Epiphany and Mozik: “One Show” Review (Part 2)

Here's a continuation of the previous post.

Paris (Mozik)

Mozik’s theme was Paris, the birth place of high fashion. What better troupe to tackle this challenge than a troupe whose fashion has been some of the best and most creative in North Carolina on the east coast?

The scene took place in the Louvre, one of the most famous museums on the planet.  Like Epiphany, I couldn’t get much from the voice over to understand the entire premise of the scene. The part I got was Mozik’s (MMT) executive board wondering around and being found by a curator, who then shows them the cultural works housed in the museum.

The show was almost classic Mozik. Intricate footwork, killer freezing, if you want to see pure, old school college modeling, an MMT show is where it's at! I do like the new walk well, it’s been done since 2009, but still Mozik has their girls doing. The dramatic Clydesdale. It looks cute and gives personality to the group aesthetic as a whole.

The clothing was practical, at first. The eboard members were stylish in modern evening wear. The models on the side posed as various pieces from the Louvre galleries, and those poses were dramatic.

  I predicted that MMT would once again bring unique, sickening (gay slang for hot) creations that would make the girls pressed and nervous. However, the fashion never went anywhere past evening glam. There are so many avant garde, classic, and romantic  pieces of art in the Louvre that MMT could have wild the fuck out, big time, as they did with their spring show last year. I kept hoping the scene would change from the museum and onto the Paris streets or runways where MMT would slap our eyeballs with their signature creative outfits made from scratch, but it never came. 

I did like the Moulin Rouge element towards the end; it could have been a different segment of the Paris scene too. The girls did a good job imitating vaudeville era vixens. 

I was impressed with the technicality of MMT’s routines. The slow motion footwork in the first group routine was sick and it’s great to see the troupe move forward with the times but still have a clear idea of the organization’s identity and tradition. Just bring back the detailed, made-from-scratch fashion and half nudity swim wear scenes and it’ll be all gravy! Let’s hear it for refinement and elegance, Mozik style! *cheers*

New York

I was again underwhelmed from the lack of fashion and overall simplicity of this final scene. It was a complete rehash of the first scene, but with less energy. I could see the “Thank God it’s almost over” face from some of the models, endurance Rams, c’mon now!

WSSU’s troupes are known for their fancy and contrasting footwork, and if there was one scene to show this, New York was the one. I’m not saying stay at the end of the catwalk turning for 30 seconds, but don’t serve me straight runway in ready-to-wear. This is the last scene of the show, and the one that will stay in the audience’s head for the rest of the year until next Fall, do it up, don’t get lazy!

I feel as if both troupes spent more time on their respective scenes than the ones they shared together, which is to be expected. Yet, it would have been smarter to just do three scenes so that the collaboration scene could have as much needed detail and live up to the others, and the $7-$10 costs to get in.

It was an average show that I rate as a C+ or B-. What hurt the most in the end, was the foggy video interludes that didn’t convey the story well enough for whatever technical reasons leaving the audience confused during the finale. That and how anemic the first and last scenes appeared compared to the middle two. I’m proud both were able to come together and put together this work of art, showing maturity as growth as organizations. At the end of the day, Epiphany and Mozik worked it. Will they be able to kick ass next year and reestablish WSSU as the performance modeling powerhouse it was in the early and mid 2000's? I believe so and can say that if they work hard AND BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, anything is possible.