Julia Rowe DANC 221 Critical Analysis Paper- Rough Essays

Julia Rowe DANC 221 Critical Analysis Paper- Rough Draft The Mark Morris Dance Group performed a spectacular concert at Cal Poly ' s Performing Arts Center on May 10, 2016. Mark Morris is a world-famous choreographer of modern and contemporary styles. The choreography for this performance overall lacked athleticism, however, there were other obscure techniques and strategies that took place to keep the audience entertained throughout the entire concert. Although some concepts may have been difficult to interpret, the three pieces of the concert successfully compelled the audience through differentiating themes of body language , humor, and aesthetic appeal. The first piece, called " Words, " seemed to be experimenting with the idea of conveying an emotion or mood without the use of actual words. The live music that accompanied this piece included a violin and piano, with no corresponding lyrics. There were many pair work where dancers would vary o n use of face expression, personal space, and movement to portray types of relationships between dancers. These movements and body languages conveyed many emotions such as happiness, longing, disappointment, and playfulness which were interrupted with a grey sheet. This grey sheet carried by two dancers, moved across the stage to mark the end of a scene and a beginning of another. Even this grey sheet evoked mixed feelings of sadness of a scene ending and an excitement of what will happen in the next. The following piece may have been the audience ' s favorite piece of the concert because the intended humor was well understood by the crowd. The odd lyrics from Ivor Cutler were represented by dancers ' pedestrian-like movements, gestures, and pantomime that visualized the words and sounds in the music. For instance, an incomplete word phrase of " a pain in the " was immediately followed by a women on downstage center focusing the audience ' s attention to h er behind. The audience loved this as well as when the lyrics said " I don't know what love is, I don ' t either, " while a male and female dancer were interacting with each other. Although there were many deeper meanings of the lyrics, the audience seemed to only understand the surface of it, hence the ongoing laughter throughout the piece. " The Grand Duo " was the closing piece of the night, which had an aesthetic appeal and beauty through a unison of shapes and motifs. Unlike the previous two pieces, the fourteen dancers remained on stage while making slight variations on movement phrases. In the beginning, the dancers started with one finger pointing straight above, flickering like a small flame on a candle. Another repeated motif was an L-shape of the arms with a deep pli e . All dancers executed both of these repeated movements with variations on speed, level, and direction, but still seemed to bring a sense of unity. Along with this, the green, p urple, and blue costumes made of a silky material had an effect of illustrating a painted artwork.