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Studio Dance 2

Mengyue Zhou

Tonight I went to see the studio dance in Krannert Center. It is a brand new type of dance performance I never get in touch with, so I feel it’s very fresh and attractive. The whole performance is divided into eight parts and these eight parts shows their great difference whatever in the style or the meaning of choreography.

I personally divided these eight performances into two parts by my own understanding of them. One type is multinational, which means it uses some tools or technology to make the whole performance become more integrity like two of them focus on the music and personal emotions in the performance. The other type is pure dancing without music or personal emotions.

One example of the first type gave me the deepest feeling about modern dance with team cooperation and emotions’ transition. Its name is Turn to Dust, choreographed by Skylee Trimble. This dance performance was showed by eight people and just in about ten minutes it told all audience a short story about the process dust gather together to become a strong foundation and in the end it must separate, turning into their original look---dust. This performance is the first one to pull all audience out from the previous monotonous and individual dancing performance. From the beginning, all eight dancers showed their strong dancing skills. All female dancers showed their body’s’ limpness as much as possible, a lot of highly difficulty movements like lifting which perfectly finished by two female dancers quite shock audience a lot. Then everybody is this team seems went through a hard part because everybody is different so there must a struggle to stay together. They started to change themselves to cater others and this is the most complicated part I think because from the start I didn't know what they are performing but I heard at this time the music started speed up I realized there must be some turning points happened. All the dancers started to pull each other and at the same time they showed their struggling faces so I deduce this. Finally, all dust stay together happily but in the end its time for them to spate, turning into dust. In the end the strongest piece of the foundation is left standing and the whole performance ended. One last thing I wanted to mention is that the choreographer chose very suitable music for this dance performance. The music is Turn to Dust from Ma Fleur by the Cinematic Orchestra featuring Patrick Wilson. The sharp contrast on the rhythm shocked me a lot and also I didn’t realize the climax of this song give me a lot of happiness. It makes feel very joyful and actually bring the whole performance energy.

The last performance named Micro Love also gives very deep feeling. It choreographed by Ming-Hsuan Szu- tu who is from Taiwan. This is my first time to watch an Asian choreographer’s performance which make me feel very proud because all the time Asian guy are being defined as nerd or geek. Her special choreography told audience although people have different body, have different cultural background and speak different language. They will meet and fall in love with each other, showing their specialty to attract each other. Why I like this performance because I think it told my words which is form the deepest part in my heart. Right now I live in a totally new country and meet a lot of strangers every day, speaking a language which is unfamiliar to me. Just because I experienced a period of similar life, I know the adventures must be very wonderful.

I never thought our university’s studio dance will be so wonderful. It totally changes my view about choreography and creating dancing.

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The Oracle

Mengyue Zhou

  On Tuesday night I went to see The Oracle directed by Meryl Tankard. The first feeling I gained from this performance is this is a dance performance with collaborate programming on its design. This is the first dance performance I can feel its depth. In the past performance I saw in Krannert Center is so hard for me to understand, so before I went to see it I was kind of worried about the whole performance.

  In the first scene, a man draped a big black curtain appeared in the middle of the stage. He acted like he is an oracle and at this time, the music I can hear is very magnificent. The male dancer tightened every muscle in his body, it seems like he tried his best to hide his anger and wait for the appropriate time to explode this anger. In a flash I saw his muscles trembled I don’t know how much feelings he devoted into his performance but I really admired the way of expressing feelings. After the shocking opening, the male dancer started from dancing slowly, just like the dance we did in the class. Stretching the whole body as much as possible, he strained tiptoe and slowly uplift and then put down to the ground and repeated the same actions for a few times. Then he started to use more space to do some spinning movements. His actions were extremely soft but have a kind of intrinsic power to you, which could exhibited from his muscle. He did a lot of stretching actions to exhibit his body shape a lot to let the audience feel the special sexy things from his distinct muscle shape. Throughout the whole performance, I felt the male dancer always danced in a tight circumstance with anger. It seems like he wanted to get rid of some terrible control from someone else who hold the total different view with him. When I saw the performance I didn't know why he tried to get rid of but just have the feeling that he must do. But after that I searched some information later I realized he did show his anger and fear because he acted he is a heretic who went through miserable life, misunderstood by others, persecuted by others or even abandoned by the whole World.

  From this performance I can feel the male dance’s basic skill is striking. From one scene I remember, he was lying on the ground quietly, but suddenly he bounced up just rely on one of his lower arm. Some other dance could not reach that height by just one lower arm. In the whole dance he just in an underwear and well exhibited his body shape. Sometimes I think dancing is the most direct way to express feelings. By the speed of movements and the big or small movements, dancing convey different feelings.

  One last thing I want to talk about is the music. Because I think the music make the whole performance to the highest level. In the beginning, the soundtrack is very overwhelming. The wonderful combination of orchestral music shocked a lot of audience and then the director used light music to lead audience to the whole story. When the story went to the climax that the dancer tried to struggle to free himself, the music became magnificent again. The harmonic combination of music and performance really gave the audience the best enjoyment.

  This performance added technics elements from the video in the beginning which was thought as a fashionable wave in modern art dancing performance. I like the kind of magic combination a lot because it attracts audience and injected brand new blood of traditional dancing performance.

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Art of Bebe Miller

Mengyue Zhou

  This dance A History narrates the story of Miller’s decade-long collaboration with dancers Angie Hauser and Darrell Jones. This dance combined dancer’s movement video music and live spoken word from conversations interviews and writings of the collaborations. During the dance, the most attractive and interesting part for me was the two dancers wear headphones and began repeat the words from the headphones. They designed an art effect that they didn’t speak together but when first person spoke about 2 seconds the other person began to speak. This would cause an echo and when the audience heard, they would feel the whole stage was enlarged and the performance would be more strong and powerful. With technological seams showing, A History teaches us that looking backward and forward are two sides of the same coins. From the beginning the dancer was jumping on the bed with headphone and the men dancer was sleeping on the bed with headphone. The totally different things happened on one bed, this reminds me that may be a lot of things happened past would different because when you stand on the different side you will see the opposite effects of the same thing. Then the two dancers walked out of the video and come to the real stage. During the whole dance a table is the prop they used very often. Sometimes they would dance on the table or under the table, mostly when the men dancer danced on the table it seems like carnival and two dancers both speak a lot and wear a smile face with excitement. At that time the music became faster to coordinate the fast movement of dancers. When the men dancer hide himself under the table, the women dancer seems like she was trying to find him and let her stay away from the hopeless situation. These actions make me deeply understand the meaning of this dance that history is a lot of things happened in the past and maybe these things make people happy and worth to memory and something make people very sad even depressed but the same they were still worth to be remembered.

   From the first, I doubted the aim of this dance because the two dancers were just move their body randomly even they didn’t follow the music and did not express any beauty from their dance. But later I know this duet’s gestural language is marked by unusual and fascinating points of physical contract and long stretches of physical separateness. Sometimes they reinforced their movements and sometimes they showed to the audience a feeling of soft touch. But I was still confused about why they did those strange movements like they were torturing themselves by putting their arms forward but let their legs behind.

   After seeing this dance I have to say I accept a baptism of art and kind of motivated by the way of express story and feeling. The feeling to appreciate a brand new performance makes me so excited and I think I am willing to do that again.

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Appreciating Romeo and Juliet's night

Mengyue Zhou 

“Love is the smoke of a sigh. In the lover's eyes is the purified Mars. Their tears are the aroused waves. It is the maddest wisdom, choking bitterness, as well as the missed honey.” The famous sentence is from novel Romeo and Juliet, describe the view of love from Romeo and embellish love in people’s heart. I went to see the Ballet show with high excitement and this show did not make me disappointment. Tonight’s Ballet show helped me experience pathos with great visual enjoyment and created me a brand new feel about beauty of dance.

Originally I think Ballet show is just a kind of performance which has graceful action in it and would not have the specific contend which attract people a lot. It is just a way for people to appreciate the beauty of it. However, tonight’s show totally changed my view about Ballet. The whole show was divided into two scenes. At the beginning of scene one, relaxed and pleasant feeling is the first thing that dancers passed to me. Around by sumptuous ornament and mild music guests started dancing. Romeo sneaked into the party with mask. Finally, a shiny star was surrounded by several servants. The fiery-red ballet skirt instantly lightened Romeo’ eyes. The gorgeous costume is another feature of this show, which actually help audience to feel the prosperous atmosphere. Juliet broke through former image which is an elegant fair lady but dress the red skirt to show her characteristics. Juliet walked from the high platform to the ground, she also noticed handsome Romeo quickly. Although two dancers were blocked with a lot of other dancers, they still keep their eyes on each other’s bodies. As the party going, at the end Juliet finally can’t depress the strong feeling in her heart, bravely unmask Romeo and instantly fall in love with him. The first Pas de deux started from here, Romeo first wind around Juliet and did not dare to have close movement with her, but Juliet hold Romeo’s hands and put them to her own waist. Beautiful and graceful dancing started from the first encounter. As the music went fast, Romeo and Juliet gradually found their passion; series of lifting action not only make audience dazzled but also lead us to a small climax.

When audience immersed in the beautiful scene, the desperate rake and squabble (Mother Capulet’s nephew) showed up and quickly recognize the stranger Mercutio( Romeo’s friend). He killed Romeo’s friend with filthy way. Romeo was furious and made his mind to revenge for his friend. The men dancer trembled, this is the most natural reaction that normal people usually do. He started winding around his friend and at the same time he griped his sword tightly. He bravely stood out and used his sword stabbing to Mother Capulet’s nephew. Under The Capulets’ eyes, Romeo killed their family and was sent to the prison. The man dancer is like a bird which was kept in the cage, he circled around and stretched out his arms like calling help.

 The second part started from the second meeting of Romeo and Juliet. The second graceful Pas de deux started. First the women dancer expressed happy feeling when she saw Romeo the quickly turn into sadness because she worried Romeo’s situation very much. Romeo dry Juliet’s tears and quickly leave her house with driving of her servant. Juliet’s parent decided let Juliet marry Paris but she would not willing to. She went down on her knees and begged her father not do that but her father was outraged and slapped her face. Juliet sat down on the ground and cried with deep despair. After taking the hypnotic drug, Juliet falls asleep quietly. Romeo came back and found Juliet is dead. He drank up the poison and started dance with girls who prey for Juliet. This is my other confusion, I don’t know why Romeo need to dance with other girls, I thought he should be lie beside Juliet and this would create more sad feeling rather than dancing with preying girls.

After seeing this Ballet show I feel completely shocked by the beauty that dancing convey and totally change my mind about dancing. I always think dancing is just for someone who start to practice from very young age but not for me who never learn dance before. I notice some dancing action is just form the natural reaction of people and beautify them. So I will fill my great passion with this class because it gives me a lot of fun.