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Geisha Dance Critique

1055 Words5 Pages

General Description (10 marks) This video clip shows a dance by a geisha in the movie – memoirs of a geisha. It was filmed during the 1920-1930’s, the geisha culture has been in Japan since the 18th century. There is only one character performing this dance who is Sayuri. I chose to use this clip to tell you about Japan’s rich history and culture about Geishas as this clip shows a geisha’s performance and costume nicely. The long sleeves of the kimono has to be folded when performing in order to avoid being stepped on, this shows the grace and poise that had to be there when performing as a geisha. A handful of the people have a misconception that Geisha’s are prostitutes, but this however, is not true. The ones who sell their body are called …show more content…

Judgement (40 marks) In my opinion I enjoyed this dance as the costume, lighting and props usage was really good and I have a keen fascination with the Japanese culture. I like this dance as in just three minutes, the choreographer was able to portray a woman turning mad due to her loss of her husband. The way she bend and fling her hands draws out her inner anguish and emotions which I could feel. Usually geisha dances hairstyles would be in a ‘pumpkin shape’ but in Sayuri’s case her hair was messy and unkempt, her way or dancing was also unlike the usual geisha style which was clean and precise. Her way of dancing was slightly different than the usual kind, therefore I enjoyed it. This dance makes me sad as its theme is about death and loss. The way she portrayed her loss of her lover was heart-breaking but at the same time beautiful. The way the umbrella cut through the snow and the way the snow fell on her hair was pleasant to watch. I can sympathise her feeling of loss as a relative of mine has passed away before, and the sadness when I felt after hearing the bad news was accurately portrayed by Sayuri’s dance. I think this dance talks about death as this performance was during the war period and having your spouse die was not an uncommon thing, so in order to engage the audience, the choreographer used the theme of

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