Misunderstood: The Dogwood Dance Project

Misunderstood I often pride myself in my ability to leave a dance performance with some type of narrative, story, or understanding from the pieces, even if it wasn’t what the choreographer(s) intended. However, with seven pieces within the Dogwood Dance Project I was unable to grasp anything; I stepped out of the theater blank. One piece in particular stood out as a piece that maybe should have an obvious theme: consent to receive: a thing offered. This piece seemed to have a story, but was written in a language I could not comprehend.

Firstly, Consent to receive: a thing offered had its premier with the Dogwood Dance Project. The piece utilized three sections with three different tracks, just as a book. I was began with all of the dancer

As the dancers changed, props were placed downstage right: a rack with a silver gown, a pair of nude pumps, and a small brown desk. Beginning part three a female came onto the stage and sat down at the desk, she began to get ready to go out. On the other side of the stage the four dancers were also primping themselves, they would flatten out their clothes or fix their hair. The music, I’ll be Seeing You, was slow and was talking about meeting up with a loved-one. The dancers shouted out to an imaginary person across the way. In a cacophony the dancers would shout phrases similar to “Hey! It’s me!” and waving for their target to come over. The rest of the piece continued as very light movements that did not interact with the other dancers. At one point all of the dancers fall to the floor with a thud. Again the style of the dance changed, now it was very floaty and upbeat. At the end of the piece the female at the desk arose, put on her dress and held up a red balloon. As the music finished the dancers stilled and the girl released the

During I have three out of the four dancers surrounded a single girl. The female in the middle was pushed slightly from dancer to dancer. Phrases such as “its o.k.” and “you’ll” be alright” were said to the middle dancer with each pass. As I put more thought into this I connected it with part one. The story-line became went from ‘happy couples who have one-another’ to ‘dying without your loved one’. One of the most interesting points in I have came with the lifting of the female dancer. This lift symbolized how your friends lift you up when you’re down, but then the falling into the blue light symbolizes that sometimes it’s not enough and we die anyway. By the end of the piece it makes sense that the dancers change into all black. As per tradition, black is worn at funerals to show an attendee’s mournful feelings towards the loss of their loved one, this was the case in the