Sarah Joy Polante Sy

February 25, 2018

DANCE 3A: Beginning Ballet, McLean
Audience Member

UDC Dance Sites 2018

From February 21- 25, 2018, The University Dance Company from California State
University, Sacramento performed a multiple piece collaborative event with the theme of the
entire event being “community” at the University Theatre in Shasta Hall of California State,
University, Sacramento- a proscenium theatre. For over twelve years, the University Dance
Company has consisted of approximately thirty talented students and alumni who rehearse and
perform works choreographed by the esteemed dance faculty as well as guest choreographers.
With this year’s production and attendance to the last performance on February 25, works such
as Aubri Siebert’s Waiting…, Dr. Lorelei Bayne’s Impact, Dr. Bernard Brown’s Untamed
Tongue, Dr. Linda Goodrich’s Take Me to the River, Professor Osvaldo Ramirez Vidales’ Los
Bailes de las Picotas en Villa San Carlos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, as well as other guest artist
pieces were showcased in an entertaining program for the audience to view.

The entire performance was enthralling as it expanded upon issues of communities today
as well as the joys and anxiety that come with being part of a community. It was incredibly
relevant to today’s views on community as well as touching nostalgic memories of ties between
others such as parenting and family dinners. This showcase was also very insightful for the
audience as it also included projected information that allowed the choreographers and some
performers explain the piece that was performed, allowing the audience to better understand the
movements and expressions that were being evoked from the performers. Overall, the diverse
program utilized the entire space, including in the aisles of the theatre, allowing breaking of the
fourth wall to create an absorbing experience for the audience to soak in the choreographers’
purpose in their pieces.
Questions

1. What are the historical and cultural ties within Los Bailes de las Picotas en Villa San
Carlos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, as performed in UDC Dance Sites 2018?
In Los Bailes de las Picotas en Villa San Carlos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, choreographed by
Osvaldo Ramirez Vidales, the performance incorporates props, costumes, and movements to
highlight the Mexican culture of a community celebration. On stage, the dancers performed
around a pole in the center of the stage, which signify the picota, or pike that was used as a form
of public humiliation originating from Spain. As it traveled to eastern Mexico towards the west,
it changed slightly as a form of center of the town for harvest festivals and celebrations. In their
costuming, it can be shown that the townspeople, the performers, are celebrating in their fiesta
clothes while their movements of constant jumps, spins, and kicks similar to grand battements
representing their communal celebration.
(Words: 125)

2. How does the choreographer incorporate cultural ties and the issue of cultural oppression
within his piece, Untamed Tongues?
In Untamed Tongues, choreographed by Bernard Brown, the cast were to talk in their cultural
language at certain parts of the dance, followed by many, if not all the cast members moving
towards the speaker and silencing the voice. In his sense, the audience gets the feeling of
oppression of not only the person, but what their words represent- their cultural background. The
piece also incorporated contact movement between pairs of dancers such as grabbing and
pulling, at times visually triggering the appearance of fighting or arguing with each other. This
can further be seen as the unwillingness to understand another’s culture, which usually leads to
the oppression of one side. Furthermore, towards the end of the piece, the entire cast for this
piece were looking upwards with their tongue in the air, look as if they wanted to be heard, but in
their cramped and disjointed formation- almost as if they were tripping each other to get further
or closer to a source that would listen, they are not acknowledged, increasing the sense of
subjugation and repression.
(Words: 178)

3. How does Impact, performed in UDC Dance Sites 2018, portray the diversity and
characters of women?
Impact, performed in UDC Dance Sites 2018 and choreographed by Linda Goodrich,
portrayed diversity and of women through different means. In the props, each hanging pair of
shoe represented the different characters, facets, and time periods of females as if showing
multiple walks of life. Another would be the contrasting music in which so did the movement. In
the initial stages of the piece with Michele Obama’s speech, various movements carried the
dancers from the aisles onto the stage at what was at their own pace. Each dancer had their own
movement and timing, which made it seem more individualistic yet still cohesive to the overall
image. Later on, the piece would involve stepping, a movement that involves unity in movement,
a confident attitude, and slight deviations in the approach to the movement while maintaining the
choreography; which by far was a contrasting tone and energy than in the beginning of the piece
brought out by the song change to It’s a Man’s World by James Brown. Partway through the
stepping, the music cut out, emphasizing the impacts of their boots and the claps on their bodies
and hands- solidarity. Laughter was performed by some dancers while others held pained
expressions while dancing. In a way, the contrasting visuals within the movements, overall
expressions, and props as well as the musical changes for the different tones of the piece
provided a clear sense of diversity and unity within the female community with the addition to
the dancer’s created characters.
(Words:249)
Observations

1. The dancers of Take Me to the River showed sensuality and flow.

This piece was memorable in that both males and females had a sense of flow or smoothness
within their movements alike to water gliding and shifting. The dancers had performed
choreography that involved floor work transitioning to back on their feet at an astonishingly
smooth manner and there were rarely any sudden jerks, movements, or stops within their
choreography- save for the small snap in the release of their back. Even their bodies were rolling,
their backs were incredibly limber and their hips were freely able to move, which would add to
the overall tone of the piece. It was later explained that the Afro-Cuban movements were based
on the Yoruba river deity, Oshun, who was also the goddess of fertility and sensuality. It is
understandable now that the movements akin to water and smoothness in the transitions were
incorporated within the piece. In that sense, the piece is viewed like a community celebrating the
deity through their movements, almost wave-like and certainly holding the relaxed sensuality
that comes with the approached to the Afro-Cuban movements, especially through their hips and
backs. (Words:180)

2. The choreography of Waiting allowed individual characters to be formed by the dancers

in order to create a nostalgic moment
This piece began with a sequenced movement that allowed the dancers to travel to their
spots, punctuated with various sounds of exasperation such as sighs and huffs. Already, these
performers exhibit clear characters of adolescent family members through their individual
expressions. It also incorporated scene work in parts of the piece, with sometimes the music
dropping out or like in the beginning, with no music such as their reactions to their supposed
mother character cooking food. The dancers also incorporated prop work within the
choreography, also allowing the characters to play or dance such as in a chair and on or under the
table. The dancers also had chosen to use movements to showcase certain elements of the
nostalgic family dinner such as the reaching in the mixing bowl to taste resulting in a hand slap
from the mother as well as going under the table as well as movements of pushing each other
throughout the piece to represent kicking under the table during dinner. With those combinations
of scene and prop work as well as personal characters formed through movement, it is clear that
the dinner moment they created was memorable and nostalgic. (Words:194)

3. The dancers from Los Bailes de las Picotas en Villa San Carlos, Tamaulipas, Mexico
exhibited immense stamina.
From the beginning to end of the piece, this dance was constantly moving with the upbeat
tempo of the music. Even more interesting was the choreography was also physically intensive
on the dancers as well. The choreography called for almost constant jumping, with alternating
movements of what seemed like grand battements in second position and spinning. This served
as both stationary movements as well as for traveling around the stage. Almost at no point did
this chain of choreography was stopped, saved for the small endings of the segments, followed
by the continuation of the music. The constant jumping and leaps into the grand battements
would already be draining to the dancers; the fact that they stayed upright while launching their
legs up at consistent heights was astonishing enough, especially with their smiles intact. Even
their traveling steps were so vast- though there were four pairs, the cast filled the space with their
choreography and formations, impressing the audience with the tightness and clarity of the
formation while maintain the integrity and consistency of the energetic movements. These
elements brought immense physical demand on the dancers, yet the appearance of ease and
happiness told volumes of how nicely they were able to pull this off through practice and sheer
stamina. (Words:210)