Dance is living art; it can tell a story without using a
single word. Dance has the ability
to do something words could never achieve. A turn of a head could have hundreds
of different meanings. In the piece “I Can’t Make You Love Me” choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance
choreographer, Mandy Moore, viewers can feel the pain of losing the love of
their life. Dancers, Jenna Johnston and Neil Haskell, embody the characters of
two people in the process of a breaking up. Neil’s persona is still madly in love
with Jenna and is fighting to have her stay. Jenna, on the other hand, is ready
to move on from the relationship.
Many
people have gone through tough breakups like the one portrayed in the dance.
Mandy Moore wanted to create a piece that could be related to by countless
amounts of people. Her purpose in creating this number was to show the struggle between the choices of breaking up and staying together. In the dance, the audience
can see Neil struggling to have Jenna stay with him. In addition, Moore’s music
selection of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” sung by Mark Masri helps emphasize the
story she is trying to tell. Although, watching dances is not for everyone,
this piece was made for anyone who has every experienced the battle with a
breaking heart and the constant strive to keep the one you love from walking
away.
I
believe that Mandy Moore was able to achieve her purpose of showing the strain
of a break up. In the dance, viewers can feel the emotions of both sides of the
tale through Jenna and Neil. Both dancer emote the two different sides of a relationships’
end. Most-likely having experienced broken hearts themselves, Moore and the
dancers let these emotions shine through in the performance and the
choreography. In my opinion, all these things are strong components of an
effective story told through the art of dance.
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