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George Washington University's Danceworks

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This year’s edition of The George Washington University’s “Danceworks” directed by Anthony Gongora was a modern variety act that combined components of dance and theatre throughout several individual performances. Among these individual performance, there were acts that were narrated while others told a story just through dance; there were acts that related to particular circumstance of GW students such as “9:35, 11:10, 12:45, 2:20, 4:10”, others that narrated the life stories of a particular character such as “Belinha,” and others that looked into the deeper meaning of human existence such as “Exuviate.” Even though the individual performances generated some interest among the members of the audience, there was chronological sequence among …show more content…

Even though the lack of an elaborate set design focused the audience’s attention solely on the performers, it also detracted from the performance as it created no connection of the audience with the setting or, at least, with the important themes. The set designers could have created some sort of background that resembled the emotions expressed throughout the various individual acts or could have even contributed with better props that enhanced the audience’s connection to the performances. Despite the dynamic colorful projections, there was little relationship between the lighting design with the entire performance. It attempted to evoke complementing emotions to the dancer’s movements and the music by using a variety of colors and shapes and it was also used to mark the beginning and ending of each act. Nonetheless, the message remained very abstract and hard to grasp, which did not help to enhance the vicarious experience. Given that this was more of a dance performance rather than a theatrical one, there was not a lot of room for character transitions on and off the stage, yet the lighting would have contributed effectively to the performance if it had been more integrated with the characters’ movements and not just projected on a screen as a separate act. Finally, the costume design attempted to create the same effect as the lighting and stage design by using colors and patterns that reflected the emotions of the performance on-stage. The costumes of some performances showed more elaboration, such as in the ones in “Belinha,” while others were less sophisticated and around plain clothes. Nonetheless, as was the case in “9:35, 11:10, 12:45, 2:20, 4:10,” using plain clothes did not necessarily detract from the performance as it created a connection with the setting and important

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