Tiana Woods Research Paper

In “Showing What Is Possible,” Jacques D’Amboise reflects on an experience when a teacher helped him discover ballet. Madame Seda helped D’Amboise fulfill his talent. With ballet, he overcame the pressure to join a gang like his friends. D’Amboise was able to become a well-known ballet dancer with help from his teachers. When it was time to retire from dancing, he started the National Dance Institute. This project enabled D’Amboise to influence his own students around the world. An influential teacher can affect one’s future by challenging pupils to move past their comfort zones, teaching them to actively control their future, and setting up an environment where they can improve together.

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

We were the center of attention. This was our moment—our time—to make a statement on the raging political events. It was evident from the speechless, astonished faces of the audience that we were successful. I smiled as I watched my activism and dance group, Bailamos, dance with pride on the stage. After all the countless hours of organizing dance routines and spreading the Hispanic-Latino culture throughout school, I was finally able to witness the outcome for myself.

The light shine down and the music surrounds her as she dance into the air and across the stage. The audience yells and clap for her as the curtain close. It’s the end of another work week for Jane Onwuegbuchu. Jane comes from a very huge family of 8, where it’s very hard for her to be at the center of attention, especially being the 5th child. Jane was born in Houston, Texas on June 22, 1987 to Rosaline and James Onwuegbuchu. She started dancing at the young age of 3 with Elite dancers and fell in love with dancing since then. “Growing up as a child, Jane was a very good child, she loved dancing and just seeing her dance melt my heart. She was a part of a lot of dance organization, church, youth dance team etc… You name it and she was there,”

From kindergarten until high school, I was a member of the Jean Wolfmeyer School of Dance. Up to 5 days per week, I would be at the dance studio taking classes, rehearsing for shows, and helping out in the less advanced classes. Regardless of skill level, Jean never hesitated to speak the brutally honest truth about students’ performances and she never settled for anything less than perfection. Jean would often preach that she is only the instruction manual and she cannot make us good dancers, we had to do that for ourselves. However, it was not her critique or teaching alone that motivated dancers to perform well, it was her relentless work ethic and commitment to her studio. As a 70 year-old women, Jean held classes as much as 7 days per

“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.

When she was younger, it wasn’t hard for her to learn the new choreography.She was a natural dancer,but no matter how well of a dancer she was she knew that she could always improve her skills. She also became a local dancer and she performed at rodeos and county fair. One of instructor said “She didn't know learn the basics.” She needed to be taught the basics.

21st of May, California State University of Long Beach held the CSULB Dance In Concert at Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater with the collaboration and choreography by the CSULB dance faculty such as Colleen Dunagan, Rebecca Lemme, Sophie Monat, Andrew Vaca, and featuring guest Laurel Jenkins and Doug Varone. From the show, the dances represented through various genre such as contemporary, contemporary ballet, and modern dance. The element of contemporary defines as a collaborative style that includes modern, jazz, ballet, and hip hop. All these styles of dances were shown by connections after each intermission. In particular, I will concentrate mostly about contemporary dance out of all the dances in the concert and talk about the effects on three out of six performances. The performances reflects mostly on how we describe life and nature and partially define life to every aspect of the emotion were being introduced by the dancers.

The 178 year old city, Tiantis, was founded in 2158. It was previously known as Miami, a very popular tourist stop. Located in southern Florida, it boasts a population of about 468,000 people, not including tourists. The city is located by the coastline of Florida and includes a passing river that eventually heads to the Gulf of Mexico. A delta that leads directly to the beach on its coast is here. This popular city has a warm climate of 70-80 ̊ Fahrenheit in the summer, only dropping to 65 ̊ Fahrenheit in the winter months. The main source of income is from tourism and education at the university. In order to protect the environment, Tiantis also does not run of the typical fossil fuels, it runs on Sewage-Fuel. All food is grown organically and locally in the agricultural center. Compact and oval-shaped houses are used for citizens. In general, Tiantis is a bustling place with many earth-friendly features.

Jane Desmond introduces her article, “Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies,” by describing a dance that readers can picture as the dance of tango in their minds. This helps lead to her connecting dance, or body movement, with cultural studies and social identities. In her article, Desmond focuses on connecting how dance and body movement can be portrayed differently in social identities, such as race, class, gender, nationality, and sexuality.

“Go within everyday and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out” (A Quote by Katherine Dunham 1). Once one of the most successful dancers in both American and European theater, Katherine Dunham, a dancer, anthropologist,social activist,and educator, continues to inspire people throughout the world. Named America’s irreplaceable Dance Treasure in 2000. Dunham remains a name heard regularly in dance schools across the world (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 4). She is known for always trying to make a difference and in the process she has become of the world’s greatest humanitarians (Osumare 5). Katherine Dunham’s work in African American rights in the dance world and her creation of new styles of dance makes her an important figure in American dance History.

On April 14, 2017, my friend and I visited for the first time Salt Lake City Community College dance company’s annual performance. The show was presented at the Grand Theater at the South City Campus of the college. The performance’s name “Moving Words” imply what the audience was about to experience. “Moving Words” consists of 18 different dances and each of those dances brought a unique feeling to the overall performance. I thought that the dancers and choreographers have done an amazing job. However, after seeing all the different dances there were two that stuck together with me, because of the ideas and the morals these dances introduced.

This Documentary directed by Agrelo interviewed fifth-grade students who live in the New York, Bronx documented these students how they would react about ballroom dancing. The instructors noticed that over time the classes made the student’s behavior change their lives by this program helped the students to be off the streets and also learn skills and have positive energy in their life. The director gathered information by researching the schools and scenery of current events. Most of the students that are being documented are from poor low-income families that live in the New York, Bronx. Marita’s Bargain and Mad Hot Ballroom are very much in many ways as so the students are living in the New York Bronx and they are both using 5th graders

With extended legs and pointed toes, graceful movements seized the stage of Texas Tech University’s Presidential Lecture and Performance Series which presented Complexions Contemporary Ballet on April 1st, 2016. The event took place in the Texas Tech Allen Theatre at 7:00 PM. The founding artistic directors of the dance company are Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. The dance company consisted of about 13 people, with a mixture of males and females. The entire performance was a contemporary ballet, but included modern dance style as well. The performances were comprised of solos, duets, male or female sections, and a mixture of couple interaction. Before the ballet, the lights were dim and there were only a few lights directed towards the stage. The lighting and set design varied for each performance and used spotlights to bring the audience’s attention to particular dancers. Although the atmosphere was relatively quiet, the audience was respectful, enthusiastic, and seemed to be intrigued by the performances. Complexions Contemporary Ballet projected intense passion into each performance which contributed to an emotion-evoking experience and a sense of synchronization between each dance.

Dancing communication is a non-verbal communication. Dance tells stories using nonverbal language, with movement and rhythm in lieu of spoken language. Dancing communication communicate by choreographers and movement. Dancers expressed their feeling not only using their body movement but also using their customs and props. In my first part of Denotative and Connotative meaning paper, I chose a picture which is taken from a concert of Traditional and Contemporary Chinese Dance in New Jersey. The picture shows five dancers’ gesture and their movement. The race and gender of those dancers were critical in this picture. Their race and gender represents the relationship with social and cultural issue in modern society.