Timothie Maughan F.A. 1090 12.03.

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A. What have you learned about the arts from participating in this class? Throughout this semester I have truly learned to recognize the why behind how I feel after viewing an art form, whether that be from dance to theatre to listening to music. The arts evoke emotion and I have learned to change my view of judging an art piece as good or bad to really looking deeper and seeing the meaning of what the piece says to me. B. What did you learn about the communicative potential of the arts by viewing a live performance? I learned that there actually is communicative potential in the first place. That everyday behaviors or actions can come alive and be expressed in many different art forms from the movements of the body to the color of lines on a painting. Seeing a live performance is very different from watching something on TV or going to the movies. The art form becomes more personal and the emotion comes alive. One also has to be present when viewing a live performance. There is no DVR or rewinding that can take place, so if you miss something, its gone.

Feeling Grateful through eMotion On Friday November 22, 2013, I attended the Salt Lake Community College Dance Companys fall concert entitled eMotion held in the Grand Theater. These performances were directed by Tess Boone and choreographed by many guest and faculty choreographers, including, Tess Boone, Lorin Hansen, Ro Malaga, Courtney Norris, Ashley Mott Riesen and Erica Womack. As stated in the program, the overall theme of this concert was The emotion we experience as human beings. Since emotions are physical and experienced in the body, it is a perfect theme for movement (Directors Notes). Throughout the concert I was able to reflect on the emotions I experience daily, however, seeing them expressed through the physical movement of the dancers was something extraordinary. While all of the dances were breathtaking and inspiring, I am going to describe and interpret the impressions I received from two of them entitled Waiting for June and Unfinished, choreographed by Erica Womack and Heather McOmbre Wilde. Waiting for June begins in complete darkness, with the dancers sitting on chairs. The music is played by the Balanescu Quartet which is comprised of string instruments and the costuming for the dancers was clothing you would see a student wearing, t-shirts and jeans. The music begins playing and a white spotlight turns on, while a dancer stands up and begins making harsh, rigid movements with her body, keeping her arms and legs fully extended. Her space surrounded her chair as she was moving up and around it, as she sat down, another spotlight turned on to show a male and female facing their backs towards the audience as they intertwined their flowing arm and head movements together. As they finished, another spotlight turned on, this time showcasing three dancers and finally one last spotlight with four dancers who also began by sitting on the chairs. All of the dancers then moved their chairs into a horizontal line on

center stage, the movements of the dancers range from various emotions of sad, to stressed, to calm. There are moments when the dancers are syncopated and moving in the exact same fashion and same timing to suggest conformity. Sad emotions were expressed with the movements of the dancers becoming slower, drooping their heads and appearing to use less energy, this made the movements seem weary and heavy. The emotion of being stressed was shown by the group breaking out from the monotony as they each began using more space, moving at faster, different tempos as well as their facial expressions becoming more worried and rushed. Their arm and leg movements were performed quickly and there was on overall feeling of chaos. Some dancers were standing on chairs reaching their arms up to sky as if asking for help, while others were on the floor suggesting to the audience that they had given up. These bursts of chaos would then be followed by the beat and feel of the music seeming more uplifting as the dancers facial expressions changed from lines of worry to smiles and lighter movements such as jumping. While there were many moments of the dancers seeming to be in their own world, there were also times where the dancers would interact, especially during the times where it seemed more stressful as though to show people helping each other through their hard time. My overall interpretation of this dance was something that I could personally relate to. It conveyed all of the emotions that I have experienced throughout my school career as I wait for June to arrive and school to be finished. When the movements were harsh, quick and chaotic, I felt exactly the same way I do when I am rushing to get my homework, projects and assignments done and when the dancers were moving in conformity with each other I felt as though I was moving from class to class, listening to lecture after lecture. One main movement that grabbed my attention throughout the performance was a three beat pick up and drop movement with the forearm and hands at a 90 degree angle as though to say this is heavy, when will June be here? This dance

also seemed to be longest out of the whole show further illustrating how it seems to take forever for summer to come. The second dance I would like to focus on was entitled, Unfinished. The music was soft instrumental and piano music by Michael Nyman and the costuming was simple, consisting of black capri pants and blue tank tops. The lighting was dim with a hint of blue. There were three dancers in this performance and in the program there is a note in that reads, The concept for this dance is the juxtaposition of both the angst and hope we feel as the result of being unfinished human beings seeking to reach our potential (Program Notes). As I watched this performance I realized I was reliving my own life and often caught myself thinking back to the times in my life where I have felt as though I was on an edge of progressing and becoming better and how hopeful I was and yet how difficult it was to overcome my weaknesses in those moments. The dancers emulated these emotions by their movements, interaction and use of space as well as timing and energy. The dancers start out separate, as if on their own journey and each in different aspects of it. One of the dancers was lower to ground with movements that were made closer to body as though restricted and weighed down, while the others were at moments of soaring and feeling happy as was seen by the length of their body seeming longer and higher. This was done by graceful jumps and leaps with pointed toes and extended hands and fingers. The movements took up more space and were spread out from the middle of the body. Throughout the piece each dancer would appear in different parts of their journey. Towards the middle of the performance the music gave a strong feeling of hardship and sadness by the tempo slowing down and yet becoming more forte. During this time, one of the dancers was facing a particular mountain of trying to get up and then feeling the weight of the task ahead as was shown by the more effort placed for the dancer to physically get up off the ground as well as

strained and tightened muscles, facial expressions and clenched fists. One of the other dancers went over and through some graceful and smooth leaps and turns was able to help the dancer by placing her on her back for a brief moment which helped her move on and progress, symbolizing to me that there are times in our life where we cannot move on without another persons help. This same pattern proceeded to occur throughout the dance each dancer helping another after they were lifted. There have been so many times in my own life where I have felt that burden and strain as was demonstrated by those rigid and tight movements and I have felt I could not move one, and then someone came along and more or less picked me up and helped me see what I could not. To which then I was able to help someone else who was striving to reach their potential. There was an overall ebb and flow to this piece, filled with ups and downs and ending where it had begun, representing to me that us as humans are always unfinished, there are always ups and downs and that is part of life as we try to reach our potential. In conclusion, this experience of attending eMotion was worthwhile and was very relatable. It was also very different from any other dance production I have ever been to because I was caught up in the moment and was truly trying to experience the art of dance by focusing on the why I was feeling a certain way. I believe that because I did this it helped me to better capture and analyze the performances and I was overcome with a sense of gratitude for these choreographers and dancers as they helped to express tender emotions in the form of physical movement. The two dances that I gave descriptions and interpretations of in this paper were Waiting for June and Unfinished which gave feelings of being relatable and understood.