Joyce Moreno
by Jonathan Rosario
On Wednesday, June 16th, Joyce Moreno’s very enchanting voice brought the cultural rhythms and sounds of Brazil to New Haven. Her music was relaxing and smooth with a twist of what I would call “smooth jazz.” There was a song from her solo album that she first performed, a love song. As I continued listening to this marvelous song, I pictured myself reading a book in a beach house late at night with candle lighting illuminating the room. But as soon as the first love song began to play, all of a sudden it began to rain. I was sitting near a huge open door where the breeze blew in, relaxing my body and mind. Joyce's voice was like a whisper of wind calming and smoothing my stress away.
Khmeropedies I and II
Joel Suarez
June 18, 2010
Hello World, last night I had the privilege to see and experience “Khmeropedies I and II", a delicate yet intense collaborative dance and theatre performance. As a filmmaker, I am greatly interested in the art of storytelling and Khmeropedies had a great story. The story at first was a bit abstract because I didn’t understand the introduction. I would venture to say that the audience is just placed in the middle of the story but after the first scene, the story of touching base with one’s identity and not losing sight of one’s culture is conveyed through multiple monologues and dances. The dances touched on the hardships male dancers experience versus those of the female, such as males always getting the difficult role of playing the monkey. The other story told was the collision and differences of the youth's style of “Hip Hop dancing” versus their instructor’s classical Khmer court style of of dancing.