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Change In American Dance

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Props and costumes were also used to tell the story of the dancers. The red and blue may have incorporated gang affiliation. During one of the last scenes, there’s a male dancer wearing a blue shirt and red bandana tied around his leg, zoned out and eating chips. This dancer is eating chips while leaning against a dancer who is face down on the ground with his arms behind his back, presumed dead. This produces a very strong silhouette because it shows what is happening in urban America, that being innocent people losing their lives to gang affiliation, police corruption, and correctional institutions. The hands behind the back of the dancer display the victims’ innocence. This illustrates that the violence is occurring all around them but this dancer seemed to just focus …show more content…

Allan Ulrich states, “These dancers leap, roll and congeal in unison in a way that recalls Paul Taylor (nothing to be ashamed of there) and several of the dancers have studied ballet. The center of the performers’ gravity keeps shifting and the effect keeps you alert.” (2015) Modern dance is performed once Abraham and the other dancer come together at the start of the piece. They preform synchronized jumps to the slow blues music and then the change in movement leads to one dancer arresting the other. This change in music also brings on a change in movement, two dancers walk forward together while lifting their right hands up, followed by a hip hop inspired “pop” movement, from their chests. They then lift both arms to the air in a “hands up” motion before showing their hands empty when by their pockets which I took away that they were proving their innocence once again which they perform in unity. Time after time modern movements show the dancers swaying joyfully together with spins, jumps and big, flowing, whole-bodied movements while the hip hop inspired movements are usually quiet small but convey negative

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