Deja vu

ME Dance Inc. presented their Season Finale, Deja vu at the Winter Garden Theater. This was the second to last stop on the Orlando SketchCrawl. Two other artists joined me to document the performance, Dana Boyd and Gabe Caroll-Dolci. I saw Marshall Ellis the dance company’s founder, and shook his hand before the show. He has built up this dance company from scratch over the last several years.

The first half of the show had dance routines with titles like, Love, The Passion, The Knowledge, Stand by Me and Lust.  The Passion performed by dancer Shannon MacLaren stood out in my mind. The dance began with Shannon seated on a stool, she arched her back and pointed her toes then spun into motion. Her dance began to remind me of Jessica Rabbit a cartoon that couldn’t help but be sultry. By the intermission, my sketch was done and I put the sketchbook away for the second half of the show.

Dance numbers combined video, and spoken word. The announcer sounded a bit too much like the announcer for the Disney Monorail and some people chuckled. One number had dancer, Alexandra Schudde, addressing the audience as if they were World War II soldiers. The spoken sentiment missed the mark, but the dance rang true. All of the dances were undeniably well choreographed  and executed. Journey had the dancers performing to Faithfully, and Don’t Stop Belevin’. Wearing loose 70’s era clothes the dancers rejoiced in the retro flavored routine. They threw everything they had into the dance, pushing the envelope of exhaustion.

The audience, that seemed full of young dancers, stood for a standing ovation. I stood and clapped loudly. As the audience exited the theater, someone tripped and fell back into an ME Dance promotional screen sending it toppling. Marshall rushed in to make sure the supports didn’t hit anyone. There is never a dull moment with live theater and dance.