Lux Shines New Light On Highland Dance

When it comes to living up to names and expectations, Highland’s dance company does it best. This year, their spring show entitled “Lux” lives up to its name by being a visual masterpiece, taking full advantage of the lighting from all angles. In addition to being visually striking, the choice in music varies in genre and every night even has a special number done by an outside group.

    Lux relies on lighting, but in a rather untraditional way by being incredibly bright at times, and pitch black at others. Once performance has the dancers carry their own lights onto the stage, while another had the dancers perform under a solitary bulb hanging from the ceiling. Technology is also a major part of this concert as slide shows of the performers are shown in between dances as well as different designs being displayed on the background.

    Lux also involves a lot of the Highland community. One dance in particular has graphics made by Highland’s Nic Lloyd that at times literally dances next to those on stage. Additionally, the special performances each night include a polynesian dance by Highland students, a piece from the neighboring Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, the NuTribe Dance Crew, and a number from the Highland Dance Company children’s workshop. Each night also includes a partner dance

    Emotions also play a large part in each dance. The feel good music and style of an early disco piece (and a bollywood number to a song that AP World History students will recognize) is met equally with a particularly emotional piece about mothers. One trend through the whole concert is the strength and tallent of the dancers themselves. Most of Lux’s visual appeal comes from the technicality of the dances being performed perfectly on que, and it’s easy to tell that lots of rehearsal time was spent refining Lux.

There are still opportunities to see lux as there are two remaining shows, Saturday March 10th and Monday March 12th with both performances being at 7:00P.M.