Juliette M.

Cross 4/29/14

Dance Me A Story

It is said that there are many ways one can express one self. They may sing, talk, feel, touch, paint, create. At Salt Lake Community College there is a group that has found there way of expression without the usage of words, but through dance. The Emotion in Motion showcase consisted of 20 students who breathed unsaid words into their dances to paint a picture or tell a story with only their bodies and the music guiding them. The SLCC dance company was able to present a myriad of styles and talent into one showcase.

The beauty of technology today is that it can be put to multiple uses. In this case the SLCC Dance Company used, more than once, the projection of a pre-recorded video behind the dancers. This dance in particular was called Loud Hands Welcome, choreographed by Kristen Aoki and Kelsey Clement. The dance was performed to the song Hands by Alpine. The song itself has a very steady rhythm going throughout the entirety of its duration. It keeps to a 4:4 time and has the down beat right on the 1. The choreographers took the hands part of the song very literally because it was made very clear that the hands were meant to be the main attraction of the dance. Even though all the dancers utilized every part of their bodies, the hands were especially held to spotlight with the focused repetitive movements and isolations. The dancers allowed

their hands to tell the story. There were moments when peoples hands would connect with others and the hands would be the closest relation to the person they were beside. There were also times where hands were used to pull the dancer across the floor. This seemed to symbolize how people must use their own hands to grab and pull their way through life. A movement that was repeated often was when the dancers would slowly extend their arms over their head. However, the move was led by the fingers. The fingers looked to be crawling slowly up to the air. Starting with the little pinky and moving in a wave through the rest of the fingers until the hand and arm has been fully extended. There were slow fluid movements like this, but there were also many sharp snaps of the wrist on the techno beat. The contrast between the two proved to be very dynamic.

There was another dance that utilized the availability of the projector. The dance was called Regrets which was choreographed and danced by Zoe Allred and Braidie Gilbert. They danced to Florence & the Machine.The dance was more than just a collaboration of movement though, it told a story. The stage was set with a couch, a sofa, and a table with flowers on them. The two dancers seemed to be representing wither sisters or friends. It was obvious by the closeness in proximity and familiarity in the dance that these characters they were playing had a backstory that extended beyond the realm of the dance floor. The way the dancers tensed up in their dance and made each movement large showed that their were unsettled emotions amongst the characters to begin with. The girls were able to use the set to their advantage. It was not seen as a hindrance, but rather as a helpful advantage. More than once the girls used

the couch to propel themselves, whether it was to jump from one leg to another or to turn about it. It was also used to roll over. The video playing in the background was of the exact same scene going on onstage. There were a couple moments when the dancing was off, but it cannot be told whether it was the dancers fault or perhaps something gone wrong with the video editing. The reason the dance was called regrets probably had something to do with how the dance ended. Towards the end the dancers on stage stopped dancing and froze in place while the video in the background continued to play on. In the video one of the girls threw the vase of flowers and watched as it shattered in slow motion. This was representative of how people often make life shattering decisions that we may come to regret. The clip then reversed back to when the girls on stage were frozen. Staying frozen on stage can often be just as difficult as dancing because it takes immense concentration to hold a single moment in place while the rest of the world continues to move around in normal pace. The dance then continues on but without the shattering of the vase. This dance made movements that described the characters and their relations to one another. It just showed a different way of telling a story.

There were many memorable dances throughout the night, and all of them had something to tell or give or teach. Dancing isnt just a way of exercising or staying fit, its a way to pass on stories and cultures. The SLCC Dance Company had a whole smorgasbord of dance that told stories in the form of how things work (like the hands dance) or by way of adding a plot line (the one with regrets). All in all, it was an enjoyable and enlightening experience.