In+the+Mood+Dance+Critique

=In the Mood Dance Critique=

__//Paper for Dance History//__
In the Mood was a very different experience for me overall. I have never gone to an actual musical outside of the ones at my high school, which were few and far between. When I first arrived at the show, I noticed the theatre was filled with people that were older than both of my grandparents. The show began with introducing a jazz band, and I felt doomed. It was only minutes later that I found myself very intrigued by the dance.

The show did a phenomenal job of keeping the crowd involved. The narrator was very humorous, and many of the songs were as well. One specific example was in “Hey Ba Ba Re Bop” – a catchy sing-along performance for the crowd to echo in. It was very interesting how the lighting and costumes had a tendency to set the theme of each dance.

Most of the play had a very jazzy and/or love dance theme to it in general, but the change in the stage often created a new feeling. For instance, during “Juke Box Saturday Night”, the lighting was yellow and the whole dance was very dynamic and playful. Each character was wearing red, but they all had very different costumes, which created separate personalities. This dance (and many others) was followed by a black stage with blue spotlights on the narrator standing at the very front of the stage. Another example of appropriate lighting and costume was evident in “Amor”. This dance had an extremely strong Spanish theme to it. The title “Amor” is Spanish for “love”, which directly links the dance to the theme of the play. The scene of the dance used red lights and the dancers were wearing costumes that reminded me of bullfighters.

Spacing was another element that was crucial to the play. Many dances varied in their use of space; while many dances were spread out, there were a few that stayed compact. “Accentuate the Positive” for example, stayed in a small group for the whole dance. This dance began with a lot of standing tall, and swaying, but eventually broke down into doing interesting display of random arm movements – which really dragged me into the play. One very interesting usage of the space and time elements was in “Chattanooga Choo Choo”. The dance consisted of one person walking/dancing while the others stopped. The spotlight would shine one the one who was by his or herself, while the others remained motionless in the dark background. This was very neat to me, because it created a frozen-in-time feel.

The setting of the play was in the 1940’s, which allowed for a very appropriate jazz them to the dance. The opening dance set the jazz tone for the rest of the show. “Yes Indeed” was a partner dance that embodied the idea of finding a date for a dance. The lighting was a purple color that gave it a very jazzy feel. The dancers were full of energy and did a great job of portraying excitement for the dance they were going to attend. The black outfits and sliding dance styles were an additional support to the jazz feel.

The show consisted of many different dance styles. The most common themes I noticed were the slipping and sliding on stage, and a great deal of partner dances. The styles, however, varied greatly. Some dances, like “Dream”, were very soft and slow, while other dances were more entertaining. “Well, Get it!”, for example, was an extremely playful swing dance routine that had a lot of flips and swings around the body that were very exciting.

Most of the dances had a tendency to tell a story. The best example of this is in “One Girl and Two Boys”. This dance tells the story of a girl who is asked to attend the dance by two different guys. The choreography shows the two men fighting over the girl. At times she dances with the man in the khaki suit, while other times she is dancing with the man in the black tux. In the end, she makes her final decision and keeps the audience very entertained.

In watching the play, I noticed that each scene had a common theme of love. I personally also believe they did a great job of balancing slow dances, solo band performance, and lively dances. I did not care much for the band segments of the performance, but I really enjoyed most of the show. The story at times was boring for me, which made the slow dances hard to endure. However, scenes like “Well, Get t!” and the comedic song “Say That We’re Sweethearts Again”, made it very much worth the time.

Extras Page