So far in the course, we have been working on your writing skills, now it is time to apply those skills to a live dance concert.

• Attend a live dance concert from the current quarter. Please note that reviews about dance concerts that happen prior to the current quarter or reviews of a video of a concert will not be accepted. See Dance Concert Resources.
• PLEASE BE AWARE, that it is essential that you write a review of a concert you attend rather than summarizing reviews you find on-line. That is a serious offense that is easily recognized by your instructors.
• Develop a perspective that compares and contrasts two pieces or sections from the show,and create a thesis statement that is the last sentence of the introductory paragraph. Here are examples of well-developed thesis statements. Please keep in mind that these samples are meant to be models for the types of sentences we are looking for, but not to be copied and used in your paper. The expectation is that you create your thesis on from your own thoughts and experiences as we want to hear what YOUR response is to the assignment:

1. "Two pieces from The Chamber Dance Concert, "XXXX" and "YYYYY" caused me to consider my pre-conceived notions of gender and relationships because they addressed these topics from different viewpoints".
2. "The choreography presented at Cornish Dance Theater was incredibly diverse in style and theme, however in the two pieces, "XXXXX" and "YYYYY," the choreographers payed particular attention to his or her use of the stage space to communicate an idea."
3. "The performers In Dayna Hanson's The Clay Duke were incredibly successful in communicating the emotional story that the concert was based on through the use of articulate and specific gestures, and this was especially evident in the sections titled "XXXX" and "YYYYY."

• You have now seen and written about enough dance that this should be fairly mature. Your perspective could be primarily INTERPRETIVE: what did you think the dances were about? It could be ANALYTICAL: did the choreographer/s use the same movement or compositional devices in unique ways from each other? It could be EVALUATIVE: did you think the dances were particularly successful at communicating their idea or in their use of choreographic choices? or in their actual performance of the movement? Or it could be a combination of all those, it is important, though, that your review is not just a synopsis of the dances but offers a unique well-developed thesis rooted in course concepts.
• Determine what movement or other compositional devices from the dances will be the evidence to support your thesis. What did you see that allowed you to arrive at your thesis, how can you best describe what you saw to the reader to help make your ideas clear? Be sure to include 3 component descriptions
• Put it all together. In the first paragraph, introduce your perspective, set the context for the whole concert, and then, clearly outline the idea you are going to develop more fully through the rest of the review. Remember that you are discussing specific choreography in two dance pieces.
• When crafting your essay, I recommend discussing dance piece number 1 in the second paragraph and dance piece number 2 in the third paragraph. For both of these paragraphs, discuss moments of choreography that support your thesis - think of specific movements as your evidence. As always, use 3 component descriptions to help your reader imagine the dance as you saw it.
• Review the major points of your essay in the concluding paragraph. Make sure that you have explained how all of your observations tie together. Does the review effectively make the point you want it to make?

 

Refer to the all of the Readings, PowerPoint lectures, and other Resources you have looked at thus far. You will find that one to two pages is short. I suggest you do an initial draft that is as long as you need it to be. Then, go back and edit it down.

Note: When you attend the concert, bring a notebook. As you watch each dance, make notes on a new piece of paper. Try not to look down at the paper. Allow your pen to just write what you see. Don't try to write sentences. Jot down words that come to mind. They could be images, ideas, interpretations, colors, descriptive words of what you see or hear, and of course 3 component descriptions.

When you get home, you should have several pieces of paper (one for each dance) with ideas, thoughts, and words. They will serve to help jog your memory. The sooner you write the better.

The final review will be a word document, one-two pages, Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 12-point font and should include a heading in the left hand corner of the paper with first and last name, Lesson 04 Assignment, and the date.