Monday, November 5, 2012

Blog 19.1 Gala Review (Jenna)


My initial response to the dance event is mixed. I greatly enjoyed the moments of actual performance, but was quickly irritated by some of the managerial conventions of the form. The intervals between dances were inconsistent in length and in lighting, which boggled my mind. Why, after one dance, should we have what seemed to be an interminable intermission in full light (which, I could imagine, might signal the conclusion of the entire event) and after another a incredibly quick one in half light (which might suggest that the two pieces on either end of the break were actually from the same piece.) I suspect that my confusion about the intervals stems from my unfamiliarity with performances of dance. There may be legitimate reasons, probably involving the dancers’ need for rest, for bizarre interval patterns, but I could not understand their logistics.

Additionally, as this was a celebratory program for the 85th anniversary of the dance program, it was understandable that various functionaries had been designated certain speeches before some of the dances. However, their appearance and length of speech was similarly inconsistent and provoked a comparable level of irritation. The presence of the functionaries divided the audience into insiders and outsiders, those who attended the gala for celebratory purposes and those who simply came to view a performance. After the exercise of recognizing the dance alums and current students of dance in the audience, I clearly felt my position in the audience as one of interloper. Even though the audience was of such a significant size that I doubt all of the people gathered there were associated with the dance program, so many of the viewers immediately surrounding my seat stood for recognition when prompted that I felt lost in the sea of expert dance spectators. After that point, their incredibly enthusiastic hoots and applause made me wonder if I had missed something. Was their appreciation, like mine, given for the beauty of choreography and the astounding skill of the performers, or were these dances somehow transcendent in a way I was unequipped to realize? Might these have been merely adequate performances that were overly celebrated by the audience for nostalgic and sentimental purposes, or had I missed the introduction of the next dance star of the western world? While I thoroughly enjoyed all four of the dances performed that evening (Esplanade!!), I left the auditorium questioning my response and therefore did not fill out a survey.

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