Smith College Spring College

(Robert) Masseo Davis April/ 1/ 2008
Smith Dance Concert

Smith College Spring Concert.

Opening night at any concert for a fellow performer is always exiting, for you can feel the nerves flowing from behind the wings. Seated in your seat you quietly listen to your fellow audience members chattering before the shows starts, you reminisce as the murmuring of the audience is as familiar as the orchestra warming up prior to your entrance. It’s nice moment of anticipation awaiting the show to come.
As a solo audience member at Smith Colleges Spring Dance Concert 2008, the experience prior to curtain was as illustrated. The performances program consisted of both student works as well as guest choreographers. Performers in the show ranged from a variety of dancers from almost all of the five-college dance community.
My initially reactions to the show on the whole was that it was surprisingly enjoyable. I usually expect to go to dance concerts on the BFA level to see pretentious choreography that has been over thought or is completely incomprehensible as an attempt to be innovative. Many times artists, and even more often aspiring artists tend to over work their own material and confuse what they perceive to be thought provoking, and even revolutionary with what simply is awkward. This didn’t seem to be the case with Smith College’s performance this evening in early April. The show consisted of some very comedic moments that didn’t even regard the choreography in the program. When the audience was being asked to turn off their cell phones, the request was announced to us over a loud intercom; however the vice requesting that we don’t use flash photography, and to simply be a respectable audience the voice was that of a very young child or a girl who had consumed an entire tank of helium. Thusly the following vibes in the room were pleasant.
Upon looking back on the evening’s proceedings I came to the sad conclusion that on the whole the show was merely a mediocre demonstration of artistry. While returning to my own thoughts of the show I could only genuinely remember 4 of the 7 dances. Well that’s more than half one might say, and this is true however I only enjoyed 2 of those 4 presentations. How could an audience member ever leave a concert of any kind, and feel that the show was even remotely enjoyable when they ultimately only like 2 dances in a performance of 7? I suppose that those two dances where merely memorable to the highest level, it would seem that I as an audience member never left the place that the piece had brought me, regardless of the fact that the program had moved on. I had to in a sense be awakened by another dance of equal or higher impact, which ended up being the evening’s final dance.
“GROW…UP”, choreography by Meleta Buckstaff, was a solo performed by herself. (I actually didn’t realize that until just now as I am writing this response) The moment was an illustration of my favorite kind of dancing, where the attack of the movement was what made the piece enjoyable. Her dance was listed as a solo in the program, but it really was a quartet or perhaps a series of 3 duets with here and 3 balloons. The dance consisted with some tender moment that where at times so sweat that they could only be described with noise (mmmm…).
I watched the rest of the show and have some memories of other dances however it wasn’t until the evenings finally did I truly make the transition form “GROW…UP” to any other piece of choreography. “THILLANA”, choreographed by Rita Lakshimi Iyer was the solo following “GROW...UP” and it was a decent performance however it merely seemed out of place, for two reasons. First of all it was weird to a solo followed by another solo, they may have figured it was an appropriate choice because they were vastly different. “THILLANA”, was a traditional Indian solo and the theme was simply drastically out of place. The dance didn’t fit in the show, as a whole for it was the only traditional and socially acceptable ethic dance in show.
“YELLOW EGG”, choreography by Ariel Gonzalez Cohen was another solo later in the evening and this dance was in this humble critics opinion the kind that he had anticipated in seeing for the duration of the evening. It seemed to enjoy the smell of it’s own farts. The choreography however oddly enough accumulated one of the loudest applause upon its completion. This was more so a statement on the public awareness of the performance and the choreographers prior to seeing the show.

“Ariel Gonzalez Chon ( MFA Smith, Dance, Smith College, 2007) dances in her own works and in the dances she makes with her c0-director Kellie Lynch in their dance company, Slipperyfish Dance. She also freelances in works of others locally, nationally, and internationally. Currently she is a company member of Wire Monkey Dance and is busy creating the next slipperyfish dance show for April 24, 25 and 26 at East St. Theater Hadley, Mass. In addition to performing she teaches dance within the five Colleges and local area schools. She would like to thank her husband Tomas for his love.”
-Program Bio.

The audience’s reaction to Ariel’s choreography was comparable to the publics views on films by famous directors, before even seeing the film they know they will enjoy it. This is in no way a reflection on the choreographer as a person those aspects of the complete situation are irrelevant.
In conclusion, the performance concluded with a ballet titled “IN SPIRIT”, choreographed by Megan Bonneau McCool, This was the first time that I can honestly say that I was not in some sense still involved with “GROW …UP”. The dance was an ensemble dance that was beautiful, very Balanchine inspired, which made sense considering that Megan Bonneau McCool was a dancer with the acclaimed New York City Ballet. The choreography was very mature in amongst student work including “GROW...UP”. Considering that the ballet technique is so set in stone many make the claim/ assumption that when choreographing a ballet it’s really more like arranging as apposed to creating, and even if that were true “IN SPIRIT”, was a dance that was musically aware, visually stimulating/ pleasing, and stood as any good finale should. It was like blowing bubbles and watching them float gently in all their splendor to the to the ground. The piece finished with a rush of girls running off stage and a single girl remaining waving her arm as if to turn of the lights and end the show. The final glimmering bubble concluding the show…Pop…