Dance
show brings fluid movement to stage
By Sonya Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Cal State Long Beach dance department was
“Celebrating Dance” by bringing some of
its best performances back to the stage
on Friday and Saturday night.
Overwhelmingly, the best piece of the night
was professor Susan McLain’s, “In the Company
of Men,” which was chilling, but wonderfully
executed. McLain said that the piece tells
the story of rape through dance. The performance
was inspired by one of her favorite surrealists,
Rene Magritte.
The dance was originally performed in 2000,
and Christie Freeman said Jennifer Felton,
the lead dancer, did a great job.
“It was really surreal to watch someone
else play a role that meant so much to you,”
Freeman said.
The first piece was professor Andrew Vaca’s
“Just a Little ‘ol Thang” that started the
show off on a happy note. Vaca incorporated
jazz and modern dance together set to various
country songs which created an innocent,
playful charm to the fluid movement on stage.
The dancers emitted so much joy.
“I hope you do not have to be a dancer to
enjoy it,” Vaca siad.
Following Vaca’s dance was professor Charles
Moulton’s “Nine Person Precision Ball Passing”
said to be a “masterpiece of post-modern
choreography,” according to the program,
that was first performed in 1987. The dance
was fast-paced ball passing between nine
people on different levels that had a spectacular
interwoven effect.
Nielsen’s “Flood,” first performed by the
Performing Dance Company in 1992, was a
piece inspired by a flood, Nielsen said.
The dance featured 11 dancers that seemed
to enjoy themselves in the process. Along
with the beautiful dancing was the lovely
music by Gioacchino Antonio Rossini titled,
“Semiramide Overture,” that used four pianists
to include all of the notes in the music.
Nielsen said the most important thing was
to enjoy the dance.
“Enjoy not trying to figure it out,” Nielsen
said.
Professor Keith Johnson’s “Blue Horses”
and professor Lauren Dean’s “Breath of Fire”
were both beautiful to watch and both had
a spatial approach.
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