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Banchero
1500-001
11/25/16
Saturday the 18th of November I attended Moving Works presented by Salt Lake
Community College dance Company. All in all there were twelve performances, some
by the Salt Lake Community Dance company and others by guest artist. Two
performances stuck out to be, both for their dance and the music. The first is It Could
Banchero, a SLCC adjunct dance faculty, with live music by Scott Knopf (Rhyme Time),
and Gabe Ghent (DJ SkratchMo) of House of Lewis. The second performance that I
found interesting was The First Telephone presented by WoFa Afro-Fusion Dance,
choreographed by Rosie Banchero a SLCC adjunct dance faculty, with live drums
presented by Quinn Reesor, Kaz Speirs, Golden Gibson, Tim Butler, and Dave Herman.
The First Telephone by Rosie Banchero was the last performance of the night, it
started off with five drummers playing a african style rhythm before the dancer took the
stage and moved into position behind drums of their own. The dancers were arranged
on stage in two lines that were staggered so you could see all of the dancers at once
There was a break in the beat just befor the dancers started hopping side to side behind
there drums. Once the performance picked up its tempo the dances started to
incorporate the drum in front of them into their dance routine. The dance seemed to
focus more on the up, or and beat of the music rather than traditionally more european
dance focusing on the down beat. This focus on the upbeat helped emphasize the
african roots of this performance, as many other forms of african music and dance also
focus on it. The dances spent most of their time somewhere behind the drum. There
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was a consistant march that seemed to be happening with the dancers hopping back
and forth from foot to foot. When their hands were not playing the drums they were
emphasizing the beat of the music, bringing them in close to the body before exploding
outwards to the side or above their heads. The performers bodies took a broken shape,
This dance was well executed and focused on the african style of dance and
drum. The dances wore costumes that reminded me of traditional african ceremonial
clothing that I have seen, also the dancers had two drumsticks each and a drum that sat
in front of them The use of the intricate drum work paired with the explosive and up
tempo dance helped immerse the viewer into all that was happening on stage. As a
musician the focus on the upbeat intrigued me because most dance and music focuses
on the down beat. The first style of music I got into was Regge, which is entirely
focused on the up beat, and this performance reminded me a lot of that style. Which
makes sense because they both have african origins. My one critique of the
performance was its length, I wasn't timing it but it seemed to last less time than some
of the others, and it would have been nice if it lasted a bit longer. This piece was a
utilizing a live DJ and lyrics provided by House of Lewis. This was a hip-hop piece with
the dancers wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. The dancers started in multiple lines
on stage. The dancing style utilized mostly parallel feet positions and focused heavily
on isolations of different parts of the body. The dance worked well with the live music
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as the dancers played off of the rapper and the rapper played off of the dancers. About
half way through the performance the dancers formed a circle where they proceeded to
come to the center one by one. During this section the dancer in the middle proceeded
The remaining dancer took the roll of onlookers cheering for the individual dancing in
the middle. The dancers in the middle performed a mix of isolations and break dancing
on the floor. This emphasized spinning on different body parts and striking poses
This performance caught me off guard as I was not expecting for a live DJ and
rapper to take the stage and start to play the crowd. The performance was fast paced
and loud with both the music and the dancers constantly playing off of eachother. It felt
as though the performers were almost inviting you onstage and including the audience
opinion is what dance performances should make you feel like. I thought the break
dance section was interesting, many of the performers did a break dance on the floor,
which is something I haven't seen much of. Overall it was a good performance. If I did
have a criticism it would be that the music was a little bit too loud, Im not sure if that
This concert brought together and showcased many forms and styles of dance
everything from Hip-Hop to tap dance. Its hard to say if there was an overarching
theme however each piece presented told its own story in a way that expressed the
style of the dancers and the choreographer. For those of us with limited dance
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experience it was good to see the many different ways one can express themselves
using dance. But even with limited dance experience, the pieces were presented in a