Smoldering Soldering: A True "Fusion"

I bound up the steps of Brown University’s Pembroke campus, clinging to my coat to shield myself from the cold. I walk up to Alumni Hall and immediately hear strains of hip hop music blasting from a closeby speaker. I survey the crowd. They don’t look particularly “hip hop” in any way that I think of it. They are laughing and chattering students, shifting around in their plastic chairs, waiting patiently for the show to start. The lights are bright in Alumni hall, and the plush red curtains, chandeliers, and gold pipe organs seem to be incongruous with the rap music flowing through the air. I take a seat, wondering if anyone is curious why I am sitting alone and furiously scribbling at my notebook. At two minutes of eight, I see bare feet scampering under the stage curtain. The lights flicker clumsily on and off and then go completely black. The Fusion dance concert is about to begin.

When I planned to attend the Fusion Dance Company’s 26th annual show, I was expecting an evening of hip hop style music and dance. What I found, however, was a true fusion of different dance styles, genres of music, and performers. I knew two of the dancers in the show. Though these associations made it harder for me to be a completely objective observer, I tried to put my connections with the group aside to look at the show from a broader angle. The Fusion dance show was able to portray the “socially mediated patterns of kinetic energy” McClary described in her article, and I became convinced that dance is a physical expression of “the music itself.”

My friend from Brown theatre convinced me to buy a ticket to the Fusion show. At every rehearsal for Cabaret, she would announce that she was selling Fusion tickets, and that we should buy them soon before they sold out. I was confused why tickets to a show solely promoted by the performers themselves would sell out so quickly. Then I saw the table slips. For the week leading up to the show, Fusion put out slips on every table at every dining hall. Like a cross between a Pokemon Card and an Ipod commercial, each slip depicted a different dancer completely colored in black in the midst of a complex move and included a fun fact about the performer it displayed. These eye catching table slips combined multiple forms of mass media that are easily relatable. Fusion went one step further by making their own online commercial to promote the show. The commercial, available on Youtube, shows Fusion members dancing in different locations on Brown’s campus, attractive to the Brown Student because it depicts recognizable locations, and accessible to people outside of the Brown community because of Youtube’s popularity. The banner hanging above Faunce arch was yet another promotional device.





Based on the extensive promotion that Fusion did, I expected a diverse crowd at the show. Perhaps it was because it was a Thursday, but the crowd seemed to be composed of mostly students. There was a relatively even mix of boys and girls. What struck me most was that the crowd displayed the type of diversity I see walking from one side of campus to another. Many came with backpacks, wore clothing that would be seen daily on a Brown student, and spoke about schoolwork and campus life. They seemed to have no particular group affiliation: they did not all dress like stereotypical fans of Hip Hop music, they did not all seem to be dancers (though I heard one girl mention her Mande Dance class, an emic dance term), and I only recognized a few from the Brown theatre and a cappella scenes. They were probably the friends of the dancers from various walks of life. The crowd was also multicultural. Fusion prides itself on being a multiethnic group, so it makes sense that its audience would be of mixed race. The crowd was subdued before the show began but came to life when a Fusion member walked on the stage asking for “interactive audience” who would “let [her] hear it” if they liked something they saw. The crowd eagerly followed her instructions. Whenever someone in the audience saw a dancer (presumably their friend) enter, calls of “YEAH (name)!” pervaded the space. The audience cheered when the dancers did a difficult move. They laughed when a joke was made, such as when a male danced to the lyrics “a diva is a female version of a hustler.” Long, dark pauses between pieces were cut by whistles and exclamations like “GET IT FUSION!” Soon, the audience started to mock their own behavior by screaming “Yeah dancing!,” “Yeah audience!,” and then “Yeah (random noun)!” At intermission, I was able to gage audience reaction to the concert. “I got chills in two of [the pieces],” said one girl to another. Many of the people in the audience seemed to know each other, as they got out of their seats to greet friends. There were a few older people present, probably family members or teachers. When the Student Director of the company came out to give thank yous, she extended her gratitude to family members who had traveled long distances to see the show. I can ascertain that this concert was perhaps the biggest event of the year for Fusion. Though I sat scribbling in a notebook for the majority of the show, no one seemed to notice my presence as an observer, aside from when I shone my cellphone light on my notebook during blackouts. I seemed to fit into the scene just fine, though I was one of the only people sitting alone. I even found myself screaming “YEAH LIZ!” when my friend walked onto the stage.

One of the most miraculous things about the Fusion dance concert was its ability to bring “the music itself” to life. There were three ways in which it was manifested: lights, costumes, and dance. Lighting shifted as the song did. In a medley of songs with driving hip hop beats, the lights flashed from red to yellow quickly on the drum. Often, blue lighting was used for slower and smoother songs while red lighting was used for more beat driven tunes. These contrasting colors highlighted the mood that each piece of music emitted. Costume was also used for this purpose. In hip hop pieces, the dancers wore street clothes, attire common to hip hop performers. For slower pieces with a more alternative sound, dancers wore dresses that flowed with the lyrical music. Most importantly, of course, was the dance. From the pieces presented, I got a sense that Fusion is truly a fusion of every dance style. The more mellifluous pieces with lighter instrumentals and smoother melody lines leant themselves to a balletic dance style with gentler movements and rounded body shapes. Music with heavier beats had sharper, more robotic movements that changed with the beat of the drum. Some pieces had choreography based on the lyrics. One piece entitled “Vegetable Car” felt more like a piece of theatre than a piece of dance, as both the words and the choreography told the story of a boy and girl falling in love. The choreography, no matter what it was based on, brought the music to life such that its audience awarded the concert a standing ovation.

I went to the Fusion Dance Company’s 26th annual show expecting a hip hop dance concert. What I discovered was a survey of different genres of music as expressed through different styles of dance. The group’s clever promotional devices brought a wide range of people to the show. The audience was willing to respond to what they saw and paid particular interest to their friends on stage. Finally, the performative elements of the show made tangible the emotion and beats of the music, bringing it to life in a way that only a dance concert could. I believe that through attending dance concerts, we as musical consumers and scholars will get closer to finding the music itself.

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