Cultural Dance : My Dream As A Student Of Dance

As a youth, I engaged in many forms of dance expression. I studied tap, jazz, and ballet for fifteen years. During these formative years, I choose to forgo many youth experiences so that I could participate in advance dance programs. The hard work paid off when I received a college scholarship to a performing arts

Contemporary is one of the genre in dance. It first developed in the twentieth century, since many of its pioneers were born in the late nineteenth century and is continuously being changed. It originally evolved from many other styles of dancing such as ballet, modern and jazz. The technique used in contemporary is similar to ballet with controlled legwork but uses contracts and relax. Contemporary is considered as a breakaway from ballet by people who did not want to stick to the strictness of ballet. Contemporary uses floor work, fall and recovery as well as many other techniques.

Another one of my passions is dance. Since the age of three I have been dancing. Whether it is on stage, at a competition, or just in front of my family, I found a love for this art. Around the age of thirteen I began student teaching; because of this, I found a liking for helping people become more confident in themselves and their dance technique. Not only did I learn to dance, but I also built confidence, learned great stage presence and to have respect for everyone. These are all lessons that will remain with me for life.

I was a dancer for fourteen years, beginning at the age of four and ending at the age of 18. I participated in basically every type of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, modern, lyrical, and contemporary. Each year, I would participate in more classes than the last, and it eventually got to the point where I would be attending dance classes five or six days of my week. It definitely got tiring, but I still loved it. Dance is a great way to be able to portray emotions through movement, and I think that is very unique and special to participate in. It was a very huge part of my life, and so were the people teaching me. Dance and everything that came with it was a huge influence on my life, and it helped shaped me into the person I am today.

The music played a large role in determining the style of the pieces in the show by Koresh Dance Company. It set the theme and mood for the dances. Also, the choreography was dependent on the beats and variations in the music. This basis added to the themes of the dances as well.

Dance has always been a part of my life, and it was always fun to look back at old pictures and reminisce about all of the dance issues I had when I was younger. But as I got older and better, the growing stopped. I wasn’t learning as much new stuff, just perfecting old choreography. Ballet has never been my favorite dance style, my studio is more invested in lyrical and performance styles, like tap, jazz, and musical theatre. I originally only wanted to take ballet here because I wanted to be in the Nutcracker because it was something my studio doesn’t do. But this class brought me back to ballet basics, and I have seen major growth in my ballet technique, enough for my mom to notice. I’ve gotten a lot stronger at certain ballet barre warm

I am Shanna Woods, a dancer, mother, life and college student, dance instructor and aspiring choreographer. I have dance before I could walk. I decided I wanted to dance after watching a video of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Giselle in the 5th grade. At that time, I didn’t know becoming a dancer was a possible career. It was just something we all did in the community; shaking our non-hips, doing the tootsie roll, and whatever we saw on the music videos. I remember making up dances for my friends and forcing my cousins to learn routines for family reunions and other gatherings. You can say, I was always a choreographer at heart. I began serious training at Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, FL. I also studied chorus. I became a dance major at Dreyfoos School of the Arts also in West Palm Beach, FL. Through Dreyfoos I was exposed to Graham with Jan Goetz, contemporary modern with Gina Buntz, ballet with Jeff Satinoff, as well as guest artists like Ben Vereen and Reginald Yates. I also trained at Southern Dance Theatre in Boynton Beach where I studied ballet, jazz, and gained my love for Bob Fosse through Dancer’s Edge Dance Company.

Trust me when I say that I know my way around a ballet barre. I have

On the day that they were given the groups, they immediately began planning and thinking about what they would do for the finals. Even though that was just a day to get together and start making a group name, they went on to plan on what they would do/use for the song. they set up things like the song they would use and even started writing down possible dance steps. By the next class or the first official day of practicing, they started off by waiting for everyone in the team to arrive at the dance studio. Once they did they continued making plans for what they were gonna do for their dance. They had already settled on the song they would use and began practicing what they had planned out. They seemed genuinely enthusiastic when it came to

Inspired by personal experience as a ballet dancer and researcher (Dornelles de Almeida; Flores-Pereira, 2013) I plan to conduct a qualitative study through a bodily-centred (Crossley, 1995) ethnography at professional ballet companies, as well as with independent professional ballet dancers in London. Ethnography offers the opportunity to understand cultural differences and “reveals what people think and show us the cultural meanings they use daily” (Spradley, 1980, p.vii).The ethnographer's goal is to go beyond a cognitive, behavioural and representational apprehension of the research field (Grau, 2011; Hanna, 2014). As soon as different organisations promote environments where embodiment occurs by its employers in diverse ways (Dale, 2001),

Since the age of 4 I have been interested in dance. Personally, I participated in community education dance for 6 years before I started assisting teaching dance as volunteer hours. Only 4 years ago that I started on my commutation team where I became a strong leader. This year as a junior at West Central, I took a personal interest in color guard and I’m hoping to be a powerful leader my senior year. My whole life revolves around dance because that is what I love and it is also what keeps me

Dance has always played a huge role in my life. I have learned many life lessons and gained many experiences that dance has been able offer to me. Ever since I was a little girl, my mom told me that I was always prancing on my toes and started moving, I wouldn’t call it dancing, as soon as I heard music. It could have been anywhere; the grocery store, the mall, or even at church, I was just always dancing.

To begin with, people usually start ballet at a young age such as 5. However, I started when I was 12. My inspiration was Misty Copeland, the first dark skinned dancer that became the ABT’s soloist which also got in ballet at the age of 12. Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed about dancing but I couldn’t afford lessons. 6 months after I finally got in, I was promoted to the most advanced group. They say I was born with talent and now, I stand doing endless turns and jumps, performing my heart out during solos. Ballet has made me not only and expressive person throughout dance, but only a hard worker because after working hard, I got to be this high and now I apply this for school and everything I do.

Professional ballet dancer's perspective of their own senses while dancing on daily practice of training/class remains unexplored in dance scholarship. This is the gap in scientific research that remains to be uncovered by empricial research. From this research the dance world could benefit on better understanding on the senses and embodiment of dance in training.

The word ‘Ballet’ stems from the Italian word “Ballo” deriving from the Italian verb to dance. The use of the Italian term ‘ballo’ (referring to dancing to varied rhythms) instead of the Italian verb ‘danza’ (to dance) did not only represented the inclusion of Italy into the ballet history timeline, but also it indefinitely transformed the culture of ballet as it was known until that time in the mid-thirties of the seventeenth century (Greskovic, 2005, p. 6) The identity of ballet during its early development stages (pre twentieth century) shows how language can be used to enrich ballet.