Home & + | Search
Featured Categories: Special Focus | Performance Reviews | Previews | DanceSpots | Arts and Education | Press Releases
Join ExploreDance.com's email list | Mission Statement | Copyright notice | The Store | Calendar | User survey | Advertise
Click here to take the ExploreDance.com user survey.
Your anonymous feedback will help us continue to bring you coverage of more dance.
SPOTLIGHT:
CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTIONS
ExploreDance.com (Magazine)
Web
Other Search Options
Robert Abrams
Choreography Connections
Reflections
Latin
Post-Modern
Salsa
Monsoon Cafe
United States
Greater Los Angeles
California
Santa Monica, CA

Reflections on the Expression of Emotion in Post-modern Dance through a Partner Dance Perspective

by Robert Abrams
June 26, 2008
Monsoon Cafe
1212 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-576-9996
While watching the dancers at Monsoon Café Salsa Wednesdays, a thought about post-modern dance struck me. Perhaps part of the reason I am not generally fond of the kind of post-modern dance where the dancers do not have any expressions on their faces is not due just to the lack of emotion. I realized that in partner dance, if your dance partner of the moment is showing no expression, it is not that she is expressing no emotion. Rather, that sort of bored, blank expression is usually a very bad sign. It says "I am being polite by dancing to the end of the song without complaint, but I am bored to tears and have no interest in you." The expressionless forms of performance dance do not go quite this far, but the implication of boredom with the audience as a partner may be enough to turn me off to the work, even when there are other elements to like in the choreography.
Search for articles by
Performance Reviews, Places to Dance, Fashion, Photography, Auditions, Politics, Health