Shall We Dance?

I'm a huge fan of dance, so every time I watch a dance performance, I'm amazed by the talent and enthusiasm of the dancers. World of Dance was just as wonderful as expected.

I was disappointed by the first ballet number because I felt like it did not display the strength, agility, and finesse that ballet requires, but I felt like the other ballet numbers more than made up for the lacking first number.

I didn't really like the contemporary dances because I didn't understand the stories they were trying to tell. What were the chairs for in Barefootin'? Were the performers in All in a Day in a hunter-gatherer society? The contemporary dances just didn't click for me.

I was thoroughly impressed by the international dances. I really enjoyed the first dance because I felt like I knew how much work they had put into it. All the bells and stomping and clicking were perfectly in time, and I know ow hard it is to get a group of people to do the same thing at the same time – I was in marching band, and we had to try to make 150 people step out at the same time – it's almost impossible. So I really commend them on the great job they did staying in time with each other and the amount of stamina they must have had to keep dancing that fast for that long. The second dance was fast and furious – those girls' feet were moving most of the time in a tight little step. The two straight lines make it harder to get the performance visually clean, but they did a fabulous job.

My favorite dances were the ballroom numbers. I thought their costumes, music, and choreography were all fantastic. I thought it was interesting that the ballroom numbers were consistently the most well received by the crowd, while the other types of dances had their ups and downs.

Watching World of Dance made me want to learn to waltz and foxtrot so it's a good thing I finally get the chance in my social dance class this semester!

A Newfound Appreciation

Right after I had walked into the De Jong Concert Hall on Friday night and got settled into my seat, a prayer was said that the dancers would be able to portray the message through their dancing that they intended to portray. Given my lack of background in dance, I’m not sure if I fully understood the message, but I was thoroughly impressed nevertheless! Other than watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV, I had never been exposed to the art of dance. I always thought that it was kind of overrated, and that everyone could get up on a stage and move their feet and arms. I was mistaken.

From the second the International Folk Dance Ensemble took the stage, I was in awe. Their precision and accuracy was dead-on and their form was mesmerizing. I could not believe how well each dancer coordinated with the dancer next to him. Even during the fast paced parts of the song, each arm and leg would rise and fall with the same abrupt movements.

My attention was held throughout the next several songs and after watching a Romanian dance, ballet number, and contemporary piece, I began to realize how much variety there is in dance. There is so much creativity involved. You can dance to a slow, heartfelt piece, or jump around in bright colored costumes to a song by Gladys Knight. You can dance to a song that didn’t originate in our country, or as demonstrates in the Wheelenese Waltz, you can even dance with a scooter!

After viewing all fourteen numbers, I sat in my seat and decided that the money in my budget I have set aside for entertainment very well might be used to attend dance concerts in the future. I am glad that the first dance performance I was able to attend was World of Dance so I could get a feel for the variety of different dance forms there are.