Life > November 30, 2006

By Carley Rudiger

Staff writer

The Wake Forest University Dance Company’s Fall Faculty and Guest Artist Concert was a truly incredible performance.

The Company, consisting of 46 gifted students, performed numbers that varied in style including modern dance, ballet, hip-hop and jazz.

The show, under the reins of artistic director and the director of dance, associate professor Nina Marie Lucas, featured the work of notable guest choreographers such as Nina Danilova and Suzee Grilley and university faculty members Fanchon Cordell, Christina Tsoules Soriano, Tina Yarborough Liggins, and Lucas.

The collaboration of these talented dancers and these knowledgeable choreographers generated a performance that was at times awe-inspiring, unconventional and mesmerizing and one that was consistently entertaining and immensely enjoyable to watch.

In my mind, what made this show so great was the variety of different dance styles.

Each number was completely different from the one that preceded it and the one that followed it.

This gave the concert momentum and excitement, as it kept the audience guessing about what type of piece was going to be next.

The first performance of the show was a modern piece choreographed and performed by Tsoules Soriano. Set to words instead of music, the dance asked the question, “Where does a dance begin?” The following piece, entitled “The Trace of a Moving Point”, was also choreographed Tsoules Soriano with input from the cast. In this dance, the group played with lines and shapes which created a very pleasing visual for the audience.

The show also contained two ballet pieces, “Grand Tarantelle” and “The Snow Queen”, excerpts from the full length ballet.

Both of them were extremely well choreographed and beautifully performed.

The mix of fun and liveliness and sad and somberness in these two dances really showed how multi-faceted the art of ballet is and how talented the dancers are.

Sandwiched in between the two ballets was the performance entitled, “Getting’ Krump”, which was one of my favorites of the evening. The energetic, krump-style dancing added a lot of tempo to the show. This excitement carried all the way to the end of the show for the final two pieces.

“Reins”, choreographed by Grilley, was one of the most bizarre and awesome dances I have ever seen.

At the beginning of the number, three dancers emerged, holding onto what appeared to be giant rubber bands.When the fourth dancer entered the stage, the audience realized that the giant rubber bands were actually attached to this dancer.

The movements of the dance were graceful and clever as the dancers manipulated the large strings about the stage, creating interesting motions and surprising moments.

The finale, “Hot, Beatnik, Sexy, Cool” was choreographed by Lucas and was as amazing as its title implies and was the perfect finish to this wonderful show.

To put it simply: the Wake Forest University Dance Company’s Fall Faculty and Guest Artist Concert was good. Really good.

It was an event not to be missed. You still have another chance this year to see this talented troupe. Come spring time, they will perform the Spring Student Choreographed Concert.

Postpone your studying for a night and treat yourself to an evening of artistic delight; you won’t regret it. You will definitely see me there.