By snoadmin
The Cal State Long Beach dance department welcomed a full house at the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theatre last weekend.
The group performed the 2011 Contemporary Dance Concert, choreographed by returning undergraduate students. One of the department’s standout concerts, it set the bar extremely high for future performances.
While each of the 11 performances excelled in choreography and performance quality, there were three outstanding works that were highly commended for the uniqueness that they brought to the stage.
“The Blame Game,” choreographed by Yu Kondo, captivated the audience with Kondo’s unique ability to create a humorous piece, through the dancer’s characterization, when it is actually based on a rather serious concept. The moment the musical score began, the audience fell silent in fascination, as it was appreciatively playful in comparison to the music choice of other choreographers. It immediately delivered its concept, but with this exceptional twist of humour that matched beautifully with the Mandragora Tango Orchestra’s score.
Portraying the psychological games that can occur with personal relationships, when the emotion of love is associated with the desire to control another individual, Kondo managed to fantastically combine humoured choreography with creative prop use, a well-delivered storyline and perfection in performance quality. This combination created an artwork so enthralling that when finished, it left a desire so incredibly strong to view the performance again and again in order to completely appreciate all the effort and talent required in creating such a piece.
“Gorgeous Girl,” choreographed by Kyle Hadenfeldt, was initially inspired by the memoirs of David Scheff’s book “Beautiful Boy,” and explored the relationship between three young women and the difficulties in responding to a loved one with self-destructive tendencies.
Hadenfeldt emphasized this concept through his interesting use of lighting. With this lighting, as well as the utilization of levels, it was clear which of the three dancers was conveyed to be the self-destructive one. Whenever the hidden figure appeared onstage to swirl the mesmerizing lights, it signified the weaker stage of the self-destructive dancer. Then, when the figure left the stage and the lights disappeared, while higher levels were used within the choreography, it signified the stronger stage of the dancer’s life.
The most mesmerizing sequence of the performance was when the central dancer signified that she wanted to fly and overcome her self-harm tendencies. Together, the three dancers created wings with their arms, lifting the central dancer up into the air, with hopes she would become strong again. From there, right until the end, it was noticeable that within the audience, no writer could put pen to paper as they were so captured by the outcome of the central character.
A pattern seemed to arise with the use of silence, particularly at the beginning of many choreographers’ works, presumably to capture the audience’s attention before performances began. However, Joey Navarrete’s “Cry Baby…Cry” took silence a complete step further, whereby it became the concept of his entire performance.
“Cry Baby…Cry” examined the psychological reactions that can emerge when one is enmeshed in the pursuit of idealized life goals. By utilizing silence, along with some cries for help, rather than a musical score, the message that dance needs no melody to depict a story was clearly conveyed.
The simplicity of Navarrete’s costume resonated with the idea that he became naked to the audience — his character was in complete view. Navarette compelled his audience so much that he no longer was just a dancer onstage — but he became his character.
“Soiled Ground,” choreographed and performed by Thaihoa Nguyen, was another piece exceptionally well-performed with a concept and talent so mesmerizing, eyes did not leave Nguyen until the lights were dimmed and the curtains closed.
Inspired by a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, which says “the world is beautiful, but has a disease called man,” Nguyen utilised components of set design (trees), lighting and props, with an alluring melody, to convey how beautiful our surrounding world is, until it is destroyed by mankind.
Besides these four outstanding performances, the fine quality and exceptional talent of both choreographers and dancers of the seven other pieces should certainly not go unmentioned. They equally captured the audience with their ability to convey their concept through either fine-tuned choreography, extraordinary performance quality or both.
“Transit 33,” (Bobby Avalos and Saori Kawashima); “Things In Glass Cases,” (Alyssa Forte); “Plus, Minus,” (Sarah White); “In Place of Words” (Emma Story and her dancers); “Tangents,” (Kate Andrews); “Between Two Thoughts,” (Brittany Ullesdtad); and “Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation,” (Momoko Ishikawa and dancers) all conveyed an excellent concept delivered through the use of dance.
Once the last dancers left the stage, and the lights were lit, it was evident that these talented performers had been extremely well-received, by the lingering of the audience while they stayed seated to reflect, discuss and appreciate the full beauty of what they had just been presented with.
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