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.