Last week, I had the pleasure of seeing “Bayourella: A Story of Forgiveness” at the Vonnie Borden Theatre performed by students inside and outside of the dance department on campus.

This dance performance was choreographed by three students which included Lindsy Brown, a senior general studies major with a concentration in dance, Forrest Duplantier, a general studies major and Hayley Jordan, a double major in History and general studies with a concentration in dance and a minor in French.

As a dancer since I was little, knowing how to make choreography fit to music so it tells your story is important.

The story was a Cajun version of Cinderella. As a lover of all things Disney, “Bayourella” was a must see for me. The dancing was beautiful and matched the wordless music perfectly.

As it began, I was slightly confused. There were two dancers on stage, then the male dancer left, leaving the female dancer alone. She began to start randomly counting. She counted all the way to 18. It was then I realized that this dancer was portraying the number of years that passed by. It all made sense when Bayourella appeared on stage in raggedy clothes and began cleaning.

I love the fact that the choreographers kept the essence of what is Cinderella, but added the perfect Cajun twist. They included a “party” as well which would refer to the ball in “Cinderella.” All of the guests took off their shrimp boots and started dancing and clapping along with the music. I thoroughly enjoyed the part in the performance where the police shut down the party. The police sirens appearing made everyone at the party begin to run. They took their running into the audience. As they were running, Prince Pierre was running all over Vonnie Borden screaming “Bayourella.” The fact that he made the effort to go up to two different females in the audience asking if they had seen her was a nice touch to make the audience feel a part of the performance.

After Pierre found Bayourella, I would have loved if Prince Pierre had put Bayourella’s boots back on her foot. That would have been the perfect touch.

Speaking of boots, each dancer wore shrimp boots to the “party.” If you are unaware of what these are, they are white boots that go up to about mid-calf. The lighting bounced off the boots perfectly. The costumes were a perfect Cinderella and Cajun twist, but the boots just popped with the lighting and scenery. The lighting also always seemed to match the mood or emotion of the scene.  

The audience paid close attention to the story. You could tell that the dancing and story captivated the audience. It kept them on the edge of their seats and they were very enthusiastic about the performance once it was over. It cost me five dollars to see the performance and it was honestly worth it. I just only wish it would have been longer than 30 minutes because I could have watched them dance even longer. As a dancer, I was always told “Anyone can dance, but it takes a true dancer to convey a story through movement” and these dancers succeeded.