Chicago Dance Critique

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Chicago Dance Critique
I attended the Chicago musical performance on September 13th at 2pm at the Toland Theatre. My initial expectations for this particular performance were relatively low as this was not a professional musical performed by professional actors and dancers. However, the opening scene and first musical number tremendously exceeded by low expectations. The quick rhythm of the majority of the dance numbers, unique choreography, and excellent execution of all dance numbers with immense precision truly impressed me. Overall, the choreography of each dance number incorporated acting, dancing, and singing as the choreography enhanced each scene by making the story more understandable and created an outlet to express the feelings …show more content…

The highlight of this number was Billy, the layer, impersonating a puppet master while Roxie impersonated the puppet. Billy held Roxie as a puppet, by the back of Roxie’s shirt, and Roxie was settled on his lap continuingly thrashing around her head, arms, and legs. In this scene, Roxie seemed rather inhuman as she continued to shake and thrash along the entire song. While Billy and Roxie performed their routine at the center of the stage, the remainder of the dancers performed a routine in the background in complete unison. These movements were very slight and settle; therefore they were much easier to complete in perfect sync. The choreography of this song was very well thought out as it displayed the entire situation of the scene: Billy was completely in control of Roxie. Additionally, the choreography of this dance was unique because it was unusual. Roxie’s strange movements and rather uncontrollable movements displayed that the key to this particular choreography was within its …show more content…

This number was very upbeat and included some jazz music. The full cast of Chicago performed this dance number and the stage was full and lively with much to watch and analyze. A small portion of this dance was a tap dance. The tap dance was incorporated into the overall dance effortlessly and took part in only a small portion of the overall dance number. In the dance, Billy is the star while the rest of the cast is his backup dancers. During one portion of the dance, a circle was formed around Billy and the dancers in the circle rotated slowly around the circle moving their hands and feet in complete sync. This specific dance truly highlighted Billy and his confidence as well as his star-like qualities. The dance number had a quick rhythm; therefore the difficulty of this dance was high as the actors had to swiftly perform the dance steps. The quicker the rhythm of the dance, the more difficult it is for the dancers to complete the steps with precision and in complete sync. Additionally, within the circle surrounding Billy, the dancers turned right and continually moved in that direction. This type of turn performed in a circle is much more difficult to execute compared to a turn executed in a straight

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