DanceBlast 2005
Friday being so long ago, I'm having trouble remembering exactly what went on during the day. So if it somehow involved you, then I apologize.
The evening was the really important party anyway. Carrie & I joined up with Erin & Heather and went to DanceBlast 2005 at Curtis High School.
DanceBlast
Now, I'm first to say that college left an horrible taste in my mouth when it came to dance. All college dance was pretentious "important" s--t so odious that, had I stepped in it, I would simply throw away my shoes rather than try to scrape it off. It was horrible. Why, then, would I go to a Dance performance, let alone a high-school dance performance?
Simple: Two of my friends choreographed pieces for it.
Here's my review, for what it's worth:
Dance All NightAnd there you have it. Afterwards we dropped the other girls off at their homes and came home ourself.
Senior Choreographer: Justin Cook
Music: Janet Jackson
This was well and competently done, with some nice usage of on-stage flashlights for lighting effects, but overall it wasn't anything better than what you'd see in a hip-hoppish music video. Say, Janet Jackson for example.
Grade: B-
Smooth Criminal
Senior Choreographer: Sarah Doxey
Music: Music Collage
The collage seemed, unfortunately, to be mostly made up of Britney Spears tunes. That isn't bad in itself. But this was by far the sloppiest of the pieces. Nobody seemed to be in tune or even aware of what anybody else was doing. I admire it for trying to tell a story (I think), but actively dislike it for being simply not any good to watch. It needed another six or seven months to polish it. Or better yet, just scratch the whole thing and do something else.
Grade: D+
Dance, Fosse, Dance
Senior Choreographer: Lexi Scamehorn
Music: Soundtrack from Fosse
Bob Fosse, I learned, is the guy who wrote lovely tunes, and whose life "All That Jazz" is based on. Much of the music of this piece revolved around that "Hey Big Spender" song. I very much enjoyed watching this one, as it was done in that wonderful old swingin' style, and had a sense of grandiosity about it, with some wry humor.
Grade: A-
Island of Love
Senior Choreographer: Jacqueline Love
Music: Mekah Brothers, Britney Spears, Celine Dion
This one started out absolutely beautifully, with pretty girls shaking their hips while wearing grass skirts. Traditional hula moves were all over the place, and it was a great joy to watch. Then it devolved into just pretty below-standard music video crap. Ho-hum. But the hula parts were great!
Grade: A for Hula; F for music video crap
Combined Grade: C
Terra Empyrean
Guest Choreographer: Stephanie Kriege
Music: Michael Franti
Great usage of silhouettes, wonderful sense of flowing and power, with dancers often dancing in intricate rounds (one group would do a move, followed by the second group a second or so later) this piece had my single-favorite move of the night: the girls kinda lept forward and ended up on the ground in a sort of half split with one leg out in front and the other bent outward at their side. They then immediately used their hand to propel themselves another couple of feet along the floor. It was a great move that gave a real sense of ebbing and accelerating like water. My favorite piece of the night.
Grade: A
Bug-gouliciouis
Faculty Director & Choreographer: Brenda Rice-Gormly
Music: Exerpts from The Mummy and Fight Club
Where to begin with all the problems? Well, first off, there was this huge scaffolding and this chain-link fence set, and the only time it was ever used was the very beginning (as the dances climbed off of it) and the very end (when they climbed back on). For the rest of the many, many minutes of this piece it loomed giantly in the background, extremely well-lit and just begging, pleading to be used. To no avail. The costumes and choreography were so early-mid 80s gay that it was just painful to look at. There was no flow nor story; it was just a bunch of moves that happened and then it was (thankfully) over. Ugh! I have to stop talking about this one or it'll make me angry.
Grade: F-
32 Flavors
Guest Choreographer: Katie Felesina
Music: Ani DeFranco
This piece was far and away simply the prettiest piece of the bunch. It was light and airy, and it actually featured dancing, for chrissake, as opposed to music-video crap that seemed to dominate the night. Actual ballet moves and stuff like that! Breezy and relaxing, and even with a hint of a story to it, it just left me feeling refreshed afterwards, as if I had had some ice cream. Hey, wait...
Grade: A-
El Tango Othello
Senior Choreographer: Lauren Bishop
Music: Music Collage
This was the Latin piece of the group, and as such it was generally much more fun to watch. It had great energy. Supposedly based on Othello (play, not board game), it actually had somewhat of a story, although it typically got lost in much saucy dancy and skirt ruffling. My only problem with this one was that all these dancers are doing really exciting, sexy stuff, but they all have an extremely bland expression on their faces. It made it harder to get into the emotional mood of the piece.
Grade: B+
Up in the Club
Senior Choreographer: Ciera McQuarter
Music: Music Collage
This was an all-out Hip-Hop dance fest, with the men dressed in too-long basketball jerseys and crooked baseball caps, and the women in jean skirts and all that stuff. The thing that set this one apart from the rest of the music-video crap of the other pieces, though, was the fact that many of the dancers exhibited seemingly honest enthusiasm for what they were doing up there. They actually had facial expressions, and a couple of them had big, goofy, infectious grins as their feet moved.
Grade: C+
