Went to the ballet with the group which was an experience. I was totally expecting a grander opera house more like the Kennedy center but it was really modern for an auditorium which fit in with the show. The show was really modern which was a bit disappointing I was hoping to see something more traditional. Instead we got something modern. All the dancers were classically trained though that was obvious. The show was called Drumming Live. They used live music, which was impressive since using live music always adds a bit of risk to any performance since live musicians can make mistakes. The trick for any perform though is to roll with it rather than make the mistake obvious. Most of the performers were wearing toe-undies otherwise they wouldn’t be able to perform any of the turns easily. The performers wore very simple costumes that were white for the girls and black and white for the men. The soloists however distinguished themselves by wearing different tops that were more colorful
All the music was percussion including drums and xylophones with a bit of singing and one piccolo they would show each group of musicians in parts and then have them walk off stage only for them to all come back at the end all together. The choreography of the piece was incredibly well coordinated in order to prevent collisions. It had an excellent balance between solos, and allowing all the dancers to do their individual things alongside duets and trios. With some pausing of dancers on stage and frozen.
This piece though technical made use of several techniques in dancing more common to that of improvisational dancing. Though considering the well-timed lighting and the musicians it is hard to believe that the piece was completely improvised. The choreography had to have some sort of vision when creating this piece. The moments when the group came together were to good to not be choreographed. Though I did enjoy the moments when one of the male dancers picked off all the others dancing together to re-position them or move them off stage. I can’t say this piece was entirely an improvisational piece but it certainly had parts that could have been but there was certainly an underlying choreography to the piece.