Personal Narrative-He Doesn T Do It !

The first thing we did was the tilt jump to the front and then the tilt jump with our left leg tucked across the floor. For me that was easy since we have been practicing the tilt for almost a week already. After the tilt across the floor Ms. Gee added more steps such as the , retire position , and small altitude jump. The first three times I got confused on the arm placement, but after that I stay for a minute after class and got the order of the steps.

"Later." he replied putting his headphones back on, resuming whatever he was doing. You walked back down the hallway and gave Stacy another thank you and goodbye.

“Why don’t you walk me to practice and I will introduce you to the teacher.”

I was born in a seaside city where people enjoy the first ray of sunlight of a day. Running and playing on the beach is my favorite routine of my childhood life, and all my friends said that I was good at “dancing.” Frankly, I did not know what dancing was at that moment, but every time I moved my body that made me satisfied to see how it could move and make all those beautiful curves. Noticed that, my parents sent me to an after-school dance class to study when I was five, and I kept studying for seven years during which I got to be more attracted to this form of movements. In 2005, when I was twelve, I started my professional dance study in a local technical secondary school. Then，I realize that “dancing” could be my future and my life.

I decided to do the choreography track for this assignment. I chose to interview one of my favorite undergraduate professor. Dr. Dale Gunn is a professor of both history and psychology. The walls of his office are filled with multiple degrees. He is a US Veteran, and has had many interesting careers such as a diver for Jacques Cousteau, IBM computer programmer, FBI analyst, Police Psychologist, Criminal Psychologist, as well as a college professor. After emailing Dr. Gunn he agreed to answer my questions for this assignment. I called and ask “If your discipline (or your job), were a dance, what kind of dance would it be?”. His response was immediate and precise. As expected, Dr. Gunn began with a brief history of his family. He said, “my ancestors

“Even if you really want the position, overworking yourself is going to get you nowhere. It’s been more than two hours since practice ended. Go home.” With that, Zoe turned on her heel and strode out.

The show was starting in just a few hours and everyone was rushing around making sure nothing would go wrong. The dancers putting on the last of their makeup going through their check-list. “Pointe shoes hair sprayed? Check. Hair hair sprayed? Check. False eyelashes? Not check!". I found myself wandering away from the others to a place where I can get just a minute alone. A minute alone to collect my thoughts before heading into the chaos. My dance was relatively soon so I decided to head back to get ready early. Standing backstage will most likely be the most nerve-racking experience ever. My white dress sparkled due to diamonds sewed onto the bodice. A crown placed in front of my bun made me feel complete. "Listen, you have to seize the moment and stay in it. Use that adrenaline and make this the best you have ever dance. But most importantly, have fun while you are out there. I'm proud of you". With Olivia's words, I get a sense of courage flow me. "Don't worry," I tell her, "I'm not going to throw away my shot". She smiles at me encouragingly. The audience claps and the music ends. Oh dear god it's my turn next. My body goes on autopilot as the music starts. Grand Jeté after Grand Jeté I leap, twirl, and pose my way off the stage; a smile not leaving my face the whole

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique they are great because of their

Artists today seem more attached to form than perhaps ever before—wedded to concept, abstraction, gymnastic moves and external appearance” (Robb, Paragraph 4). Dance, for many, is starting to become more and more about technique. With that, dance is going to start (and according to Jennifer, has started) to become more about the hard work, and less about the feeling, leading to a higher amount of workout in every practice. During one practice, not including the actual dancing, a ballerina must warm up with a six minute plank, three hundred sit ups, fifty burpees, running laps, and that’s not even all of it.

“My favorite type of dance is jazz. It’s a pretty broad genre. It’s always evolving at a faster pace than other genres or styles.”

Mr. Dulane brings something to the students that they had never thought they could do, or that they wanted to know how to do. He initially gets students involved by allowing them to choice to listen to the extremely loud music or to dance, not by forcing them to take part. Of course, all but one student choose to dance instead of listening to the music. He starts rough but the students think that this style of dancing is just not cool. He decides that they only way to show the students just want this type of dancing is, would be to bring in one of his studio students to dance with. This got all the students ready to dance. He was able to demonstrate just how amazing dance could be. He encouraged the students, positively motivated them, and stressed that they should work as a team to dance together. The students began to take pride in their dancing and they created music that they felt was more relevant to their time to dance to as well. This showed pride and ownership in their dancing. Mr. Dulane explained it perfectly that dance, for these students, was teaching them to trust, respect, and care about oneself and others as well. He showed that he cared about the students by showing up, fighting for them, and also in paying for their way to partake in the competition. He truly cared and it shows din his efforts to reach the students on their level, make something relevant to them, and in giving the students

Most of the dancers came from a voluntary background as in they like to do it for fun, but, for some they use this as a professional aspect for their dance careers. The environment is a mixture of voluntarily and professional backgrounds. Although some may just do it for fun, the coach has a strict regime way of getting stuff done to prepare for performances. In the other hand, the coach can be laid back with a nice sense of humor from what I can tell. I asked the dancer named Karen Delgado where and how she gains her knowledge and ability for dance, she quotes “During the summer, we head to Santa Barbara to compete with different schools all around the world, this is where I take away the different cultures in dance that are divergent and this is how I prepared for the dance team ” (Karen Delgado). According to the dancer she felt like she’s not gaining much from the dance team, she says “ I feel like the coach does not have the knowledge for dance because she is a cheer coach not much of a dance coach, she does have the ability to teach us but sometimes it is difficult” (Karen Delgado). From my perspective, the coach seems to have more knowledge about cheer and is well known for it. Overall, the dancers were well focused, their excitement for it was great, there was a lot of enthusiasm. In the end, Coach Tiffany say “Go home and practice, and get it together”

Shiro patted his back good naturedly as he stepped into the locker room, Lance following at his heel to join the rest of the team. “You say that every day.”

Breathe out and bend your right knee above the right ankle, making the shin to be vertical to the floor. Bring your right thigh parallel to the floor, producing a ninety degree angle in your knee. Straighten out your left leg and push your left heel out and down

“I….I..basketball…..tryouts….dribble….mom…..shoot….yells…..mad…..try it…” I sputtered on like this for about a minute before he interrupted me.