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'Not this Day!' Not ready this day
Contributed by: Daniel Kwan on 2/24/2008

"It began with a simple idea: Use hard hitting contemporary music and inventive dance to take an unflinching look at a world gone mad, and then make a stand for hope."

An unflinching look, indeed. The producer's notes indulge in a small list of the perceived horrors of today: Wife and child abuse, road rage, families in crisis, runaways, school shootings, kidnappings, eating disorders, teenage suicide, gang warfare, corporate greed, pedophilic priests, homelessness, poverty, hunger, disease, AIDS, old age loneliness, inadequate health care, overpopulation, terrorism, war, suicide bombers, genocide, religious and ethnic bigotry, environmental degradation, hurricanes, earthquakes. To name a few.

And yet, Not This Day! is "about the hope of a decent future and building some kind of trust in the people that are inheriting the world" boasts their website.

It's produced by Kevin Rhodes and his 17-year old daughter, Gillian Rhodes, with a title is inspired by no less than Aragorn of Lord of the Rings - "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day!" he says at the end of the third movie, Return of the King (2003).

With such a high minded mission and grandiose attitude, I was expecting a mind-blowing show. After all, the dance included elements of "ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop, break dancing...even martial arts!" Such expectations, however, were not met.

To be fair, the hip-hop elements were extremely well done. The "Assassins," the antagonists of the story, employed an edgy style that suited their characters well. And the aerial dance that Gillian put on was nothing short of incredible.

Many of these good elements, however, were lost. Most of the dancers were out of sync with each other or the music. It was difficult to derive a sense of a cohesive dance number when it appeared that dancers would throw out moves whenever they felt like it, in any manner that appealed to them.

The ballet, too, seemed both out of place and remarkably unimpressive. Granted, there were individuals who stood out as exceedingly talented performers, but on the whole the motions were muddy and not clear cut, or just downright sloppy.

The backdrop of Not This Day! was a traditional dance production tiered affair, resembling scaffolding on the sides of a bridge. However, the choreography failed to make use of the abundance of levels--something I feel would have helped the show's coherence tremendously. Hardly any dancing took place above the stage, and I'm sure that many impressive moves were lost on the audience simply because they occurred in the back, blocked from view by other performers.

Hanging in the air above were two corrugated steel sheets, on which arcane symbols were spray painted. I'm not sure if they represented anything, but the style suggested that the set designer said, "Go spray paint something that you think looks cool on these!"

Scenes were projected onto these screens, setting up the premise of the show. A montage was utilized, showing many grisly images of today's world and eras past. "This is our world" was flashed repeatedly, emphasizing its dark nature.

The montage itself, though, failed to get a clear message across. Obviously, the world is in a declining state, but I don't see how showing images of the Holocaust or World War I or II represents contemporary times. It also seemed to have been made with the United States as the focal point of all troubles, or at the very least, the country that mattered most. 9/11 was cited as the most monumental tragedy of times past, and that's something I can't agree with.

To be honest, after a certain point, the montage simply didn't capture my attention--being composed of scene after scene of heartbreak and tragedy, for several minutes on end. Rather, I found my gaze being drawn to the stage, where the performers had wandered on and milled about aimlessly, watching the screen. Their movement detracted from the power of the montage, as did the length of the video itself.

Finally, the lighting design was composed entirely of preprogrammed lights that swiveled on mounts--brought in by outside sources and ignoring the stage lights that could have so easily been utilized. The lighting itself wasn't really a problem--stark, harsh light that fit the mood well--until the lights turned, shining into the audience's eyes. I'm not sure who the lighting designer was, but this aspect of the show was my biggest complaint, and I missed quite a bit, squinting fiercely to discern what was happening on stage.

All in all, Not This Day! is an ambitious production, designed to send a clear message to today's youth. Unfortunately, much of this message is muddied in the advertising, and its fliers appear to be from a religious, vampiric cult rather than a man and his daughter seeking to create hope.

The choreography has the potential to be extremely impressive, but the dancers need to clean up their act and work together. I would suggest dancing in front of a mirror to match movements to other people. The set design is functional, but underused, and the lighting should be completely redone to avoid blinding the audience.

For a year of work, I would have hoped that Not This Day! would have been better prepared with six scenes. However, if its directors change what needs to be changed, I'm sure it can truly be the revolution it claims.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Daniel Kwan

Lakewood , CO

Daniel Kwan has posted 1 story and 0 comments since joining on 3/22/2007. Daniel Kwan 's average story rating is 0.
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