Urban Ballet

I attended the performance entitled, Urban Ballet, at the Houston City Dance Studio. The studio is located near the Heights of Downtown Houston. Unbeknown to me, the show I saw on Saturday was their last performance. It consists of assorted styles of dance depicting the struggles of being an African-American using the music of Tupac. The Houston City Dance Studio is a nonprofit dance school and performing arts organization offering classes in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dance. It was founded in 1994 by Sherese Campbell, who choreographed and artistically directed the show.
There was one dance that caught my attention and it dealt with mass incarceration in America. Four female dancers, all different ethnicities, were dressed in dark teal prison jumpsuits. They all formed a box in the center of the stage, with their backs diagonally facing each other. During certain parts of their performance, the ladies met each other in the center and had unified legwork. From there, they separated and did pirouettes that rotated in their box shape.
It was a fusion of ballet, lyrical, jazz, and modern dance. I believe that …show more content…
Campbell was successful in communicating her idea by focusing on a particular part of America’s prison system that does not shed light on the disadvantages of solitary confinement. The dancers were technically proficient in their performance because it was engrained in them. Their movements were on point and I was able to see the expressiveness of the choreography. The stage lighting really helped set the mood for song because of the burgundy and burnt orange colors on stage. Honestly, I did not like the song choice because I was expecting all of the songs to have only Tupac and not Jhene Aiko. I was not expecting to hear her voice with a few samples of Tupac rapping. Otherwise, the lighting and costumes did a great job of helping convey the dance’s