Complementary Noise and Expansion Dance Project teamed up this past weekend for Move-Ments: A Journey Through Dance From the Artists Perspective. Day two of the three day festival was a live performance event at St. Stephen’s Church. The show, bringing out performers from DC, Baltimore and even LA, featured anything and everything, including modern dance, interpretive dance, breakdancing, spoken word, and musical performances. The showed closed in dramatic fashion with a DJ battle between El Ninyo and 2-Tone Jones. Performers included Aysha Upchurch/Life, Rhythm, Move Project, Boogie Bots Crew, Contradiction Dance, Damo, Holly Bass, Tianna Cohen-Paul, and LA guest artist Steve Connell.
The crowd was small, mostly consisting of the performers themselves and a few supporters. But the low turn-out did not dampen spirits. Everyone there was having fun performing and supporting their fellow artists.
In some cases, the talent was clearly there, particularly Boogie Bots Crew from Baltimore, whose hip hop and breakdancing show got the crowd worked up. I even enjoyed their impromptu freestyling during the unexpected fire alarm.
In other cases, it would have helped to rehearse a little more. One performer took the informal nature of the show to heart a little too much. It was clear she hadn’t rehearsed with her guitarist, and even told the crowd that they hadn’t rehearsed. Maybe its just me, but I don’t think its the best idea to start off your performance with a qualifier like that. (To her credit, it was her first time performing in front of strangers.) All in all, it was a fun Saturday afternoon and it was great to see local artists come together to do what they love.
