Dance essay

Introduction

At first I assumed that both dances the Shen Wei’s Connect Transfer II an d the Forsythe’s One Flat Thing Reproduced are similar in a way because both have very random moves and whose dances are near the floor but I was wrong. I found out that the two dances represent clearly different choreographic intentions that the artists have. Their difference most definitely is in how much time and energy each of the dances takes. Shen Wei’s connect is graceful and has smooth transitions, and the dancers’ movements are flexible is as if their bodies are made of plastic. Forsythe’s one flat thing the dances are more rigid with acute breaks, and the dances are more of bone-breaking moves. My conclusion is that Shen Wei’s connect represents a politics and specifically a political situation in a country while the Forsythe one flat thing represents some kind of adventure and later some type of baroque machinery but overall how life is dynamic in nature.
Shen Wei’s connect uses the notion of levels, since in many parts the bodies of the dancers are usually on the floor or almost a little bit above it. In almost the whole dance, partners and solo dancers dance and move smoothly and gracefully as if their bones were made of very flexible plastic. there is a point where gloves that have been immersed in ink and as they move their movements are being traced in twirling patterns on the canvas especially the part where a nude woman covered in ink sluggishly moves on the floor leaving a trail behind. Another part is when Shen Wei appears solo moving with an entrancing fluidity. The dancer dipped in dark ink reminds one of dark time’s particularly dark political times and the fluidity of Shen Wei and his dancers represents how people are easily not noticing this and are letting everything go by.
Forsythe’s One Flat Thing Reproduced is much more of a rigid and physical dancing type that is based on the aspect of a bone-breaking type of dance having acute changes in the dancing routine. it is electric involving choreography performed in high speed around an area of tables that are tightly spaced and the movements are well organized running like clockwork. At a certain point the dancers when it came to timing each of their moves they played of each and every one of themselves creating team choreography. another part is where they all used tables for props and executed every part perfectly which in real sense is hard to do since the tables also act as barriers to dancing properly. Well the creeping in of the dancers at the start represents a sense of adventure where they show some eagerness in knowing what is in an area while the systematic dancing represents some kind of machinery since machines are also systematic in a way, but overall it represents the dynamic nature of life and how it changes over time.
The choreographers for both dances strengthened what i believe about their imaginative intentions through the choices that they made. In Shen Wei’s Connect Transfer II the trails of ink went in circles indicating that the problem of political suppression has continued repeatedly for a long time while the lighting sometimes centered on a specific person meaning that people should concentrate on that particular issue. In Forsythe’s One Flat Thing Reproduced, the other dancers influence the next moves of other dancers which confirms that life can be changed by some other things, while the music is really unpredictable and there are no instances of repetition of sounds also making it certain that the theme intended of life being unpredictable and can be changed at any time be right.

Conclusion

After intensely studying both dances , my conclusion is that for me to become an active audience member when I am watching the dance is to prepare myself psychologically that whatever is being done by the dancers is because they are expressing something. For example, Joan Acocella writes that Merce Cunningham repeatedly protested that whatever the human body does is expressive. This I totally agree with Joan since it enabled me to get what the dancers were expressing which is a message and that the audience should stop trying to figure out the context of presentations before they even occur.