Reflective Reflection About 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

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.

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.

Ballet has never been my strongest style, but I feel that I have been able to have become more of a well rounded dancer. From the start I have wanted to gain so much with my goals as well as to find ways to work on ways to make my movement quality softer.In ballet this semester gave me an opportunity to focus on all of the goals that I wished to work on. Over the semester I have noticed that I picked up a lot of material more than I thought when I do not overthink the material and not get stressed out. In ballet this semester I noticed that I freaked out in class so much which reflected on my technique and being able to be confident with my movement.

Thanks to this dance I feel more of a connection when I dance with my family and I am more confident and It makes me dance a lot more than I used to. Dancing is huge in my family it makes us (in my opinion) more connected being able to laugh and spend time together just makes a difference. I have a big family +100 cousins and I always feel like I'm close to every single on them because of dancing. This class gave me a better understanding of why my family dances it really gives a connection to everyone who is dancing. Also I think everyone should take a dance class regardless if they need it for their major, I being a chemical engineering student still think it is very relevant to take this class because I think it helps broaden who you interact with

I have danced for the past 9 years and have and still love every minute of it. For how much i have learned over the past 9 years i have also learned a lot in this class. So far my favorite has been the hip hop combo that my group did. It has been my favorite because I really liked the music, choreography and style: and I don’t really enjoy hip hop that much so I was surprised that I really enjoyed that combo. I also like the 3 days of fitness, because it motivated me in so way to try my best and I feel that I improved the workouts that we did over the 3 days. The bones and muscles were cool to learn about because I think that it is important to know which muscle/bone is where and if you get injured you have a better idea of what you injured

Dancing has never been a huge learning experience for me and I never saw the potential influences it would have on my life. Believing that teamwork or leadership meant nothing when it came to dance, Only it could have just been my ignorance as well never actually spending time to develop myself in this art. Until I reached high school where I joined dance class and started to become more

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.

Walking into ballet this semester I felt confident and I also felt like a much stronger dancer then the past two semesters. Last year in ballet I had a lot of struggles and felt as though I was having to retrain myself. Dealing with the consistent rollercoaster that I felt I was on during ballet I lost the love and passion I had for ballet. One thing that I started doing last semester was after each class I would write down positive things I did that class. This has helped me not be as hard on myself as I used to be. Going to Italy and having ballet class with Sarah Hillmer I found my love for ballet once again. During Sara class I was able to find release with in my movements and I felt that I was only suing muscles that were needed. Last year I was using more muscles then I needed, so this was a huge accomplishment for me. Also during my experience I found that I was not holding tension in my neck and shoulders. I was ready to take on this semester so I could keep moving forward in my dance training.

The students that are in the building practicing are perfecting their craft, many times not knowing that there are many students enjoying the sound of their music. Have you ever heard someone say “I wish I could play like that?’ Arts- Infused Campuses offer that opportunity and much more. By taking this Dance Appreciation class it has opened my eyes to the importance of reaching beyond my comfort zone and challenging me to do more. The hard work that goes into choreographing a dance, performing the dance, the countless hours of practice, the arts become a passion if you only allow yourself to reach and try various

Ballet became a huge part of my life, and it taught me many more lessons than just how to plié or pirouette. It taught me determination, commitment, and what it means to follow a passion.

For the end of Ballet techniques, alignment, Jazz and Dance Theater I learned how much the way we use each muzzle perfectionazis the move or technique of a dance, I also learned a lot of history of Jazz which I never knew that it was history. I used to dance in a competitive dance academy in Argentina, and I absolutely loved the choreographies but after moving back to Spain it was really hard to find a dance teacher that I was able to adapt and enjoy but in this dance class I definitely love every choreography. Most of the techniques used to learn new dance moves work for me, as long as I enjoy the class, I get interested and I think it’s really fun.

As a first year member of the Dixie State University Dance Company, I have observed and learned many different skill sets. I have had the opportunity to work with quite a few individual choreographers and dancers throughout the semester and have gained a variety of different skills and outlooks on the various styles we do in Dance Company. I have seen improvement in all the areas, dance technique, artistic expression, personal discipline, and collaborative skills and cannot wait to continue to grow.

Ballet has never been my strongest style, although I feel that I have been able to become more of a well-rounded dancer. From the start I have wanted to gain so much with my goals, as well as to find ways to make my movement quality softer.In ballet this semester gave me an opportunity to focus on all of the goals that I wished to work on. Over the semester, I have noticed that I picked up a lot of material, more than I thought when I do not overthink the material and not get stressed out. I noticed that I freaked out in class so much which reflected on my technique and being able to be confident with my movement.

Ballet has never been my strongest style but I feel that I have been able to have become a well rounded dancer from taking technique classes. From the start I have wanted to gain so much with my goals as well as to find ways to work on ways to make my movement quality softer.Dancing in ballet this semester gave me an opportunity to focus on all of the goals that I wished to work on. Over the semester I have noticed that I picked up a lot of material more than I thought when I do not overthink the material and not get stressed out. In ballet this semester I noticed that I freaked out in class so much which reflected on my technique and being able to be confident with my movement.