This past Friday, I was able to see the dress rehearsal performance of Flash. Before the performance, I was able to talk a little bit with Rennie Harris and Michael Sakamoto, who were the writers, choreographers, and performers of Flash. Their sense of humor and love for their work were clear in the conversation I had with them as well as during their performance.
I sat down in the audience unaware of what I was about to witness. I was expecting a simple dance performance but what I saw was so much more. Michael and Rennie told a story through dance and through silence. This may sound weird that they were able to tell a story through silence, but Michael and Rennie used the silence to let their moves do the talking. The pain they were able to show through just facial expressions and movements alone were amazing.
Throughout the performance, Flash took me through a wave of emotions. At first I thought this performance was going to be funny as they simulated a “dance off” scenario, but then it took a more serious turn as they began to tell their stories. Michael told the story of his background using Butoh, which is a form of Japanese dance. Rennie told his story and background through the use of hip-hop. Both of these performers seemed to have found their cultural identity through dance.
During the performance, Michael and Rennie both walked around the stage taking turns talking and sharing their stories. They shared the ups and downs of their backgrounds, and used butoh and hip-hop to express their culture. Rennie and Michael would both do their own things on stage, but then what was really powerful to me was when they would come back together and dance side by side. To me, this signified how dance can bring people together, across cultural differences and experiences.
Flash was a powerful performance, that took those watching it on a journey through the lives’ of Michael Sakamoto and Rennie Harris. Just like life, the whole performance was not happy, nor was it all sad. It was a compilation of emotions, and movements that I feel many of us can relate to. The journey to finding our cultural identifies is not an easy one for most of us, and Flash showcased that in a beautiful way.
Faith Hansen, Arts and Media Leadership Associate, is a Junior at the University of Minnesota and is studying Strategic Communications with a minor in Leadership. Faith grew up in a very small town in southern Minnesota. She was named after country star ‘Faith Hill’. However, despite getting the name, she failed to inherit Faith Hill’s beautiful singing voice. When she was younger, she wrote scripts and persuaded her friends to star in short films she made. Her dream back then was to be on Broadway and she acted in several school plays. She quickly realized that her strengths are more along the lines of producing material rather than acting. Now, she would like to work on a creative team for an advertising agency and produce advertisements for television shows and movies. This semester, Faith is working as intern for Intermedia Arts.
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