high when I watch an improv dance because I never know what a dancer will do onstage. It can be exciting, erratic, bizarre, weird, avant-garde (hahaha), or simply, a hot hot hot mess. 

For an improv solo I was pleasantly surprised by Chase’s performance. Chase has such beautiful legs and feet, and his lines are impeccably clean in his dances. Highlights in Mysterium include the leg hold and the illusion into a handstand down into a straddle split roundabout. -insert internal screams-

Technically, Chase’s transitions were very well-executed, especially in and out of his phenomenal floor work, and so the entire dance felt very seamless and didn’t look so improv-y.  

I would also imagine that if one were to do improv, a dancer would be pretty frazzled up thinking what to do next. However Chase looked cool like a cucumber and his emotional execution was superb. The way he moved and his emotions both complemented the eerie and choir/churchy/gospel-esque music very well. 

A very small shoutout to the costume as well- really liked the felt top and the grey tones, especially against the red lights/background of the stage. It also felt reminiscent of Nick Daniel’s costume when he competed his solo Crossing Over for Senior Male Best Dancer at The Dance Awards Orlando 2016. Come to think of it, the flexibility required for both routines was also insane.

I concede that at times this very much looked like the typical leggy contemporary solo. If I had to further nitpick something, it’s the fact that Chase did two illusions in one dance (not a very big deal, but still). But this is an improv dance after all, and for that I absolutely enjoyed this dance. Chase certainly capitalised on his legs and feet, and his technique certainly shone through and through. 

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Carter Williams — Nerve Leak (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners) 

Competition: 24 Seven Provo

I briefly talked about the (exasperating) simplicity of male competitive dance costumes in my review of Findlay McConnell’s Side Show. Just when I thought I’ve seen it all...

I admittedly haven’t been following Carter’s dance competition career very closely, and the most I know about him is that he won Junior Male Best Dancer 2014. 

As vain as it sounds, the reason why I clicked on the video was because of his straight-out weird costume. But I don’t regret watching this solo because it was really intriguing, artistic, and overall, well-executed. 

One of the highlights of this solo is Carter’s musicality. His movements complemented the subtleties of the music perfectly. It was so intricate that executing these moves milliseconds later just wouldn’t have given the same feel. 

Because I’m such a big fan of turns, one of the many moments that Carter’s musicality shone through was when he did a fouetté turn into four or five coupé turns exactly in time with the beats of the music, finishing it all off with a nice and well-controlled toe roll down. -insert internal screams-

Talking about turns, another turn that I really liked was his fouetté into the tilt leg hold turn. -insert internal screams again-

I think turns get a bad rep because it’s viewed as being an overused trick. Even so, the tricks in Nerve Leak were pleasantly moderate in amount and peppered throughout the solo. Tricks or not, what was showcased was Carter’s exquisite artistry. I really liked how his emotions were weaved through his whole body rather than just having a stern, plastered face. 

A bit of a short review but on a final note, the costume really grew on me after watching the whole dance. I looooved the music as well. They were just perfect choices given the theme/name of this solo. 

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Brady Farrar — Untitled (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners) 

Competition: NUVO Orlando (Closing Show) 

I’ve always been a fan of Brady’s dancing. He does really amazing contemporary work, with titles like Junior Male Best Dancer 2017 and Mini Male Best Dancer 2014 under his belt. Over the years I have come to really appreciate Brady’s dancing because his solid ballet technique shines through each time he steps on stage. Needless to say I’m always very keen to watch Brady’s new solos. 

Impeccable technique aside, Brady’s clean lines stood out the most to me in this dance. They were really highlighted in the attitude into the développé tilt penché, the controlled en dedan fan kick (up on a nice, high relevé too), and the beautiful a la seconde turns (yay for turns woo).

For his age Brady’s emotional execution was also extremely mature, especially when coupled with the sombre music. I would imagine that if one were to watch this live, the audience would be completely silent and captivated by Brady’s commanding presence on stage. 

Overall though, this solo wasn’t a very memorable one for me because I didn’t particularly think it was excitingly different (maybe this was choreographed last minute for the closing show). I appreciate how it wasn’t a typical leggy contemporary dance; but my first impression was that at times there was a big disconnect between the dance and the music (which got a bit flat, repetitive and just lacked dynamic really). 

Upon a closer look some of the flexibility tricks also felt a bit forced and looked awkward to transition in and out of. Some minor parts were a bit shaky as well. Like I said, maybe this was a relatively last minute effort (to choreograph and practise) compared to the other solos that Brady has competed for actual titles/ prizes.

Whilst Brady’s technical execution was on point (as always), this dance probably isn’t one that I’d rave on for days. 

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Findlay McConnell — Side Show (2018)

(I do not own this photo and credits go to their respective owners)  Competition: NUVO Orlando (Closing Show)

As part of Break the Floor Productions, NUVO competitions are always exciting to me since some of the reigning 2017 best dancers from the Dance Awards perform at their closing shows. What better way to start the new year than to watch the amazing Findlay McConnell!

I was very impressed by Side Show the very first time I watched it. It started off appearing as though it was the formulaic contortion-leg-extension-filled contemporary solo. I remember yawning internally. 

Glad I was (thoroughly) proven wrong, though.

I thought the second half was pleasantly entertaining, especially with the way Findlay performed it and his facial expressions. The music was perfect. His musicality was exquisite. I was also very happy to see a nice turn combo to switch things up a bit. 

More importantly, the contrast between the first and second half really brought a lot of meaning to this aptly-named dance. So props to the dance god Travis Wall for yet another well-choreographed routine.

Seeing as to how Side Show won Findlay Teen Male Best Dancer 2017, I had exceedingly high expectations of this performance at NUVO Orlando. 

While the only difference that I could see was that Findlay was sporting a mini man bun haha; the effort, vigour and energy never changed one bit. As mentioned before, I really loved the way Findlay performed it and his derpy facial expressions. I just thought he really embodied the character and portrayed the story very well! 

On a side note (hehehe), it was really only the second time around that I really appreciated the costume. Unlike their female counterparts, male dancers usually get rather simple dance costumes, either 1) shirtless with tight-fitting shorts or some sort of long pants, or 2) very bland top and bottom. (A very big generalisation here but 80% accurate in my mind). 

Not that I’m really fussy because it’s the dancing that counts, but it’d be nice to see some elaborate costumes like some of the girls get because they’re beautiful on stage. Anyhow, the costume for Side Show was simple but it was nice in the sense that it really reminded me of a clown (maybe working as a clown as a sideshow to your main act?). Perhaps this was intentional but who knows?