IASAS Dance Critique

My favorite part of their dance was the one where, I believe, Karin, was a school teacher and conducted the class because the dancers had very lively movements and over exaggerated motions, which is similar to anime, thus showing the theme extremely well. A school-lecturing scene is a scene often showed in anime, especially where students raise their hands in a unrealistic way, which was directly showed in the choreography. It was also one of the dances where I understood what was happening, since some of the dances, although eye pleasing and well performed, I couldn’t connect them to a particular anime, or to anime in general.

The costumes were very cute, I really liked the school uniform costumes and the Naruto costumes and I think that it could not have suited the theme better. The choreography also put the costumes and other sets in full potential, which I thought was amazing, since when we perform dances, costumes are one of the last things to think about. The images in the background also helped set the scene, and I didn’t know that they could use images (and video) in dances so well that it would support their dance rather than being an extra feature that is usually unnecessary.

There wasn't any that I particularly didn’t like, but sometimes I did not understand what anime it was or how the choreography related to anime since it seemed like the choreography would fit to any theme at all. However that is probably because, being Japanese, I have a different perspective on anime than the performers. The music sometimes confused me too, since some of the music used, although were probably soundtracks to anime didn't seem like it belonged to the theme and I think it would have been supported the theme more if they had used more major soundtracks or the theme songs of the anime that people would recognize, because half the time, sitting with two other dance students, we were trying to figure out which anime it was, which distracted us from the actual performance.

As a whole, I’m glad I watched the performance since I learned a lot, mostly about how technology can support a dance so well since I learned a lot about the performance and choreography of the dancing itself from other Dance Co or Advanced Dance performances before. I would recommend watching this so others, as I already have, because I am sure they will be amazed as I was, although maybe at different aspects.