Blog # 62: Kansas Dance Festival

At the Miller Concert hall on campus at Wichita State there was a Kansas Dance festival taking place on Friday night and Saturday night. I decided to go to the Friday night performance.
After the announcer said a few words the dance festival began to take place. The lights went completely dark and I heard the curtains begin to open. The first performance was called “Forward Momentum” and was performed by Wichita State University. This performance was a great opening for the entire show. It was very lively and put you on the edge of your seat. It all started out that all twelve dancers were sitting in chairs and when the music started they began to move like robots in their chairs. The males and females all wore the exact same outfit of black pants, white button shirt, and a red printed tie. It was a very odd performance and I am sure many people in the audience did not like it, but it gave me a whole new perspective about dance.
The second performance was performed by four dancers from Friends University. This performance was called “Pieces.” They were all four girls that wore very simple black leotards and ballet shoes. This performance was drastically different from the first one. It was very elegant and slow. The performance started out that only one dancer at a time had the spotlight. After all four dancers did their solo the lights were on all of them. This dance was great for people who love ballet; I however was ready for it to be over.
The third performance was named “Theme Slav Varie” and was performed by eight Wichita State University females. It was a lively dance that reminded me of watching girls from Scotland dance. They wore these matching dresses that reminded me of something that Snow White might wear. I personally did not like the costume because it was distracting and looked difficult to dance in, but it did go with the music. My favorite part of the whole dance is when the music would play a certain part, and then play it again in a higher pitch and two girls would dance to the lower tone and then the other 6 girls would repeat it behind them. They did that for several 8 counts and I thought it was very unique.
The forth performance was again performed by Wichita State University and named “triangles.” There were a total of twenty four dancers. This was my absolute favorite performance. Everyone was wearing red and black outfits. The guys had on black slacks and a red silk vest and the girls were basically wearing lingerie with fish net hose. This dance was very seductive and I think the reason why this dance was named “triangles” is because for every guy dancer there were two female dancers. While watching this dance it looked like the two girls were fighting over the guy dancer. This dance was awesome!
During the Intermission a big group of dancers walked up on stage to stretch. I think it was there way of trying to get the audience to quiet down for the next performance. The fifth performance was performed by Wichita State University and the dance was called “barrier.” The girls were wearing blue spandex outfits and the guys were wearing grey sweat pants and shirtless. I personally found the costumes weird. The dance was good but hard to watch. There were so many dancers it was hard to keep your eye on just one.
The very last dance was awesome! It was called “Constant Turbulence” and was performed by Wichita State University. This dance was very seductive and had a red glowing light behind them that made them look like shadows. The dancers really showed an attitude with the way they moved. This dance was a perfect dance to end the show.
I really enjoyed watching this Dance Festival. It was very unique and had many different types of dance. I was glad I went but I was extremely exhausted after sitting there for over 2 hours!