FreshDance ends term on high note | The Triangle

FreshDance ends term on high note

This year, Drexel was lucky enough to present the talented freshman dance team, FreshDance. This group of girls has marveled their peers for the second term in a row after their first successful concert, “New Beginnings,” this past winter. To top off such a fantastic term, the girls ended with a bang: the freshman dance show, “Forward Motion.” “Forward Motion,” a series of intricate dances, holds a hidden meaning. With talent and grace, the girls wowed the audience with their technical knowledge, obvious passion for the show and the music within it. Directors Miriam Giguere and Mina Estrada wanted this show to be different by giving each dance its own identity, standing as a challenge to the dancers and bringing the audience to tears. Their performance tells a story and the dancers pose as the storytellers, weaving their journeys through their brilliant chorography and melodic tones.

An offshoot of the Drexel Dance Ensemble created solely for the freshmen dancers, FreshDance premiered its second show "Forward Motion" June 4 and 5.
The show first began with the catchy, upbeat number of “Come Sail Away.” This dance, accompanied by the famous Styx hit “Come Sail Away,” was choreographed so that the dancers emulated the shape of a ship. The intricacy and difficulty behind this piece was very apparent, but the upbeat melody and fun movements made the dance seem effortless to the audience. The next song, contrary to the last, reflected on the feeling of coming back to a lover after you have broken up. The piece “Your Lover is Dead” was partnered by a heart monitor machine and a string of tape representing the heartbeat as the love “dies.”  To bring the mood back up to a high, the group decided to go with the piece “La Mor.” This dance not only exhibited brilliance and hilarity, but it was a true gift to see this dance come into motion. This adorable song acted out couples sitting in a café in Paris. As their love blooms, a balloon in the shape of a heart is raised up, and as their love wanes, the balloon is sadly popped. Yet in the end, the song finishes with a certain sweetness keeping the audience in perfect mood for the following intermission.

 

In the following series of dances the tone was much darker and the difficulty of the dances got much harder. As the audience joined back into the auditorium, four panels were lowered on the back wall of the stage. Each panel was a different color and each had words projected on it, depicting a nonsensical poem. This continued until the four dancers came in donning the color corresponding to the panel in front of which they stood. The words started to move across the panels as each girl began to create her own dance to the music. Even though the poem appeared confusing at first it is actually a poem called “Inner Demons” and makes a lot of sense when the words are put into the correct order.

The next dance was very different than the others. In this dance the girls are directed to appear as if they have been transformed into raindrops. As large streamers depicting water fill the background, the girls slowly become beautiful droplets of water falling from the sky. As they fall around the stage the mix mash of brilliant music comes on the speakers (music by student Max Glogau) bringing even more life to this already beautiful performance. The last dance, “Distorted Reflections,” reflected a very dark theme, which appeared to be about the role of beauty in society. While the message to this dance was not so sweet, it reflected the horrible reality that anorexia exists in our society. It depicted the girls looking into mirrors and then clothing themselves in rags as they slowly and gracefully fall to the floor. Even though this dance was slightly morbid the girls brought beauty and talent to an otherwise gloomy topic.

“Forward Motion,” like most Drexel dance shows, was another triumph for the Drexel Dance Ensemble. These girls worked hard to put on amazing shows all year and “Forward Motion” is another example of their hard work paying off. Drexel students, faculty and fellow peers continue to wait for the end of term dance shows. Once again audiences had the chance to lean back in their seats and watch talent and grace unfold before their eyes as the Drexel dancers told their stories.