Review: Spring Dance Concert improves on previous concerts, demonstrates complexity of emotion

If you missed the Spring Dance Concert of 2018, you missed out on an example of the incredible amount of talent APSU holds within its’ students. What is dance? Perhaps it is another way to express emotion, to make your voice heard, and connect with people of all backgrounds.

Through watching the Sunday Matinee, I was in a whirlwind of girl power, abandonment, rivalry, and seduction. Each dance brought its’ own theme, style, and motivation to several topics. APSU’s dance department is not your average program. These students explore themselves, and their art form by pushing boundaries, and challenging the norm. Being their specialty, it is seen in every performance. Your typical “ballet, jazz, tap, and lyrical” forms that you relate to dance are not always the case, with this department. Using inspiration from those dances, the choreographers twist and mold the movements to be unique, and interesting to the eye. The dances were refreshing, and powerful, to say the least. My favorite? “Kwen”.

From last year’s dance concert, not only did the dancers improve in technique, but in deliverance, too. Although, just like anything, there is always room for improvement. At some points dancers were not in time, or they were a few counts off from each other. With just a little more practice, those minor details can be fixed. None the less, it was played off as if it was on purpose.

When performing, I can feel the dancer’s emotional connection to everything putting on the performance involves. The movements and combinations these students were executing sent chills down my spine, and opened my heart and mind to the stories that were being told. Many of the dances in the program can be connected to what is going on in today’s world, and forces you to experience the issues, and want to listen. These performances are not for the faint of heart. Be prepared to be moved, lifted, and reborn. APSUs’ Dance department did not disappoint.