Northwestern University’s Ballroom, Latin, and Swing Team took a journey through time with its annual spring show Friday and Saturday.
The performance included cultural costumes ranging from an ornate belly dancing outfit to ’50s-style poodle skirts.
The show, titled “BLAST from the PAST,” featured 18 pieces by 15 choreographers. Dozens of dancers of all levels, from beginners to professionals, took part in the history-themed show, which was held in the Ryan Family Auditorium.”The show was about dancing throughout history,” said Communication sophomore Ashley Darnall, a member of BLAST’s competition team and a dancer in four of the show’s pieces. “It’s a really fun theme.”
Some pieces focused on a single historical event, such as “The Birth of Isis,” an Egyptian belly dance choreographed by professional belly dancer and NU graduate Natasha Mao, and “The Trojan War Tango,” choreographed by Bienen and Weinberg junior Kenton Popovich.
Other pieces embodied the passage through time in general, such as “From the Stone Age to the Bone-a-Fide Age,” a cha-cha and samba fusion piece choreographed by BLAST member Tatyana Zaprudskaya and Bienen sophomore Josh Hills.
BLAST includes members from on and off campus.
The show opened with “Dinosaur Boogie in T-Rex Time,” choreographed by BLAST member Steven Kellert. The piece featured 14 dancers who moved and sounded like dinosaurs, foxtrotting and snarling at one another simultaneously.
The group mainly focuses on ballroom, Latin and swing dance, but many pieces in the show also featured choreography derived from modern dance, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. The show included everything from belly dancing to a country swing to Michael Jackson’s musical evolution.
“BLAST from the PAST” ended with a finale set to “The Time Warp.” Afterward, the cast invited the audience to join them in a dance party on stage. The cast had four performances of the show last weekend.
Cast members had been preparing for the show since auditions were held in January, according to BLAST show co-producer and director Danielle Siegel.
“It’s been hectic, but it went really well,” the Communication sophomore said. “It takes a lot for a show to seem cohesive, especially when all the pieces are really different.”
Participating dancers rehearsed three times per week and every day of the week leading up to the show. Despite the long hours, many dancers felt the show made the rehearsals worth it. At one of the Saturday shows, the downstairs section of Ryan Auditorium was about three-quarters full.
“The shows went really well and we had a good turnout,” said Darnall. “The cast was really fun and enthusiastic. I loved it.”
For some BLAST newcomers, the show was an opportunity to perform on stage for the first time.
“I had never performed on stage and I definitely had stage fright at first,” McCormick freshman Michael Guerrero said. “But the energy of the crowd made me forget all about the nervousness.”
