Dance Review
Dance is a form of expressing how one feels through the movement of their body and music. Dancing can be fast or slow-paced, seductive, or mellow. Any form of dancing is usually fun and enjoyable, both to the dancer and the audience. Dancers express their feelings without speaking. They end up communicating a lot to their audience without saying a word. Different dancing types have different techniques. Ballet dancers, for instance, have a great ability to control their bodies while the choreographers enjoy creating something beautiful for the audience. The dancing styles described in this paper are from two performances by two different choreographers. This paper analyzes the performances by George Balanchine’s ballet and Alvin Ailey’s ballet and provides my views on the dances.
George Balanchine’s Ballet
The beginning of the dance is very slow-paced, and dancers have minimal body movements. It opens with the dancers on a motionless position and right hands raised in the air. The background music is also slow-paced. The dancers then start moving their bodies, first moving their arm only, before engaging their other arm and finally their body and feet. The initial movements are minimal and stiff, and this made me doubt whether the dance was going to pick up speed and enthusiasm. But to my surprise, the speed of the music suddenly fastened, and the slow and stiff movements turned to graceful movements on the stage. The dance was so enjoyable because although the dancers used limited physicality in their body movements, their dancing was astounding and way beyond limited.
The dancers used the stage more, and they shifted positions all around the stage while keeping their movements beautiful and well synchronized. They all moved to different corners of the stage, and we’re not just stuck in the middle of the stage, utilizing every inch of the space to make the performance spectacular to watch. While the body movements of the dancers were physically limited, they still exhibited great flexibility on the dancers. Their ability to lift their legs in different angles was breathtaking to watch. The effortless and smoothness in flexibility was so amazing I almost thought they had no bones. The coordination between their arms and feet was flawless and a piece of art to look at, and the sudden shift of their body movements from slow and stiff to fast-paced and flexible takes the audience by surprise and is surprisingly beautiful to watch.
The dancers seemed to defile the law of gravity with their long slow leaps that made them seem to be floating through the air. While doing these amazing leaps, the dancers kept a perfect balance of their upper body. Only their legs seemed to be moving while they floated in the air with their upper bodies were sill and motionless with their arms beautifully spread out as if they were flying. Their light blue attires made them looked like angels as they elegantly floated through the air with their leaps. The dancers performed some beautiful spins while keeping a perfect balance as they spun around. Even more incredible was their ability to spin with only the toes of their foot touching the ground. I found it spectacular to watch them glide smoothly across the stage as they spun. When they finally had both of their feet planted on the ground, they danced on their toes and moved the feet so rapidly that I could not follow the movements with my eyes.
Although the body movements showed limited physicality, they still exhibited great amounts of strength. Their ability to balance on their toes for long periods without showing any signs of fatigue was extraordinary. The way they curved their bodies, arched, and bent their backs without falling showed an extraordinary amount of strength by the dancers. The moment when the male entered and took the stage with only one of the female dancers was unexpected yet amazing. The ability of the man to lift up the women as if they were light as feathers was remarkable and very entertaining to watch. The two dancers still managed to use the stage will as the glided smoothly across the stage. The two danced seductively with arms interlocked, and bodies joined at different positions. The man added some physicality to the dance by lifting and spinning the women in the air and carrying them on his body in different breathtaking styles.
Alvin Ailey’s Revelations
I enjoyed this dance as it incorporated many different styles of dancing in one performance. The choreography and the costumes used for this performance conveyed a variety of ideas that the choreographer wanted to exhibit. Sometimes the choreography was sad and slow, and then it changes to a happy and upbeat one. This made the performance even more interesting to watch. Although the genre of the dance is a ballet, the dance seemed to be more contemporary than ballet. Although the dance starts slow, it gradually develops into a more paced and physical dance. The body movements at the start, although slow, are fluid and smooth. This makes a start a very entertaining one and leaves me in no doubt for a magnificent performance. There is very limited use of the stage by the dancers, at least for the first two minutes. The rest of the dance is, however, filled with body movements and is physically involving.
The build-up and transition from slow moves to fast-paced moves do not disappoint as this is what I expected from the beginning. However, I still find it awesome how the dancers manage to smoothly transition between different styles and rhythms in the dance without losing the coordination and flow of the dance. The use of the stage is magnificent, with the dancers making circular and curved patterns as they move around the stage. The male dancers perform some moderately high jumps and leaps while the female dancers do some eye-catching spins that I find so entertaining to watch. The dancers show a great amount of flexibility and athleticism in their ability to stretch their feet and bend their bodies at different angles.
My favorite part of the dance is between the male and female dancers. The two show a great amount of skill in dance and acrobats with the moves they perform. The female dancer is the Pointe, while the male dancer lifts her around occasionally and balances her on his body in different yet breathtaking positions. The part where the man lies down and has the woman balance as he lifts her up with his hands is particularly astounding. It shows a great amount of strength in both dancers. Another scene where they show their strength is when the woman balances on the thigh of the man with only one leg while the man squats. This also showed a great amount of skill, flexibility, and strength. The whole performance is generally entertaining. I especially find the shifts in the dance between different genres captivating. The dancers used different levels of space from high to low, lifting each other and lying on the ground. The ability of the dance to shift between different genres and cultures was a piece of art that I found not only fun and entertaining but also quite informative to watch.
Work Cited
George Balanchine’s Serenade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd9R9S6-9E4
Alvin Ailey Revelations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrPJ4kt3a64