Among Daffodils

After attending the Modern Dance and Improv Club Dance Concert and observing all the the pieces choreographed by both students and professors that included so many different elements of dance there was one piece that really stood out to me from the moment it began. The piece “Among Daffodils” choreographed by Sara Galo performed by a small group of dancers caught my eye for many reasons; the movement style, the story that was told, performance quality, costumes, and lighting. When the piece began with a dim lit stage and an arranged clump of dancers facing upstage in the back right corner of the space I was unsure what to expect. The music started, a seemingly simple and calmly upbeat song, but the first dancer turned towards the audience with a look of misery and sadness, almost like she didn't know what to do next. She held her hands out infront of her towards the audience, left slightly higher than the right, as if about to grab something and suddenly stopped as her hands began shaking and
drawing into herself. In this moment I was instantly hooked, I didn't understand at first why she felt the way she did but it was clear that she was hurting, she was broken. Then the next dancer turned around and they repeated this movement, over and over til each dancer had had their moment of despair, this movement or moment became the motif of the dance and for good reason. It was a moving but simple set of choreography that said so much. The dancers rarely danced in unison but instead had many similar set of choreography repeated in riples with different timing with that same motif popping up in each dancer at different moments. The movement besides the motif was very fluid, somewhat rapid, and smooth, completely different from the moment of stillness that the shaking hands and somber looks brought to the piece. As the piece continued I got many different impressions from what the story created on stage could be, and I think it could interpreted in many different ways but for me it portrayed moments of weakness. I saw in the dance once side of a relationship, one side of a one sided relationship. The side that leaves one person feeling lost, scared, and unknowing of what's coming next. In some relationships there's one person who cares more, whose more invested, who needs the other person and would do anything to keep them. In this dance I saw the dancers going through their life’s, smooth and flowy just trying to keep up with the current but having those moments of unspoken weakness where they don't quite know how to continue, Where they are hurt beyond words and quite literally find themselves unable to continue. This piece was performed in pedestrian like, everyday outfits of gray pants that crossed in the front and tied in the back, with black tops.
The simplicity of the costumes didn’t outshine the story being told on stage and were a perfect fit for the movement style. This piece used a lot of movement guided by the pelvis which is something we focused on it class this year. Because the movement was pulled from the pelvis it followed the theme that these people were trying so hard to keep up with life that they maybe started to fall behind. The lighting of the dance was dim at first and matched the opening movement, later on in the piece the cyclorama was lit with red which perfectly fit with the expression and performance of the dancers internal struggle. A stand out aspect to me was the music, this gentle hopeful sounding music played throughout the piece that only grew in dynamics towards the middle and end, flawlessly contrasted the story being portrayed on the
stage. This piece drew me in for many reasons, but the main one is the storyline and intent. The dance could be interpreted in so many different ways from, lack of trust, relationships, assault, to one own personal everyday struggle. This piece had a different meaning, a personal meaning to every dancer and every audience member. All the elements of the piece; costumes, lighting, choreography, expression, performance and style fit together incomparably and made for a wonderful and meaningful piece to observe.