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| Photo by Ben Kerns. |
The Seattle Theater Group’s recent show, entitled, Global Dance Party, was anything but a party. Instead of being impressed by a diverse collection of dancers from around the globe, I was instead treated to a simplistic and bombastic performance. STG billed this experience as “a high-energy performance of cultural and contemporary dance and music from around the globe. The performance features young local performers from STG’s cross-collaborative community engagement DANCE This, celebrating the rich cultural traditions and artistic talent found in the Northwest.” The show turned out to be the exact opposite.
I was expecting to see a show filled with a diverse plethora of dances from around the globe. Instead, this showcase featured only four dance groups who each performed more than one number. This wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t felt like I was watching the same piece from each group three or four times.The featured groups included NW Tap Connection, Seattle Highland Dancing Association, Te Fare O Tamatoa (a Tahitian dance company), and Vicious Puppies (a hip hop group). Of the dozens of dance styles that could have been featured, only Tahitian dancing, Scottish dancing, tap and hip-hop were featured. That is hardly what I would call a global experience. Frankly, the producers of the show should have taken more time to select a more diverse array of dance types. Seattle is a city that is bursting with talented dancers, many of whom would have benefitted from a showcase such as this.
Frankly, it looked like this show was slapped together at the last minute. Dances were repetitive, the Scottish and Tahitian groups were boring, and the tap and hip-hop groups were sloppy at best. Most of the choreography was way too simply for a show like this, and yet, most of the dancers, in all of the numbers, has tremendous trouble staying together and on beat.
The one highlight of this show was a hip-hop piece choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, two of the successful choreographers who are regularly featured on So You Think You Can Dance. Set to a mad scientist theme, not only was the choreography brilliant; it was also executed to perfection by the elite group of Seattle dancers who had the privilege of auditioning for the piece. The dancing was hard, synchronized and a pure show to watch. In all honesty, this is the one number that saved the show for me and allowed me to leave the theater not feeling like I had just wasted an hour watching a high school talent show.
Seattle has a rich dance culture. Hopefully, more of the talented dancers in Seattle will be featured in the next showcase.
– Chris Heide
