Month: September 2017

This fol­lows the sto­ry of an eccen­tric aspir­ing rap­per going by the name Sazo Omega. He explains how his reli­gious belief are inter­twined in his musi­cal lyrics. Sazo believes that each rhyme ‚rhythm, and word  from every song is a direct mes­sage from God, mak­ing him the mes­sen­ger of the Word.

Acclaimed dance troupe Ailey II per­forms “In Rev­e­la­tions” at the Jor­gensen Cen­ter for the Per­form­ing Arts on Wednes­day, Oct. 26, 2016. (Jason Jiang/The Dai­ly Campus)

Ail­ley II brings ‘In Rev­e­la­tions’ to Jorgensen

Ailey II is well known for merg­ing the spir­it and ener­gy of dancer and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Alvin Ailey with the pas­sion and cre­ative vision of today’s talent.

The first act start­ed with a very somber instru­men­tal tune that accom­pa­nied the dancers with their ele­gant yet aggres­sive dance moves. Each step was cap­ti­vat­ing, caus­ing a hyp­not­ic effect where the audi­ence couldn’t look away. The dancers were dressed in sim­ple out­fits (gray tank tops and dark gray shorts) that helped to empha­size the sim­plic­i­ty of the performance.

The sec­ond act opened with an elec­tric-pop num­ber that was fast paced and even edgi­er than the pro­ceed­ing act, but it kept the same ele­gance. Neon lights flashed on the stage to con­vey a fast-paced set­ting and it then closed with a high-pow­ered per­for­mance that was reflec­tive of human­i­ty and mechan­ics of every­day life.

The third and final act opened with a col­lec­tion of ener­getic south­ern hym­nals that added life to the per­for­mance. It took the audi­ence to a dif­fer­ent atmos­phere because the stage lights changed to warm col­ors empha­siz­ing the soul­ful tem­po change. The per­form­ers were dressed in flow­ing out­fits that high­light­ed their upbeat dance moves. This act dif­fered from the oth­er two acts because the music uti­lized includ­ed vocals while the first two acts had instru­men­tal soundtracks.

The per­for­mance was well received from the audi­ence. Third-semes­ter polit­i­cal sci­ence and jour­nal­ism major Feli­cia Moore said she thought the Ailey II dancers told a vibrant story.

“Dance per­for­mances are dif­fi­cult to under­stand because of the lack of vocal­iza­tion from the per­form­ers yet they were suc­cess­ful in telling a story.”

Third-semes­ter Bio-med­ical Engi­neer­ing major Paige Woods said, “I real­ly liked the per­for­mance- it was creative.”

Even a long-term Jor­gensen attendee, Anne-Marie Camp­bell, said this per­for­mance was impressive.

“I’ve been in town for 30 years and I’ve seen many dances, this was stupendous.”