The Connection Between Dance and Revenge – 1/24/2017
How does a dance performance connect to revenge? Seems like a pretty tough question. Let me try to enlighten you.
This past week I had the wonderful chance to help run the Galloway Dance ensemble performance. I couldn’t think of any ways that a dance about social justice would connect to revenge, so I decided to focus on dance as a whole.
Dance is a form of self-expression. A dancer has the ability to convey a whole story, such as The Nutcracker, or single a emotion, such as sadness (Martha Graham). I thought, if you can convey a story about a crazy mouse king and a nutcracker that comes to life, why can’t you portray a story of revenge? What would Shakespeare’s Hamlet look like as a dance? How about Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or a retelling of Medea (now that’s what we should have done for our first semester project)? Of course, costumes and lighting would be a major key. There would definitely have to be some red lights at some point. I could see bold costumes with vibrant colors, which could accentuate the character of the revenger and the conflict between him/her and the revenger or the conflict within. I could see less audacious costumes for the victim, perhaps portraying their weakness against the revenger (unless the victim fights the revenger which would call for more intrepid outfit). It would be cool if the dance portrayed both sides of a revenge story (the revenger’s points of view and the victim’s). It would be even more interesting if they both dances were performed side by side, kind of like my original proposal for first semester project. Overall, I think the real connection between dance and revenge is the ability for a dance to convey emotions or story. I don't think dance would be used to enact revenge (unless one decided to dance while enacted revenge, but that 's a whole other topic of speculation).
This past week I had the wonderful chance to help run the Galloway Dance ensemble performance. I couldn’t think of any ways that a dance about social justice would connect to revenge, so I decided to focus on dance as a whole.
Dance is a form of self-expression. A dancer has the ability to convey a whole story, such as The Nutcracker, or single a emotion, such as sadness (Martha Graham). I thought, if you can convey a story about a crazy mouse king and a nutcracker that comes to life, why can’t you portray a story of revenge? What would Shakespeare’s Hamlet look like as a dance? How about Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or a retelling of Medea (now that’s what we should have done for our first semester project)? Of course, costumes and lighting would be a major key. There would definitely have to be some red lights at some point. I could see bold costumes with vibrant colors, which could accentuate the character of the revenger and the conflict between him/her and the revenger or the conflict within. I could see less audacious costumes for the victim, perhaps portraying their weakness against the revenger (unless the victim fights the revenger which would call for more intrepid outfit). It would be cool if the dance portrayed both sides of a revenge story (the revenger’s points of view and the victim’s). It would be even more interesting if they both dances were performed side by side, kind of like my original proposal for first semester project. Overall, I think the real connection between dance and revenge is the ability for a dance to convey emotions or story. I don't think dance would be used to enact revenge (unless one decided to dance while enacted revenge, but that 's a whole other topic of speculation).