Dance Reflection Paper

Dance is not only a form of art or a physical activity, but a means of expressing yourself. Through dance, I gained confidence, courage, patience, and other valuable qualities, now all fused into my identity. I have danced for the past 10 years, consistently training every week, persevering through the

I danced at Tina’s Dance Studio in Eldridge, Iowa for 12 consecutive years before I graduated high school. There I studied in ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, lyrical, tap, jazz, hip-hop, musical theater, gymnastics and clogging. I was also a part of the competition team for eight years. We not only did local competitions and conventions, but we traveled and went to nationals in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. I also danced in shows in Disney World and on a Carnival Cruise Ship. In high school, I was on the varsity Dance Team winning three state titles in pom and lyrical eventually traveling to Nationals. A few summers ago, I trained with Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago with their summer intensive focusing on modern, contemporary and ballet. During my senior year of high school and this past summer I taught classes in jazz, tap and contemporary for students 8-16 years old. I also self-choreographed three competition solos. Here, at Ohio University, I am a member of the dance team doing dances at football and basketball games.

Dance is one of the major things that defines my identity and it is an interest that had become so meaningful, that without it my application would be incomplete. This has been able to shape me throughout the years, from discipline and maturity all the way yo leadership and teamwork. I find dance as an art work, that it is easy to make mistakes and fall, you just have to learn from those mistakes and get up twice as strong as from where you started. Dance is to look above and beyond and just let everything fall into place without hesitation.

“What are you even doing here? I have never seen such flawed technique in all my years as a choreographer.” The words echoed throughout the medical college auditorium. Impelled by the admonishment in front of my peers, I persevered in my endeavor to improve upon my dancing prowess and by the final year of medical school was leading the college dance team. The above mentioned undertaking further spawned an interest for the discipline of Latin Ballroom which lead to participation at the national level. The unwavering focus and persistence even in the face of unfavorable odds is more broadly reflective of my approach towards learning, both academic and extracurricular. This has been instrumental in achieving stellar academic outcomes including being ranked nationally in the top 0.0004 percent in the premedical test and the top 0.6 percent in the common aptitude test for management training.

With 15 years under her feet, Johnson is a Dance major going into her sophomore year at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette under the training of Marie Broussard, Kenneth Jenkins and Dina Melley. She practices many styles of dance but

On Wednesday, November 18th, I had the pleasure to attend and watch the Dance Plus’s Fall show. The Dance Plus was performed at the Douglass Theatre, Victoria Mastrobuno Theater. When I entered the show the theatre seemed a little small for such big crowed. I immediately thought there would not be enough seats for all the audience, but somehow it fitted everyone. As everyone got settled down, the dance performance had started. I chose to write about the first performance that was choreographed by the amazing director, Jessica Lange her work was simply wonderful! I loved every little piece of the play. It put a smile on my face watching this amazing work of art. So with that said, I would now like to talk about the dance performance. There were

I studied Chinese classic and folk dance in my secondary school. During those five years, I participated in many provincial dance contests in Shandong as well as the performance in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I first approached modern dance was in 2010 after completing my secondary school study. Opportunities provided in Beijing led me into a new world where I could dance with fewer set rules despite some of the limitation of my body condition. After getting to know more about it, I admitted to Jilin University of the Arts in 2012 major in dance choreography where I got professionally trained in every aspect to become a qualified dancer and choreographer.

The first dance performance I will be analyzing is “Don’t Fall Asleep”. There were dark red lights coming from the top before the dance began. Overall, there were fifteen dancers. There were many different props such as a bed with blankets on top that were rolling around on stage. Also, there was an acorn head that one of the dancers wore on top of his head. The music in the background was “Sweet dreams (Are Made of This)”. When watching this performance and the movement from the dancers, the story line in my opinion was there was a girl who was trying to sleep but she kept being awaken by these dreams. Her body language, jumping in and out of bed, running around basically made you aware that she was looking or running from something. The surrounding

For these past two years in high school, I have been taking Cleo Mack’s dance program that is provided for us at MCVTS. Starting the program freshman year I did not know what to expect at all but I am glad my mom pushed me to come to this school. I have been dancing since I was three at a competition studio who is very strict about almost everything especially performance quality, but as I have learned from Ms. Mack it’s good to tone down the face and make your dancing more authentic and real.

As a member of a dance, I had to understand the importance of teamwork. Seeing there was many people in dance, so there had to be a cooperative effort to achieve a common goal. It became quite challenging seeing people learn at different paces and I am a slow learner. Only I had to learn to respect the value of teamwork and my fellow dance numbers. Each and every class we all worked for a same goal, we became dedicated and devoted. Our teacher would help us develop our abilities with leadership. As leadership is necessary to ensure that a team's accomplishments are not misguided but achieved. I once believed a dancer is someone who is just doing weird movements, but is actually someone who is admired. The balance between teamwork itself is admired. It all pays off when we dance on stage.

I first emerged into my dance career and training at age of 13. What started as an hobby immediately turned into a passion of mines unexpectedly and from that point I desperately wanted to continue my passion of dance. I first trained in hip-hop, contemporary, ballet, West-African and improvisation. All together my dance director and former Urban Bush Women Valerie Winborne- Anderson combined all these styles together forming the dance fusion company V2W. In the 8 years of training with V2W I developed a deep connection in dance my dancing. This experience shifted my original perceptions of dance and I must say that this experience helped with foundation and the development in my pedagogy and teaching philosophy.

The group that I have chosen to identify with is the Franklin and Marshall Dance Company. The company is comprised of over 50 dancers and is supervised by three authoritative professors. Each fall, new choreographers are recruited by the company to each their choreographies, or reconstruction works of other choreographers, in the Fall Dance Concert. Each spring, the students have the opportunity to choreograph their own pieces for the Spring Dance Concert. These student choreographed pieces either presented in the concert, which runs for three days, or in the Show case, held only on a Sunday. During the spring choreography, each choreographer contends with the corresponding choreographers to secure a spot in the concert, which galvanizes competition, hostility, and tension. Conclusively, however, akin to any other campus organization, we, the members of the company, share solidarity with each other with regards to certain ideas and acceptable behaviors.

Dancing has also challenged me into channeling my creativity in the form of choreography. Anyone could go to a dance recital and admire the grace of a dancer's movement, but the majority do not realize the dedication and hard work that goes into bringing that to life. It takes hours upon hours of practice and patience to create a piece so beautiful that it takes the audience's breath away. Moments like those, where every muscle in your body is screaming from exhaustion and you can't seem to catch your breath, are the moments in which people would normally give up, but I've learned to push through and the end result has always been worthwhile. If dance hadn't become such a tremendous part of my life I wouldn't be the strong person and leader that I now am today. It's taught me to step up to the plate and better myself by helping others become more talented

A series of set of movements to music, either alone or with a partner. That is the definition of dancing. Dancing is a way to express one's feeling and to get active.

On December 1, 2017, in the University Theatre at California State University, Dominguez Hills, I observed the fall dance concert Rise. It was choreographed by Amy Michelle Allen, Marco A, Carreon, Sarah Cashmore, Jeff Hendrix, Erin Landry, Doris Ressl Acosta, and Kenneth Walker, with the long cast of dancers. The production was pleasing, and would not have been believable without the work from production designers, Frederick Depontee and Cheryl Sheldon. Rise is played out in eight different dance routines, which were Xtra Xtra, Scar Tissue, Hart Broken, Things Are A Stirrin’, and the rest are intermissions such as Female Energy, Women, Exotica, Strength In Numbers, and Makina.