Fall Dance Concert Analysis

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The fall dance concert, Rise, was held in the University Theatre at California State University Dominguez Hills. The individuals that helped make this concert come to life are the faculty choreographers: Amy Michelle Allen, Marco Carreon, Sarah Cashmore, Jeff Hendrix, Erin Landry, Doris Ressl Acosta, and Kenneth Walker. They were accompanied by two senior student choreographers, Alanna Neely-Sanchez and Mavra Pedraza.
Rise is a collection of elaborate dances with a similar theme of empowerment. In many of the dances, the characters the dancers portray go through a stage of finding a sense of power and individualism. The dances that highlighted this message were the dances about prominent historical women, the openness of women expressing their …show more content…

The performance sets up the scene with the female dancers dressed as prominent women throughout history such as Rosie the Riveter, Nillie Bly, Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart, and Florence Nightingale. The women take turns in the spotlight, using their movements to tell their story and significance in history. The story of Amelia Earhart was told symbolically through the performer’s actions. The audience are introduced to Earhart’s love of flying and her aspirations to be a renown female pilot through the performer’s imitation as a graceful plane flying across the stage with glee. However, her story takes a dark turn when she embarks on a quest to prove herself as a capable pilot in spite of being a woman. We see her downfall when her character, as a plane, struggles to stay in flight and eventually tumbles and falls, exiting the stage soon after to show her mysterious disappearance during her quest. The performer playing as Earhart succeeded in portraying her story and her downfall. The dancer’s performance as Earhart was followed by another significant performance which was the dance of Mother Teresa, who took the spotlight with her reserved yet expressive dances. During her dance, Mother Teresa made a notable move where she wanders the stage and places a hand on each of the women in a caring way, like a mother would do to her child. This action she performed in her dance …show more content…

“Makina” tells the story of the rebellion against mechanical oppressors. The audience is presented the character, Machine Lord, and his machine soldiers, using the hard work and energy of the slaves to power a contraption. The slaves, finally exhausted by their treatment and poor lifestyle, begin to rebel and fight back against their captors. The two factions prepare for a war, a fight of enslavement and freedom. In the end, the slaves win in their battle against the Machine Lord and his soldiers, and they manage to break the gears and chains of the machine they were trapped in. The movements of the performers portraying the machine characters are seen as stiff and mechanical, which contrasted with the movements of the slaves, whose movements were more expressive and unrestrained. Their performances while different, help strengthen the illustration of the story plot and help bring their characters to

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