DANCE, a way to move an audience.

Link --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oFocY1CUYk

For those that are reading this, please watch the video before reading this post! It’s kind of like a spoiler if you read my post before watching the video. SO WATCH THE VIDEO FIRST!
To briefly summarize about this video, this is a dance competition (Body Rock) that was held in San Diego last July 2009. Common Ground, the crew presented in this video, competed. I also competed but with a different team (Jan’s sister performed with me as well for a fun fact). Common Ground didn’t place, but I believed they should because their performance wowed me.
I chose to write about this because this video portrays the general idea of a man and woman’s relationship during war. So let me break down all the parts for you from the beginning. The beginning starts off with the song, “Taylor Swift- Love story,” and two main characters, one of which I personally know, Chris Bitun (Director). Their set was unique because they came on stage with many of the dancers dressed in army gear and there were females dressed casually as if it was a sunny day. When love story came on I knew instantly that the set was beginning with the women in love with their men in the army gear. They choreographed this very well because the main man and woman interacted often during the piece (By piece I mean just the choreography, not the entire set). It showed that the man and woman had a connection because they held hands and smiled at each other during lag times.
At around 1:00-1:06, you see a lot of confusion, and then you see the main guy meet up with the other soldiers of his. I interpreted this as he and the rest of the army men are preparing to head off into war, and they’re in training, just like Joker in the camp before he went off to the war in Full Metal Jacket (1:44-1:46 helps portray them preparing for war).
2:11-3:11 shows how the women are reacting and feeling when the men went off to prepare for the war. The choreography that was created here by Angela Lin (Director) presented the women as lonely in the beginning. They were lying there alone with their man to help comfort them and as the choreography went on, the ladies start building momentum and started “hitting” their moves more aggressively, kind of showing that they’re frustrated that their significant other isn’t there with them.
3:15-3:20 shows a great representation of how war can be. Even though you’re a soldier and you’re sleeping, you have to be prepared to fight. The few army men lying down and sleeping that were woken up had to run and get their guns ready to prepare for battle.
3:53-4:02 presents the crew getting into battle. 2 of their soldiers were choreographed to be injured before they even got to get their guns to shoot and fight. Notice their transition of clothing here, after the 2 soldiers get shot, many of the soldiers rip open their green shirt to kind of portray that the war is getting messy.
4:28 is where the main guy gets shot. The choreography is believable because of the way he moved his body. The choreography was made to look like he was shot. For example, if he was shot and he moved his left shoulder forward instead backwards like he did, no one would understand unless they were thinking the main guy was shot in the back instead. The heart beats that played immediately after he was shot helped give us concrete evidence that he’s dying. It felt really deep like even my own heart was beating as loud; you would know if you were there with me. The very last song was my favorite part of the whole set because the choreography was sadly heartening. The main woman of the set had just lost her man and she’s desperately trying to find him, but in the end finding out that he was killed in the war. The way the main woman took her man’s piece of shirt and held it close to her heart just made a great connection to how she felt about her man and how she felt about him leaving for the war.
WHAT A GREAT REPRESENTATION THROUGH THE USE OF DANCING!!!!!!!!!! Makes me sick to my stomach just because of the creativity incorporated into this set. It seems really easy but in the end, it’s so hard to come up with a great concept for a performance and make choreography to it.
This is kind of like a movie in the fact that it perfectly organizes a timeline of events. Couples are together, the soldiers have to go to service for the war, the women feel lonely, the soldiers engage in war, some soldiers are killed, soldiers come home relieved that their part in the war is over and those that had losses grieved. How the dancers moved their body to portray the piece of music and move with the concept connects with the audience because it’s believable. Their faces were believable. During the part where they’re in war, it’s hard to believe them if a dancer is smiling while performing right? But I feel like they nailed everything with facials and character. I felt a deep heartache after watching this performance live, not because I was thinking they were going to win (because in my eyes they should’ve deserved first or at least second), but because they moved me in such a way that made me sad.