Ben Reiner

Dance

Critique
11/18/15
This past weekend I went to go see Orchesis at SUNY Geneseo. I thoroughly
enjoyed the performance as there were many different dance styles and levels of
dance. There were 15 dances overall during the performance. I think though that
some of them were much more technically challenging than others therefore the
ones that were the most challenging looked the most expressive and the most
beautiful. One of these pieces that stood out was Dead in the Water which was
choreographed by Alyssa Bowling and Mckenzie Symons. The dancers in the
number were Brittany Abraham, Abbie Ainslie, Micaela Allen, Alyssa Bowling,
Victoria Chin, Chloe Forsell, Jenna Foti, Hanna Fox, Sophia Garber, Emma Grab,
Sarah Milne, Hannah Palladino, Teagan Plimpton, Mckenzie Symons, Sonia Tifone,
Emily Verhaeg, and Anna West. They used Dead in the Water by Ellie Goulding,
costumes were done by the directors as well.
It started with 5 dancers standing and then one dancer beginning to dance,
she then incorporated the other dancers. Once everyone onstage was dancing more
dancers began rolling on stage. Once almost all of the dancers were out on the
stage another soloist did a dip with the rest of the dancers surrounding and
supporting her. Then all the dancer began moving in unison, until one began doing
different movements from a standing position. Multiple girls then stood up and while
everybody else was still on the ground. Two different sets of choreography were
then happening with small solos throughout. Then as the number progressed two
sets of choreography continued until the very end. Then at the end of the dance

there was only one dancer remained standing while the rest of the dancers were on
the ground as the standing dancer walked slowly off stage.
The piece was modern work, I believe that the directors were really trying to
just paint the picture of people being dragged under by peer pressure. The
costumes were something that I think worked well with the title as well as the
general theme of the piece. They were dark blue on top and then wearing black
shorts to symbolize the water, I think this added a wonderful element to the dance
and made it more realistic. The dance had a clear beginning and end however the
progression was fairly logical. It was hard however to determine when the end was
coming, though after looking back on it made more sense. The dancers did very well
and portrayed the overall message on their faces. The movement ideas were clear
but not always executed the same way which I think added to the performance and
the image of water.
Overall I think everything was very well done in the show and especially this
performance. I think the dances were short enough to maintain interest in each of
them and varied enough so it felt like you hadnt seen it before. This was the first
performance that I felt I could do some of the choreography, which was and
interesting experience for me. I think I would attend another performance like this
or perhaps become involved in an organization like this.