Alex Spears

Banchero
1500-001
11/25/16

Moved by Moving Works

Saturday the 18th of November I attended Moving Works presented by Salt Lake

Community College dance Company. All in all there were twelve performances, some

by the Salt Lake Community Dance company and others by guest artist. Two

performances stuck out to be, both for their dance and the music. The first is It Could

Be, In 20 Years presented by the SLCC Dance Company, choreographed by Rosie

Banchero, a SLCC adjunct dance faculty, with live music by Scott Knopf (Rhyme Time),

and Gabe Ghent (DJ SkratchMo) of House of Lewis. The second performance that I

found interesting was The First Telephone presented by WoFa Afro-Fusion Dance,

choreographed by Rosie Banchero a SLCC adjunct dance faculty, with live drums

presented by Quinn Reesor, Kaz Speirs, Golden Gibson, Tim Butler, and Dave Herman.

The First Telephone by Rosie Banchero was the last performance of the night, it

started off with five drummers playing a african style rhythm before the dancer took the

stage and moved into position behind drums of their own. The dancers were arranged

on stage in two lines that were staggered so you could see all of the dancers at once

There was a break in the beat just befor the dancers started hopping side to side behind

there drums. Once the performance picked up its tempo the dances started to

incorporate the drum in front of them into their dance routine. The dance seemed to

focus more on the up, or and beat of the music rather than traditionally more european

dance focusing on the down beat. This focus on the upbeat helped emphasize the

african roots of this performance, as many other forms of african music and dance also

focus on it. The dances spent most of their time somewhere behind the drum. There
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was a consistant march that seemed to be happening with the dancers hopping back

and forth from foot to foot. When their hands were not playing the drums they were

emphasizing the beat of the music, bringing them in close to the body before exploding

outwards to the side or above their heads. The performers bodies took a broken shape,

hunched over the drum in front of them.

This dance was well executed and focused on the african style of dance and

drum. The dances wore costumes that reminded me of traditional african ceremonial

clothing that I have seen, also the dancers had two drumsticks each and a drum that sat

in front of them The use of the intricate drum work paired with the explosive and up

tempo dance helped immerse the viewer into all that was happening on stage. As a

musician the focus on the upbeat intrigued me because most dance and music focuses

on the down beat. The first style of music I got into was Regge, which is entirely

focused on the up beat, and this performance reminded me a lot of that style. Which

makes sense because they both have african origins. My one critique of the

performance was its length, I wasn't timing it but it seemed to last less time than some

of the others, and it would have been nice if it lasted a bit longer. This piece was a

good closing piece for the show.

It Could Be, IN 20 Years by Rosie Banchero was an unexpected performance,

utilizing a live DJ and lyrics provided by House of Lewis. This was a hip-hop piece with

the dancers wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. The dancers started in multiple lines

on stage. The dancing style utilized mostly parallel feet positions and focused heavily

on isolations of different parts of the body. The dance worked well with the live music
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as the dancers played off of the rapper and the rapper played off of the dancers. About

half way through the performance the dancers formed a circle where they proceeded to

come to the center one by one. During this section the dancer in the middle proceeded

to dance a solo rotein, im assuming it was choreographed by the dancer themselves.

The remaining dancer took the roll of onlookers cheering for the individual dancing in

the middle. The dancers in the middle performed a mix of isolations and break dancing

on the floor. This emphasized spinning on different body parts and striking poses

whether on the ground or standing up.

This performance caught me off guard as I was not expecting for a live DJ and

rapper to take the stage and start to play the crowd. The performance was fast paced

and loud with both the music and the dancers constantly playing off of eachother. It felt

as though the performers were almost inviting you onstage and including the audience

in the performance. It made me feel like I wanted to be up there on stage, which in my

opinion is what dance performances should make you feel like. I thought the break

dance section was interesting, many of the performers did a break dance on the floor,

which is something I haven't seen much of. Overall it was a good performance. If I did

have a criticism it would be that the music was a little bit too loud, Im not sure if that

was just that night or if it was supposed to be that loud.

This concert brought together and showcased many forms and styles of dance

everything from Hip-Hop to tap dance. Its hard to say if there was an overarching

theme however each piece presented told its own story in a way that expressed the

style of the dancers and the choreographer. For those of us with limited dance
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experience it was good to see the many different ways one can express themselves

using dance. But even with limited dance experience, the pieces were presented in a

way that you could relate to and appreciate.