Ballet Dance Critique

Drivas 1
Nick Drivas
Judi Siegfried
Ballet II
April 25, 2016
Dance Critique
The 2017 UCF Dance Concert took place in the performing arts hall of Trinity
Preparatory School. With many students, friends, and family members in attendance, the dance
concert was very well received. The performance was the compilation of many months of
planning, choreographing, and rehearsing that all led up to the two successful performances over
the course of a weekend. The structure for the creation of this dance at concert at UCF stems
from the efforts and assignments held in the Fall semester in the Improvisation/Composition
dance class at UCF. For the final assignment, students are to have individually created,
choreographed, casted, and rehearsed a unique piece that is being evaluated in their final
examination. The piece is performed once for the professor and class and is assessed from there.
It is also treated like an audition of sorts because of these pieces, a certain number with be
selected to also perform in the UCF dance concert as well. This incentive usually serves as a
greater motivation for the Improv/Comp students to work harder and longer on their final
assignment. This paper will look at three of the performed pieces from UCF Dance Concert
specifically.
The first piece that really stuck out carried the theme of body image and body acceptance.
This piece was danced to a recording of a performance of slam poetry that discussed the constant
body shaming of women with unachievable social standards in the world today. The piece
comprised a bared with eight women, all shapes and sizes, dancing together in unison, all in flesh
toned leotards. This piece conveyed its message right away and sustained it throughout. It was a
very successful performance and it was apparent that every person in the audience understood
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the message trying to be conveyed. Along with the help of this slam poem playing, this dance
might be the perfect medium to convey the need for body acceptance. In an art form with the
constant stigma of body perfection, this dance went against the norm and called out the issue
head on. Through dancing, the body is utilized by the dancer and presented to an audience, being
the only tool available to the dancer. This piece understood that and utilized it in order to further
and more successfully make their point understood. The flesh tones of the costuming added a
vulnerability and fragility to the piece; all while the sound, themes, and dancing conveyed great
strength and unity among the performers. This was a topical piece that was very successful in its
goal and was very well received by the audience.
Another piece that was well received was choreographed by junior, Kyle Laing. His piece
had a comical and female empowering linear storyline. It told the story of a husband, frustrated
in his marriage going out to a disco and dancing flirtatiously with all the women there in hopes
of going home with one of them. His wife catches wind of what he is up to and follows him to
the disco. She spots him but doesn't confront him immediately. She groups up with the girls at
the disco, and they are all shocked to learn of his intentions. They group together and plan to take
him down. The girls dance around the husband, and he is more than pleased; suddenly, the wife
emerges and he is shocked. She kicks him to the curb, and she the night empowered with her
new group of girlfriends that don't need to put up with cheating men. This piece added a great
variation to the set list of the dance concert. In a large mix of emotional lyrical and contemporary
pieces, this piece was danced in a 1970s disco style that was really quite refreshing to the
audience. This piece had bright orange costumes that filled the stage and added a nice contrast to
the usual grey and black attire in most of the show. Along with this, Laings piece also
incorporated some comedy into the storyline to make it even more entertaining to the audience.
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Finding humor and comedy in a serious subject like adultery can actually convey the message
even more effectively to a large audience. This proved successful with Laings piece.
While on the topic of comedy, Amber Steward took this in a different direction and to a
new level with her piece surrounding a tribe that sacrifices a tourist to their god to prove their
loyalty. This piece got many laughs from the audience and had very unique tribal choreography
that once again separated itself from all the other set pieces on the set list. With bold and pattered
costumes, the audiences eyes were even further drawn to the performers as they agilely danced
with what seemed to be a great amount of stamina. Featured in the piece, is Mikey Reichert, who
plays the tourist who tries to be one with the tribe and unsuccessfully tries to emulate their
dancing. The tribe is perplexed and intrigued by him. They are very excited by his arrival. The
tourist mistakes this for their acceptance and joins them. He then realize his misperception when
they surround him and close on him. They then lift him above their heads and march him to his
eventual sacrificial death. This piece was performed very well and was one of the most well
received pieces of the night.
With many beautiful and unique pieces in the UCF dance concert year, it was very
impressive seeing all the work and talent amongst all the students of the dance department. Being
fortunate enough to see a great portion of the rehearsal process as well as the final presentations
in Improv/Comp, it was very interesting to see the further growth and added energy of a
performance when done on stage for an audience at the actual dance concert. The three pieces
mentioned all demonstrated the most amount of individual and unique qualities that allowed
them all to stand on their own and not blend with any of the pieces before or after them. All three
of these pieces seemed to stand among the rest, and each had unique elements of their own that
made them important in their own right. One piece was topical and hit a current and important
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issue head on through dance and performance infusing both dance and poetry into the staging.
The second told a full linear story that dealt with a serious marital issue through some lighter and
comedic elements, all while being conveyed through 1970s disco style dance that wasn't seen in
any other piece. The third utilized different and unique cultural choreography styling in order to
create the characters and separate the tribe from the tourist. This piece utilized the most amounts
o comedy from any other piece and was made to be a lot of fun. Though the comedy may have a
lighter side to the sacrificial death in the piece, the stamina and endurance of the dancers was
anything but light. In terms of athleticism, this piece was quite impressive. With all of this in
mind, these are only three pieces of many form UCF dance concert. There were many standouts
and many pieces were loved by the audience. Regardless of this though, what remains most
important is that every single in this dance concert was a great display of the hard work,
dedication, ability, and growth of the very driven and talented students in the UCF dance
department.

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Drivas 1

goal and was very well received by the audience.

received pieces of the night.

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