Global Motion’s World Dance Performance
Drum beats, flamboyant costumes, and colorful lights filled the Broad Theater as Santa Monica College (SMC) students performed in the styles of Salsa, Jive, Mexican Folklorico, Urban Fusion, and many more.
Global Motion World Dance Company’s showcase on Nov. 23 and 24 portrayed pieces in over 12 different dance styles inspired by cultures from all around the world.
Global Motion, the world dance performance company composed of SMC faculty and students, recently returned from a tour in China, where they performed at the 21st Beijing International Tourism Festival. Global Motion’s Artistic Directors Sri Susilowati and Raquel Ramirez explained that Global Motion aims to exhibit dance styles from five continents in every showcase.
“Every semester we are bringing different dance forms. Sometimes people say: 'oh yeah, I’ve seen your performances,' but no, you haven’t seen, because every semester will be different,” said Susilowati. “We try to be inclusive. LA is very diverse, ... but they’re doing their own thing, so this is our way to be together.”
Ramirez confirmed this. “Just here on campus ... we have so many different countries just represented here, which is what we want to do with Global Motion: try and represent all the cultures that come together at Santa Monica, with the students, with the faculty, with the community around here.”
Besides the performance of the dancers and the culturally diverse choreography, another star of the show was the costume design.
Costume designer Patricia Oliva worked closely together with each choreographer, each of whom originated from the country that inspired their choreography. Many of them even brought Oliva a sample of an outfit that is traditional to their nation’s dancers, which she derived her original costume designs from.
The sparkling tops and sensual red skirts that the belly dancers wore in the Egyptian piece "You’re the Owner of My Heart" were juxtaposed with the 50’s-style, knee-length skirts that twirled around in the next West Coast Swing and Jive piece. The contemporary Korean folk dance that opened the Global Motion performance featured minimalist movements, which were highlighted by their bright yellow skirts and socks. In a different piece, an all-male ensemble shimmered in blue costumes, as was traditional for the Malay people. The tunes and lyrics of "All That Jazz" inspired the black leotards and glittery tights that showed off the seemingly endless legs of an all-female ensemble performing the choreography inspired by Musical Theater in the United States. In each piece, the costumes revealed the region of the world before the music even started.
Angela Jordan, one of the faculty choreographers, created a showstopping rendition of Djembe Dance inspired by the marriage of West African drum and dance. The performers joined the drumming of live musicians in parts of the nearly 10-minute long first act finale. Jordan had been concerned about the dancers' ability to be in sync with the drummers.
“They only drummed during rehearsal, it’s not like they had drumming lessons. But it all came together tonight, you witnessed the magic,” said Jordan. “With the drumming and dancing, I felt like it really pulled out their inner strength and stamina. They had to make it all the way through the three sections of the piece.”
When the dancers didn’t join the musicians with their Djembes, a small drum played with bare hands, they danced around in circles with the spinal movements, impressive leaps, and fierce facial expressions that can be considered the signature elements of African dance. Their wooden poles and straw skirts were more than mere costumes; they became parts of the movement of the piece.
Jordan’s piece wasn’t the only one that used traditional or cultural objects as a part of the choreography. In the piece inspired by the Philippine Pandanggo, dancers balanced candle lights on their heads throughout most of the choreography. The show program explained that the theme of light for this popular folk dance stems from the swaying oil lamps that were signals for the fishermen to find their way back to the foggy shore.
After an energetic showcase of the Afro-Cuban Salsa, a duet in Mexican folklorico, a solo of the Spanish Flamenco performed by SMC student Amira Murphy, and a Japanese piece called "Hana," the multi-cultural second act closed with an Urban Fusion choreography inspired by the crew-based competition style prevalent in the United States. The audience hollered, clapped, yelled, and moved along as the performance quickly moved from glow-in-the-dark costumes to umbrellas opening to reveal showers of colorful confetti, from giant talking emojis on the background screen to moves portraying the fast steps of House, Hip-Hop, and various other street styles.
The applause didn’t cease as this last piece transitioned to the company's curtain call. Dancers of many different nationalities, ethnicities, ages, sizes, and genders, wearing costumes in a wide array of colors, filled the stage from edge to edge. Their collective dance party didn’t end until the curtains fully closed, leaving the audience with this visual depiction of just how many moving pieces make up the world of dance.