Think that you know all there is to know after spending the past week holed away in Club Tisch? Tufts' dance troupe Spirit of Color (SoC) isn't so sure. Grab a pen, a notebook and your sickest pair of kicks, because tonight, SoC is about to teach you a lesson — in swag.
This spring, SoC's biannual show is titled "Get Yo A$$ to Class," and through it the troupe aims to raise the general level of awesomeness on campus and among members of the student body. The plan seems to be that they dance awesomely, and the audience watches and learns. Fair enough.
The vibrancy of SoC's show should be proof enough that the group is licensed for the task at hand. Although the funky lighting and the street-chic costumes (which embrace everything from club-worthy metallics to white button-downs and khakis) add ambiance to the performance, unbridled flair is at the heart of SoC's dances, and their penchant for that flair cannot be denied. The group seems as concerned about conjuring a mood as it is about showcasing its dance skills, and as a result, the audience gets the best of both worlds.
A diverse mix of dancing backgrounds enables the troupe to craft wildly creative dances. For example, sophomore Kyle Carbone, who co-choreographed the opening dance, "Gender Studies 101: Sassy Dude Complex," described the piece as "basically a juxtaposition of fierce, sassy dancing with hard-hitting ghetto hip-hop." The stylistic fusion he hints at is far from exclusive to his piece; the show includes elements of ballet, step, salsa and more.
Fortunately, the inclusion of multiple styles never leads to the show feeling disparate. Director Juliana Davis, a junior, said that the process of uniting the dances under a common theme was actually extremely difficult and that the show's mock-scholastic theme evolved from the storylines of two dances (one takes place in middle school, and the other tells the woefully familiar tale of Tufts, finals and stress). Though SoC conceived of the theme after all the dances were composed, a natural language seems to emerge from the show — could it be the language of swag? — and it really does feel didactic, in the best possible way.
One especially moving and intellectual dance is "Self vs. Society," choreographed by sophomore Gabriela Ros and senior Diego Chacon. In the piece, dancers mimic the motions of a sinister machine and restrain other dancers with black scarves to leave a striking impression. "It's about a revolution, and one group of people being controlled by another," sophomore Caitlyn Doucette, who named the dance as her favorite, said. "I think they did a really good job of representing that struggle and leaving the ending up in the air. You don't really know what happens."
What else does SoC have in store for its audience? There's a glamorous piece set to a mix of Ke$ha songs, which begins with Carnevale masks and fans and ends with a sexy, skin-baring clubbing vibe. There are a few really exquisite segments of ballet and lyrical dance, which evoke a transient wistfulness. There's a catfight, a stage dive (from the stage to the raised arms of people also standing onstage, which is way more impressive a feat than a normal stage dive), a spread-eagled lift, a John Legend song…
But enough peeking at my paper. Go check the show out for yourself.
SoC is performing "Get Yo A$$ to Class" tonight at 9 p.m. and tomorrow at 6 p.m. Two tickets are free at the Cohen box office with a Tufts ID; a third ticket, or tickets without an ID, cost $5.
Most importantly, don't be late — you don't want a tardy on your permanent record, do you?
