Dance Performance Review Paper

One, two, one, two… Dancing is all about rhythm and timing. However, dancing is much more than the mechanics; it is an expression of emotion and art. Being able to evoke such strong emotions and feelings by the movements one makes with their body can be a transforming experience. Whether it be slow, fast, simple or complicated, dancing has a way of telling a story; an unspoken story that can make a person reflect on themselves. The performance I went to see was called Poor People’s TV Room. This performance was composed by Okwui Okpokwasili. She worked with three other dancers named, Thuli Dumakude, Katrina Reid, and Nehemoyia Young. All of the performers were from different generations to add the differing perspectives. Okpokwasili was inspired …show more content…
It looked as if there was a table on the right side of the stage, but as soon as the screen turned on, a set was on top of said table. It looked like a living room with a window, a chair, and a TV, but the interesting part was that it wasn’t straight but rather laid flat horizontally. There was a hole that worked as a door for the dancers in the scene. The monitor served as a TV for the audience to see the table from the top, a perspective to see what was going on. On the left side of the theater there were two chairs and a hanging light in the middle. Behind the set were two translucent white screens. Before the Performance began, the dancers were doing very slow …show more content…
Her movements were so slow that I was unaware she was moving until I realized she was in a different place. It was interesting to me because in my mind I pictured a butterfly and how they start off as caterpillars then transform into colorful creatures. The dancers were not wearing any specific costume but rather comfortable casual clothes. Okuwi Okpokwasili was behind the screen dancing with her whole body and topless. You could see only her shadow until she got closer to the screen and more was visible. The other two dancers were walking extremely slow in circles around the chairs on the left of the stage. It was noticeable when the performance was beginning due to the music speeding up as well as the performers and their movements. Thuli Dumakude was sitting in one of the chairs while Nehemoyia Young was doing a shuffling movement with her feet along with Katrina Reid. Okuwi Okpokwasili then joined the other dancers and went to the mini set on the table. Reid joined her and laid down on the chair. From my perspective it looked like she was sitting upright. The next scene was acting and it was a lot of overlapping conversations that made it very difficult to focus and listen to what they were speaking about. When they started dancing again it was slow but strong movements. It was noticeable that they were engaging all their muscles. They were in fighting stances and their