As I sat there wearing my Queen concert tour shirt, a part of me wanted to hate the acapella set as soon as the “Bohemian Rhapsody” cover came on.
But overall it was pretty cute. The real insult to Freddie Mercury’s memory was when they only played a mere few seconds of “Somebody to Love.”
Motion! was constructed of 18 short performances that had good variety.
The “Rock of Ages” set could have been great, but the Queen cover was so short and the “Welcome to the Jungle” opening sounded almost quiet.
For a rock-themed set, the music and dancing should have been boosted to an 11, both in volume and energy.
The set could have been twice as long. The audio transitions during the “Rock of Ages” set were not as smooth as the other performances that night, which was unfortunate because it took away from dancer
Arthur Ball’s incredibly emotive, fluid and entertaining performance.
More than half of the performances were original and pleasing.
The most impactful sets were either morose and full of conflict with sorrowful tones or they were the nostalgic upbeat remixes that left the crowd cheering.
“Letting Go” was the third set into the show and I knew it would be my favorite performance of the night, because of its beautiful melancholy tone that stood out from the rest of the performance.
The dancers moved gracefully with recurring conflict as the central dancer, dressed in white, broke away from a circle of dancers donned in flowing black dresses.
The deep blue lighting and swaying movements made it seem like a dream, or maybe a nightmare, and the creativity did not stop there.
The set before was a bit of a shock because of the single belly dancer on stage, twirling iridescent wings.
While surprising and unexpected, the dancer was clearly skilled and the song used “Three Sisters” by Beats Antique, featuring Tatyana Kalmykova, a Russian musical artist, definitely stood out.
“Desert Sun” fit the performance well, but when the audience thought it was over, the lights went off and the dancer/choreographer, Allison Collete, twirled and waved her “wings”, which had lights projected onto them, creating a dazzling light show.
Collete also performed in a number where some of the women danced to “Rebels,” which had interesting choreography with a lot of hand movements, but the outfits and attitude of the performance made it work.
The opener, “Shape of Us”, was a peculiar opening because of the sexual tone.
The students danced to “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, a song about a one night stand. While it did showcase the dancers abilities well, it was a bit awkward to start the show with.
This set was actually choreographed by the faculty and if the show wants to have sex appeal, there is no problem with that, but performances like “Rebels,” “Desert Sun” and a few others that were choreographed by students had a kind of overlaying sexual tone to them that worked and were more entertaining than the opener.
The remix of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” by Will Smith and “Finesse” by Bruno Mars was a fun set with Amaris Griggs driving the performance with her non-stop energetic and fluid dancing reminiscent of ’90s hip-hop with modern moves, and Geovanny Lopez making the crowd cheer when he suddenly took center stage. In a word, the set was fun.
Whoever came up with the idea to put Nathaniel Villagonzalo in a gray jumpsuit and have him push a broom around onstage behind Lauren Hernandez-Lee’s “solo” was a genius.
The audience was laughing in seconds and it was great set up to a simple story of a janitor that just wanted to dance alongside an increasingly irritated soloist.
The two dancers were charismatic through the brief performance, becoming likeable characters in just a few moments.
The amount of humor, charm and joy packaged into the short set was remarkably enjoyable. It reminded me of a Pixar short.
Some of the dance numbers were just generally pleasing and those performances were Broadway-esque, which might have been what some audience members came to the show expecting, but when compared to the other sets they felt bland.
Maybe they attempted to build onto the Broadway style sets by utilizing the recent film “The Greatest Showman,” which was easily recognizable even to someone who has not seen the movie.
The students who performed and choreographed Motion! will return in the fall.
