Midterm Sharing

The thing that struck me most about the midterm sharing performances was the range of material and stories that people drew from for their piece. I thought that everyone would choose a story from The Ramayana or The Mahabharata, when in reality, only 3 groups did. Most of the pieces were inspired by original stories that each group wrote themselves, and the amount of imagination in the class really impressed me. While everyone may not be a theater major,  it's obvious that everyone has a creative streak!

My favorite piece was the group who told the story of the ancient king who dreamed of dancing nymphs and who, upon waking,  wanted to preserve his dream: thus many types of Indonesian dance were born. The Yue and Cynthia danced with an ethereal grace that would be expected of such mythical beings and the time and effort that went into the rehearsal process was obvious. I was also surprised to see a group use masks; I felt that this choice added another level to Rachel, Tatiana, and Jasmine’s piece and demonstrated their knowledge of the forms of dance drama. It was also a very fun and colorful story which I thoroughly enjoyed. Bruno’s solo impressed me because of his choice of a style of dance that we didn’t really touch on in class. He did a wonderful job with his interpretation of Ravana, and props to Cynthia for just jumping in. Lizzie and Stephanie’s inclusion of the banjar in their piece was also a bold choice that represented the importance of community which we’ve been talking about since day one of class. Abigail and Spence chose to do a Balinese dance drama interpretation of a scene from The Wizard of Oz which I really enjoyed because of the level of character commitment that each of them showed.  Jordan and Rachel and Fatima and Daisy were two other groups who decided to perform an original story that they wrote themselves. However, the style of each was different. Jordan and Rachel chose contemporary music and really focused on the mudras that would create the rasas they wanted for their piece. Fatima and Daisy used the banjar as their music and Fatima narrated the story for us so that we knew what each of them was feeling. Daniela and Tyler told a story from the Ramayana, but used contemporary music.  And Alyssa and Sarah focused on the male and female qualities of dance and the differences of the two.

I think we had a great set of pieces that worked really well together and as a result, we created our own dance showcase. I look forward to seeing what this class does for the final sharing!