For years, spectators have been questioning dance, and it’s capabilities.  Jérôme Bel challenges technique, and the extents of dance through his use of unconventional movements and experimentation with choreography.

While standing in a crowded room filled with anticipation and excitement, I can’t resist tapping my foot to the eccentric beats coming from the dj booth.  I am waiting for Jérôme Bel’s The Show Must Go On to begin, part of the performance exhibition Some sweet day at MoMA.  Three minutes past the performance’s start time, and I could feel the level of impatience growing.  Suddenly,  I felt the exasperating feeling of being pushed and shoved by random strangers, but to my surprise , it was cast members who began filling the performance space.  The crowd was captivated, and on-goers watched as they saw a large group of about twenty, both men and women of various ages, sizes, and ethnicities assemble before their eyes.  The group forms a straight line and stands in place for about five minutes, while audience members watch with curiosity and listen to pop songs such as David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Reel 2 Real’s “I Like to Move It.” All of a sudden, the performers break their silence and stillness, and dance uncontrollably with delight.  The performers continue dancing for several minutes, and then with no warning stop dancing abruptly. Several moments later, the cast begins dancing again, and then halts just as they had done previously.  They continue this pattern about three more times.

Then, as the song comes to an end, all of the male dancers walk off and the women begin executing basic ballet moves and positions.  Over the next few minutes, the only movements that are seen are plies, arabesques, turns and graceful movements through space.  Soon after, all of performers run back on stage, forming a flash mob, and begin performing the Macarena.  Each performer adds their own style and personality to the movement, and passionately dances with smiles emerging on their faces.  Soon after, a conductor-like man walks to the edge of the stage, and directs all the performers to listen to their music players.  The audience watches in awe, as the performers plug in their iPods, mp3 players, and Walkman’s.  Each cast member faces the audience and begins singing out loud violently and in place.  Audience members laugh as they hear familiar title phrases from artists including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and The Black Eyed Peas just to name a few. After shouting the same phrases several times, one by one the performers begin walking off stage randomly.  By the end of the transition, one man remains on stage yelling “I’m still standing.” And after repeating himself more than enough times, he walks off the stage.  All the performers quickly run back on the stage to be greeted with a large amount of applause from the audience.  As they take their final bows,  I am left reevaluating Dance and its capabilities.