Ugly is Beauty

ICA Dance- Bodytraffic

review by Shannon Wu

            The most beautiful movements were created from “ugly” postures. The dance show performed at the ICA was eye opening. Four thoughtfully choreographed pieces of art presented one after another with all different kinds of mood, setting, and message to send.

            The dancers in Bodytraffic got rid of the typical, elegant dance movements and were not afraid to be “ugly” because every audience was aware of the environment; it was a contemporary dance show. Movements that could be considered funny or silly suddenly became charming.

            The most powerful piece out of the four wonderful pieces was the second dance of the show–Private Game: Chapter 1. The dance was performed with five dancers. Every single one of them used their body so majestically, and it was truly amazing to see what kind of stunning art the human bodies can perform. Private Game began with a bizarre opening. Dancers stood in the center of the stage with a spotlight shinning on them. They were stoking each other’s heads and touching each other. It successfully engaged audiences’ curiosity right in the beginning. Quickly, the dancers moved to their locations and began dancing. At points, dancers would dance in different movements in different corners of the stage, which became frustrating because they were all so glamorous that it was a shame to miss out any one of them while trying to look at other ones. The vibe Private Game sent off through the dancers’ movements and the music made the dancers look like a bunch of hypnotized zombies, which may raise concerns. How would hypnotized zombies look beautiful? Well, Bodytraffic did it. With a fancy, flamingo-like dance in the last piece, A Trick of the Light, Bodytraffic closed up the performance gracefully and left the audiences speechlessly amazed.