Alvin Ailey American Dance Company
Performed by Donna Wood
Dance “Cry”
Dance Critique.
Ballet “Cry” simply showed to us real life of all African women. Every single American people know what kind of life they went through. Therefore it touched their heard. Alvin Ailey’s “Cry” presented wonderfully combined movements, technique and emotion. Ms. Donna Wood uses tragic face, a mask of sorrow. It is a face born to cry, but when she smiles it is with an innocent radiance, joyfulness that simple and lovely. She never tries consciously to please an audience. He was not only concentrating in movements and physical performance, but also using flowing white gown with a long white scarf for the dancer. A long sleeve white blouse is slim, to show the dancers body. Especially her movement and technique. It made dance more interesting to audience. This beautiful piece of modern dance consists of three sections. Ms. Donna Wood performed solo dance for 16 minutes from section to section. Her ways through the dance are different in movement quality that she gives to each passage. In this tribute to black women, the free sprit or the African women comes through in the energy of her dancing. In the first section started on dark stage, only dancer has a spotlight. Music was soft and smooth. We could hear only piano while dancer was walking forward in straight posture with graceful movement. Started with smooth then mixed up with sharp and pedestrian movements. She uses long white scarf on the floor by showing to us hard work. In dance we say ”low” level. For example, she scrubs the floor, uses as a headband representing to carry something. Emotionally sad ness, she worked hard, she contracts in pain, she flutters her hands like captive birds and she tried to get out of struggling life, but she never gives up. There is pain here as well as power, and the music, so oddly modern to me. In