Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: Jesse DeFlorio/Greyhound

In dance, it seems you bare something. Perhaps, in dance, common expression is stripped of words to present emotion in precise movement, fathomable grace, or ambiguity brought down to earth with a spin, a pointed toe toward heaven, a trailing skirt. It's nothing I understand, or can rightly pretend to, in the sense that I could tell you about its creation. All I can say is that if you missed the Dance Company's performance this past weekend, you missed a chance to at least enjoy dance at its best.

Thirty dances, two hours, and three sold out shows (or nearly so), Loyola's Dance Company put on another event to be remembered. I carried a notebook and a tape recorder in order to mark down my thoughts as the dancers danced. But in the darkness, I found it difficult to get down anything but one or two word adjectives and phrases, and even those came at an effort - I was too busy watching. Glancing through the notebook, it seems all of the words taken together might do a mediocre job of describing the scene. I wrote: energetic, poppy, uniform grace, beautifully choreographed, Irish dancers talented enough to make my own legs hurt, great with a star, mournful intensity, wilting and flowerlike, personality off the charts, tap dancing rendered new and exciting, a city's worth of passion, and umbrellas, umbrellas, umbrellas. Damn.

Costumes were eye opening, the music chosen kept the ear bent and attentive (I counted three Frou Frou tunes, huge fan), choreography was fresh and newly exciting, and the lighting perfected the numbers as if it was a partner in the dance itself and indespensable to success. The lighting in "Requiem," engaged so well that the images rendered almost out paced the dance.

Let me talk for a moment about personality. I saw the dancers having fun and so I did too. While in the best dances seemed seameless in their movements - every dancer together, understanding exactly what they were saying as one - the individuals also added a certain spice and sauce. Remember the looks that said "Watch this people," the smiles that just made you smile along, the sass of hips and arms that reach so high you're right there with them? I do.

So maybe this is what understanding I gleaned. The production, put together with more originality that any of the dance shows I've seen previously, was the work of so many dedicated to their craft. (In fact, the largest student run club at Loyola, I've heard.) From beautiful to enticing to the tears on the woman's face next to me, we left with something. Congratulations Dance Company, you've impressed once again.

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