Dance Critique

Angelika Arbie D. Morales

Marajaw Ateneo: The Ateneo Fiesta Cheer Dance Showdown
December 2, 2019 @ MPCC1
SLAE, GRADE 12, NAO, AAO, GRADE 11, FS, JHS/GS, MAO

Cheerdance is a type of dance interpretation commonly used by schools to show

support to their respective teams who are competing against their opponent. Cheerdance is
performed in various ways; by cheer leading, performing stunts, gymnastic dance steps and
flexes and many more. Cheerdance has many different phases or divisions formed into different
staging formations during the whole duration of the performance.

Ateneo Fiesta 2019 brought back the Cheerdance Competition, The Marajaw Ateneo.
The teams that joined the said competition were the School of Liberal Arts and Education, the
Grade 12 Titans, the Nursing Academic Organization “Synergy” Angels, the Accountancy
Academic Organization “Ardent” Tigers, the Grade 11 Dire Wolves, the Faculty and Staff
Wolves, The Grade School and Junior High School Falcons and the Management Academic
Organization Lions. I have observed that some of the participating groups don’t have enough
experience in this kind of dance routine, some have their blunders while performing and it
really wasn’t pleasing to the eye, some performed their following routines accurately and
perfectly. All of the participating groups have the basic steps in their routines; some were not
executing it correctly and some did it accurately. Some groups have very poor balancing skills
and performed some of the parts unsteadily. Specifically, groups 1 and 6, have their blunders in
executing their stunts and formations and those were very eye-catching to the audiences and
especially, the judges. The other teams executed their performances well and made their
mistakes less obvious to the perspective of the audience by continuing their performance as if
no error was committed.
I find all the performances amusing despite of all the errors committed by some groups
but those who performed smoothly and accurately took my disappointment away. The lights
were reflected and highlighted each performance depending on the costumes that they were
wearing because of the dark background; this is due to the event happening at night. The
costumes that captured my interest were the costumes of the Grade 12 Titans, the AAO Tigers
and the NAO Angels. Their concepts of the designs of their costumes were the typical kind of
attire seen on every cheerdance competition. Every group have their musical background
depending on what their theme is all about and composes of different blends of beats, rhythm,
percussion, and etc.
 At first, upon watching the performance of Grade 12 Titans, I must say that their
performance was really catching the attention of the audience and the judges. This team, for
me, has the most number of dancers. This factor never affected their performance because
they were able to perform it very accurately. It made the audience cheer and the judges stand
in applause to their performance. By looking closely, errors can be seen but the performers
made it less obvious by performing continuously. Due to having the most performers in a team,
they were able to cover the errors for the audience and judges to look at it less obvious. In
short, their performance was not clean but very catchy so that is why they got the 2 nd runner-up
place. The AAO Ardent Tigers was the 1 st runner-up. Their dance routines were slightly clean
and safe. They don’t have any errors in executing stunts and formations, but the basic steps in
their dance routine were not executed properly and were not synchronized. The champion for
the Cheer Dance Competition was the NAO ANGELS SYNERGY. They had a clean dance routine.
The steps were synchronized and executed properly. One of their pyramid formations was not
formed properly but they still managed to perform their routine well.
 Dance Critique
Angelika Arbie D. Morales
Dance Sports “Baile Ateneo”: The Latin and Standard American Discipline
December 5, 2019 @ MPCC1
SLAE, G.12, NAO, AAO, G.11, CSIT, JHS, MAO

The competitions consist of four dances – Samba, Cha-cha-cha, Rhumba, and Jive.
Samba is the first dance in the Latin America routine. Dance, that has almost 20 years of history
that is filled with interesting facts, moments and names. Samba was originated from Brazil.
Cha-cha inherited most of its style from its predecessors: Rhumba and Mambo. Rhumba is one
of the most lyric, emotional and beautiful dances – the dance of love. Due to its slow rhythm, it
seems easy – it most definitely is not. Jive is the liveliest, fast and playful dance in the Latin
America routine. Jive is known for many names. Sometimes it called Swing, Jitterburg, Lindy
Hop or Charleston, even though these are completely different dances.

Every year, Ateneo Fiesta always have a Dance Sport Competition from the Latin
America routine and the Standard American Discipline. For this years Ateneo Fiesta, the Latin
America Dance consist of four Dances, and these are the Cha-Cha-Cha, Samba, Rhumba and
Jive. Each teams can have two pairs in max for the Latin Dance. All pairs will showcase their
dance routines in the stage all together. They will perform every category that the Latin Dance
have. I can say that, not all were executing the steps properly. Others body were not flexible as
it didn’t have timing in every beat of the music or sounds. Others don’t have facial expression.
The emotional feeling for rhumba was only slightly seen from some couples but we can also see
that everybody was trying their best to dance properly with emotions. They were trying to flex
their body as it will connect to the music. Others were doing amazing exhibition to capture the
attention of the judges as well as the audiences. Of course, there were times that every couples
bumped to each other as they are not completely aware of every couple movements. The
costumes that they are wearing were not that heavy and long.

Modern Standard American Discipline Dances are more suitable to a ballroom.

Competitions consist of four Standard Dances – The Slow Waltz, Tango, Quickstep and Viennese
Waltz. The Quickstep is probably the most playful dances in Standard Dance routines.
Quickstep’s rhythm could easily be mistaken as Jive, although correct and classical quickstep is
easily distinguishable. Viennese Waltz is usually associated with Johann Strauss and that is not
far from the truth. Very elegant dance with specific turns. Tango is a dance of passion. Often
used in the modern movie industry, this dance is beautiful and exciting to spectate. In slow
waltz, traditionally, this is the first dance routine.

For the Modern Standard American Discipline Dance, the teams can have 2 pairs in max
for these kind of dance. It has four categories, and these are the Slow Waltz, Tango, Quickstep
and the lastly the Viennese Waltz.

Just like from the Latin Dance, the pairs of Modern Standard Dance will dance all
together in the stage. They will execute each step and action according to the said categories.
They can conquer every sides of the stage. They have the freedom to do every dance routine
and exhibition that they have. Dissimilar from the costumes of Latin Dance, the costumes for
the Modern Standard must be long and the lower part of it must not fit as it will sway when the
girls turn around. It must be also a little bit heavy so that it will follow every dance move of a
girl do. The pairs that joined this category were very pleasant to watch as the movement of the
body and feet were synchronize and executed properly. The facial expression that they have
were very sweet and not hard. The movements were slow as they can feel the music were
trying to convey.

For me, it was for the judges to judge this kind of dances, they will not just judge 3
couples but 6 or more couples and were performing all together. The steps and the way body
move can be similar to one another but if you will look closely you can notice the difference of
each movement they do.
 Dance Critique
Marweena T. Ebbah
Ateneo Dance Crew: Pop Dance Competition
December 6, 2019 @ MPCC1
SLAE, G.12, NAO, AAO, G.11, CSIT, JHS, MAO

Pop Dance is a popular music sub-genre that originated in the early 1980s. it is generally
up-tempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable
for contemporary hit radio. Pop dance was normally seen or used in clubs or any kind of social
event where groups of people would come to dance. Pop dancers are very wanted since pop
music is very popular, having pop dance so popular means people would like pop music and
pop dancers at their social gatherings or parties.

For this years’ Atfest, the Pop Dance competition happened on the last day and night
event, December 6, 2019. The Academic Organization participated in this competitions were
the School of Liberal Arts and Education, the Grade 12 Titans, The Nursing Academic
Organization, The Accountancy Academic Organization, the Grade 11 Dire Wolves, The SITAO
Griffins, the defending champions Junior High School Department and the Management
Academic Organization. You can see that every dance crew really well prepared for their
performances. They used different props. The AAO Dance Crew used chairs, tables, bags and
bulletin board, The Junior High Dance Crew used lights as their primary props. The NAO Dance
crew used placards. Others used skirts. The dance routine of each dance group were very
unique and different. The theme and motif of their dance were very dissimilar. The movement
of each dance were strong and highly executed their dance step. The facial expression that they
have were very hard. You can see their enjoyment while dancing with their smiling and smirking
faces. The movements were sexy and very much connected to the beat of the music. Their
costumes were different to one another as well as the props used. It seems like each dance
crew were being creative in terms of making steps and using props. At some point, not all dance
group literally conquered the whole stage. Others only used the center stage but others were
literally used every side/corners of the stage.
This years’ competition of the Pop Dance was wonderful as everybody had its own
dance routine. It well synchronizes. I know that the judges were having a hard time of picking
the winners. In the end, the AAO Dance Crew got the 2 nd runner-up place, the Junior High
School Dance Crew was the 1st runner-up and the Champion for Atfest 2019 Pop Dance was the
Nursing Academic Organization.