Monday, January 2, 2012

"Stilhed"...Dana Foglia


Dana Foglia is a trendsetting choreographer in NYC...combining contemporary dance with hip hop and street jazz. She worked with Beyonce extensively, and brings a mature, mysterious sensuality to her work:


MUSICALITY: Although there is a fair bit of camera editing, it is still very apparent that the music interplays with the choreography intimately. Whether this was choreographed this way from the beginning, or synced in post-production, is irrelevant, since this was created as a video performance piece. In any case, the symbiosis between music and choreo is tight and defined.

DANCER SYNC: For dancers who are versatile in various styles, Dana's work is challenging as it is fulfilling. How often do you get to channel Mr Wiggle's Wiggle Walk (2:52 minutes) and then go into a full modern contraction? Also, floor work has the tendancy to be clunky and cliched, but Dana found creative solutions to move her dancers on low levels.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT: Between the visually arresting costume choice, quick camera frame changes, video in reverse trickery, and the jerky, focus/unfocus cinematography style...this piece was specifically engineered to grab the viewer and hypnotize them! From the moment it begins, the audience is asking questions, "who or what are these girls?" "what do they want?" "what will the resolution be?" etc...and this continues all the way to the end.

KUDOS to Dana for fusing styles and creating something entirely cryptic and mesmerizing!

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