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ORCHESIS DANCE REPORT

(Friday , Jaunuary 30th, 2004)

By Rohit

Unfortunately, I must say that I went in the auditorium expecting a lot, but came out unsatisfied. It wasn't boring because the fifty minutes passed very quickly. For the most part, the dance was atrociously choreographed and the music was even worse. Let me explain to the people who don't know what I'm talking about. Orchesis is a dance group at Naperville North and after a long time of practice they put on a dance show for the whole school on a Friday night where the ticket is $4.00. They also show some dance routines in specific periods during the school day as an advertisement to come after school to see the whole show. Usually, this group could be analogous to a cheerleading dance group, but this year, there are a lot of people in the club and I can imagine where choreographing would be hard.

It was 7th period and I was getting quite uncomfortable and unusually sleepy. Two guys introduced the show and off we began on a short-of-stunning experience. I don't exactly remember the order or types of dances, but in general, it was a mass of people on stage all doing uncoordinated waving and movements. I'm totally serious, (and actually I do remember a few dances) the first dance was chaos. Imagine a road on the stage, and I think it was supposed to signify a hallway in the school and how there are different people going by in their own little "cliques" . Well, it was essentially a throng of people striding from one side of the theater to the other. Oh and yes, the music was ear fisting. It was so bad that at times I just had to play some other music in my mind.

One interesting experience was the Indian dance. Picture the stage and about 40 people on stage each holding a chunni (I guess a rectangular piece of cloth). When the "Shara ra shara ra" song began, they all began dancing with their chunnis - a brilliant idea but horrendously executed. First of all, the song is just a bad one to dance to and its sort of old. Nobody wants to hear a song that they used to listen to a thousand times a day and then got sick of. The dance was very uncoordinated and the moves weren't even Indian dancing. It was some odd concoction of snazzy movements of their legs and that piece of cloth - which it seemed like they were all shooing away flies at a fish market. Frankly, being an Indian myself, I was ashamed.

I'm trying to be really nice here. The dancers put in a tremendous effort practicing. Everyday after my swimming practice, I saw the dancers practicing each of their moves with the music. They seemed dedicated but I didn't care because I didn't think I would actually have to endure their performance. I didn't pay much attention to the music then either. Well anyway, so minutes ticked past and the wrenching music would not stop. They even played this music during the spaces between dances (aaaaah)! I was going to take a camera to take pictures of some "hot" dancers, but thank heavens I didn't do that.

So if I meet an Orchesis dancer in the hallway, I would sincerely congratulate them because I think it was the overall effect that cloaked the real talent of these individuals. But please do change the music. In the past, the Orchesis group has not been regarded as highly as some of the cheerleader dance competitions. So next time I have to go to Orchesis...wait...I'm a senior, there won't be a next time (yaaaay!).