Young and old came together to enjoy the beauty of dance and support their loved ones at the performance of “SoulMates.” The Michigan Dance Project performed, “SoulMates,” at the University of Michigan-Flint Theater on Jan. 22. The group continuously danced through their hour-long performance, much to the audience’s delight.

“The show is based off an excerpt from ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert. The way she defined soul mate gave us our inspiration and a whole new term for the word,” Travis Staton-Marrero, Michigan Dance Project’s assistant creative director, said. “It just related to our personal lives a lot and the dif-ferent aspects of how we feel about friends, family, and relationships.”

“Eat, Pray, Love” defines a soul mate as more than just your perfect fit but more as someone who is a mirror, showing you the reality of yourself by revealing layers as they come and go.

The show captured the emotions that accompany relationships in everyday life. They successfully chose dancers that could portray the feelings of the dance accurately. Fun was an important factor for the dancers.

“It makes you laugh, and it’s nice to be able to laugh at a show,” Kathy King, the founder and director of the Michigan Dance Project, said. “We don’t take dance that seriously. You have to have fun with it.”

The show featured modern and relatable music; mostly what would be considered Indie. A few orchestra-based pieces snuck in, but fit in perfectly with the flow and emotions of the rest. The atmo-sphere was relevant for the audience because it has so many ambiguous meanings.

“The show will affect everyone differently. No two people are going to come away feeling the same thing because each person has different things in their life that make them take it in a particular way,” Staton-Marrero said. “It’s going to be different for everyone. I know the group all have different views about it.”

The group chose to wear simple costumes to add to the aura of the performance. Leggings, white shirts, and bare feet were featured at the beginning of the performance, but were later followed by splashes of color and fresh sneakers. The dancers were very in tune with the music and sometimes pretended to make the noises in the songs, such as the clinking of glasses.

Everything about the performance was executed with precision. The only thing distracting from the quality were the brief moments of chaos onstage. Many dancers were doing separate dances that were not necessarily connected to the others. It was hard to watch all of the dancers simultaneously and left the audience feeling as if they had missed something as their eyes went from person to person. These moments were fleeting and soon the audience could connect again with the beauty of the dancers.

For more information about the Michigan Dance Project, visit www.michigandanceproject.com or search for them on Facebook.

Helen can be reached at helund@umflint.edu.