Sheila Chandra's Takademe Dance Review

The art piece that I am analyzing is the dance “Takademe” by the Artistic Director of The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Robert Battle, who is known for his more modern dance styles. This dance features a very interesting musical piece in the background by Sheila Chandra called “Speaking in Tongues II”. It features her imitating these sort of clicking sounds as though she is speaking a different language.

Before I dive into the dance movements, I would like to break down the music so that you can better understand this dance in depth. This music is very rhythmic and has many phrases and pauses at times. The way this dancer is performing must match his movements almost perfectly with this sound. If even one of his movements is slightly too behind, the dance would not
He matched the volume of the movements as well as the speed and phrases in a way that we can almost understand what Sheila Chandra is trying to communicate through her “Speaking in Tongues II”. This dance is modern and full of expression and emotion. The louder the music is, the bigger the dancer's movement. The softer the music, the smaller the dancer's movement. Same with the speed of the music and speed of the dancers movements. I feel that Robert Battle choreographed this dance to express the emotions of this musical piece in a visual form. The movements in this dance are strange and unique with many different movements, from body twisting moments to leaping in the air. And the way the dancer uses the space he has to convey these movements is nicely executed. I would also like to dip into how the dancer uses his space. He is given a slightly large spotlight that he cannot cross because we all know that dance is a visual art form so seeing as if we cannot see him then where is the art in that? He makes his way to the edge of his spotlight once, though, in order to have enough room for a leap. The dancer also uses his space to travel and convey certain parts of