Dance Adventures by Sea Legs
‘Footwork Events’ presented ‘Dance Adventures’ by Sea Legs', recently. Held at the Lionel Wendt, this production was an exploration of modern dance influenced by contemporary, ballet, jazz and hip hop. Each item presented, depicted a story, and it was beautifully illustrated by graceful movements.
The enchanting evening was full of dance, colour and music. There was variety in the different items presented. The characters in the item ‘Consequences of Bliss’ depicted the repercussions of choosing immediate short term satisfaction. A child with an unstable family environment faces the choice of repeating history or choosing a better unknown. This story was told so well with movement to the music of Kevin McLeod. Another item was, a modern dance fairytale named, ‘The Magic Suitcase’, a story of a gypsy and a traveller who meet along a country road. With the help of the Magic Suitcase they are taken on an adventure. The unfolding of this complicated story was illustrated through graceful dance to the music of the Advent Chamber Orchestra. All the items were choreographed by Tikiri Shapiro, the leader of the group.
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Of the many items, it was ‘Improvisation’, a solo, hip hop freestyle dance, with elements of break dancing, which got the loudest applause. When Edward Brito stood on his hands as part of his dance act, there was cheering and clapping from every corner of the auditorium.The audience loved his item.
The dancers, twelve in all, were given a token of appreciation by the organisers, at the curtain call.
‘Sea Legs’ is a phrase used as a metaphor for adjusting to living or traveling at sea. As the name suggests, the troupe tries to adapt their own style of dance to the different places dance can take them, whether it be a local modern dance show in a small town, or an international tour. Sea Legs is a project based dance group originating in Selbyville, USA. Through different projects, various opportunities for performance are offered to all levels of dancers. Their dancers range from eight year olds to professionals. For this Sri Lanka tour, dancers from all over the USA, got together to rehearse, for an intense rehearsal period of two weeks and prepared for a full length show.
We spoke to some of the dancers and a few people in the audience to get their comments on the show.
Dancers
Tikiri Shapiro
I’m the director, producer and choreographer of this show. I live in the USA. When I was twelve I came here to perform. These dancers are from different parts of the USA. They are very smart, intelligent and talented. We got together just two weeks before coming here and started practising. We had to put in many hours of dancing to make this a perfect show.
Megan Guinta
I’m from New York. Ever since I could walk I was dancing. My mum took me for dance lessons when I was just two and a half years old. What we are doing tonight is mainly modern with a bit of ballet, jazz and hip hop included. I’ve done jazz, ballet and everything, but my main focus now is modern.
Henry Holmes
I’ve been dancing from the time I was six. I wanted to pursue engineering but it didn’t last as I realised my passion was dancing. Modern dance and creating movement interests me.
Organiser
Dharshan
As promoters of dance, we at Footwork Events are happy to organise this whole tour. In Kandy we had a school shows at Hillwood College, a public show and a workshop. The dancers also performed at the Galle Literary Festival and at Visakha Vidyalaya in Colombo. We also had a series of workshops on dance techniques.
Audience
Arun
The interpretative art is a very genteel pursuit. It’s very refreshing to see this kind of performance art again. When I was young there were so many dance troupes that used to come from abroad and perform modern dance. It’s great to see movement and fluidity of movements. I’m sure we will benefit a great deal by seeing more of these performances. I’m happy to see that there are groups here like ‘Natanda’ also among our local performers who can bring this kind of performance to stage, but there should be many more.
Kevin
I really liked the show. Especially the choreography. Sometimes shows are very repetitive, but in this case, each item was totally different from the other and had its own identity, and tells its own story. I also liked the movement of the bodies and how fluid it was, and how the dancers react to each other and their connection. Even though they are not looking at each other you can see that they understand each other and gel with each other and that’s very rare. A lot for us to learn!
Kanthi
Excellent. The choreography was brilliant. More people should come and appreciate this type of dancing. This is the way we learn, by watching. When you see good productions you achieve something.
Dr. Shrimalee
It was very exciting, especially because I came with my little daughter. She also enjoyed it very much. It was not just one genre of dancing, there was ballet, hip hop and breakdance. The mixture was very interesting. Also it was very unconventional. The timing was very good. They didn’t drag the items. Great show!
Kamani
It was absolutely breath-taking. Bringing stories to so much life was super. I didn’t imagine that I’ll be so moved by a colour combination dance. All the colours started falling in to place. The way the bodies were used for expression is just amazing. So fluid!
Tina
It’s exciting to watch. It’s very energetic. First time I’m seeing something like this. The hip hop improvisation was my favourite.
Himanshi
It was something different and beautiful to what we normally go for. It’s a new experience.
Sushila
I thought it was a really good show especially the third item. The movement and the formation of the dancers were amazing. The music and dancing was coordinated so well. Fantastic show!
By Niro Waidyaratne
Photographs by Waruna Wanniarachchi
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