‘Bassline’ Tries to Keep Up The Time

Operating on five hours of sleep and having just completed an essay, I arrived at Lowell Lecture Hall for the Friday, April 14 afternoon performance of the Expressions Dance Company’s “Bassline” completely exhausted.

While the exciting dance displays helped to combat my fatigue, a combination of delays and technical difficulties detracted from what might have otherwise been an exhilarating event.

The event started over half an hour late. Some audience members contented themselves with chatter, while others looked at their watches and groaned intermittently.

Finally, a hip-hop beat started to thump, and three of Expressions’ co-directors stepped on stage to introduce their show as “a big crunk party.”

The medley of 14 dance numbers lived up to the promise, exhibiting a wide array of technique and energy reinforced by a spectrum of colorful lighting and costuming. Visiting troupes Jam’nastics and Urban Essence joined the undergraduates in Expressions for the showcase.

The show opened with two company performances that established the type of creative range that would pervade the entire event; the show only improved from there.

The performance team from Jam’nastics—a Cambridge nonprofit organization devoted to celebrating diversity through dance—gave the third and most thrilling performance of the night.

The 10 dancers, ranging from ages seven to 14, shook their bodies with a force and rhythm that brought the audience to its feet. The dancers’ coordination was so exact that their jumping made for a veritable bass line.

The show continued to gain momentum, but a technical malfunction halted the fifth group of the afternoon midway through its performance.

The music for “Traveling Without Moving,” a piece choreographed by Wendy S. Cortez ’07 and S. Monica Soni ’06, stopped unexpectedly, and the dancers froze with anxious expressions on their faces.

As the group waited for the problem to be fixed, one performer began to talk with her friends in the audience, which detracted from the energy and professionalism that had shaped the event thus far.

The finale of the number and the subsequent two pieces restored the event’s liveliness. “The Beginning,” choreographed by Ayo A. Adigun ’06, proved particularly haunting, as dancers moved between statuesque poses and convulsive shuddering to a medley of hip-hop.

But the event’s energy was arrested yet again by a prolonged intermission, at which point some of the audience left.

With a smaller crowd to cheer the dancers on, and feelings of restlessness to combat, the second act could not match the vitality of the first.

The dancers nevertheless displayed impressive talent. The performers in “Spirit, Rhythm, and Soul,” choreographed by Liz C. Michaud ’09, moved gracefully to the music of Aretha Franklin, Kanye West, Dusty Springfield, and Ray Charles.

The contrast between the soul music and the ballet-infused choreography made for a beautiful piece that was complemented by warm peach lighting and simple costumes of black and pink.

The second act also featured EXP, the Expressions Dance Company’s audition-only troupe, and visiting group Urban Essence, whose dancers work as Youth Leaders in a collaborative to teach Latin, folkloric, and modern dance.

Overall, the most successful routines were the lively ones in which dancers threw themselves into their moves with attitude and precision. These not only provided a remedy to my exhaustion, but they also included the highest levels of coordination.

The vitality of the performances would have been much more forceful had the numbers followed each other at a rapid pace.

“Bassline” proved that in planning as well as rhythm, timing is everything.