By Greg Bush

Fans of Music and dance turned up to SPC’s Clearwater campus on Saturday, April 25, 2015 to attend the CoMotion Dance Theatre’s Spring Dance Concert as part of a 3-day event and free to SPC students. This particular showing was the last day of the Spring Concert. The Concert was significant in that the CoMotion Theatre was also celebrating it’s 30^th Anniversary of Performance, and as such the concert had an air of significance about it. This was made especially apparent at the beginning of the concert, where a short retrospective video was played for the audience at the beginning of the show. In it various clips from previous concerts were played as a way of showing the audience just how far the series has come.

As for the performances themselves, the dances were an eclectic mix. One of the favorite dances of the nights was “An Immeasurable Bond”, performed by Sharon McCaman & Sarah Watson. In it, the two dancers perform the ballet with gracefulness and harmony. Their performance does a great job showing the mother-daughter bond that the dance was centered around.

On the flipside, the dance “Amid The Rush” had a large number of performers, all of which were interacting with one another as part of the routine, but still had their own set style. In it, there were a couple of instances where two dancers would perform their own “part,” and were very distinct from one “act” to the next.

The final piece, “Molding Something New”, was perhaps the most varied piece of the whole show, as it had the dancers switch styles based on the changing songs in the performances. Overall, it was very good and a worthwhile experience.

As far as the audience’s opinions, many members were impressed and even surprised by the concert. Many audience members stated that they heard about the show through their local paper and decided to come in to see what it was all about. One audience member, Dianne, who jokingly claimed to have just come in off the street, was very fond of “An Immeasurable Bond”.  “I was a ballet trainer previously,” she said, “so I was very pleased to see ballet used in a contemporary fashion for this piece.” She was also fond of “Amid The Rush”.

For some others, coming to the Spring Concert was also way to visit memory lane. “I used to be an instructor at Broward College,” said Dr. Patrick Ellengham, “and I always missed coming out to shows like this.” He was also a fan of “An Immeasurable Bond”, saying “the attraction between both dancers really showed the loving mother-daughter bond in the dance.”

Overall, it was great performance by the CoMotion Dance Theatre. Here’s to hoping that performances like the one on Saturday continue for the next 30 years to come.