On March 30 and 31, the UTM Dance Ensemble put on a recital called Charisma. This recital was made of 11 different dance pieces, one live solo and two theater improvisations.
The first dance was called “Welcome to America.” This was a military-style dance that changed to hip-hop music, and was an outstanding performance. “Welcome to America” was choreographed by Keinsia Mason, sophomore Criminal Justice major.
“Welcome to America” was followed by “Simplicity.” This dance was choreographed and performed by senior Music major, Ryan Bateman. Bateman performed a beautiful ballet that incorporated both a color guard rifle and flag.
In his artist statement, Bateman said that he titled the piece “Simplicity” because, “I wanted it to be just that. I didn’t want this piece to overwhelm myself or an audience member.”
The next dance took a turn. “Light” started with five performers dressed in all black holding candles. The dancers first lit the candles, then danced in unison.
After the first three songs, there was a theater improv called “Half Life” with three men and one woman onstage. The dancers performed a small show, then one of the men said, “Time: 15 seconds.” After he spoke, they did the show again but in fifteen seconds. This continued until they got to one second of play time.
The same men and woman did another improv after the intermission called “Freeze Tag.” In this improv, two performers started doing regular things in the middle of the stage while the other two stood to the side. After a few seconds of action in the middle of the stage, the two on the side would say “Freeze!” and the two in the middle would have to stop what they are doing and freeze, then they would switch places and doing a different improv.
UTM’s dance teacher Sarah McCormick choreographed three dances: “The Restlessness,” “Existing in Images” and “Finding Chemo.”
The show lasted about two hours and had an intermission half way through.
All of the performances on Thursday, March 30th were visually stunning. If you were not able to make it to either of the shows, you missed out on an amazing recital that had everyone in the audience on the edge of their seats.
