I am finding that this blog is not easy to keep up with on a daily basis, even though it would be nice to be able to write out all of my thoughts every day. School is so wonderful but is also proving to be taking every bit of energy that I have throughout the day. Last week was the first week of actually getting to take classes, even though our schedules aren't set in stone until this week. We are allowed to take up to 17 classes throughout the week, and I have chosen 16. I will be quite busy, but that isn't anything different from my normal schedule. I am so excited, though, to be in this new place where everyone is so passionate about the art of dance. All of my teachers are completely in love with their subject matter and their commitment is quite inspirational to me as a student. I haven't ever been to a place before where my entire curriculum revolves around dance and I am excited to embrace it for all it has to offer me.
The classes I am taking are as follows: Contemporary (modern) technique, Ballet technique, Jazz Technique, Teaching Studies, Dance in Education, Teaching Dance Technique, Choreological Studies, Choreological Practice and Anatomy for Dancers. I am in love with every one of my classes and I am finding myself craving more time at the end of every class instead of watching the clock to see when I will be able to move on with my day. It's such a wonderful feeling to be in love with going to school.. I can't say I have felt this passionate about the art of learning in a long time. Usually, school is completely overtaken by my personal anxieties and I am not able to enjoy it. Here, things are different. I look forward to doing extra and non-required readings. Going to class is a pleasure, not a chore. I’m a fan of this kind of schooling lifestyle! I also will be looking for a part-time job soon for a couple nights a week and the weekends... so hopefully I will be able to start bringing in some money instead of just spending all the time.
This is the beginning of my second week of classes, and schedules are finally starting to settle down. Yesterday (Monday), I had a dance fitness class, which was really quite intense as we had to do an initial fitness test. To warm up, we had to run laps around the studio space, which was not easy on a Monday morning at 8:45am. I got through it, though, and then we learned the sequence that we would be doing for our test. It is a dance fitness test that is the product of a lot of research on the physical requirements of dancing both in a common technique class as well as that of performance. While learning the simple sequence of movements, I thought I would get through it with no problems at all. There were 5 stages of the test to be completed, all with very similar movements in each of the stages. The only difference was that with each stage, there was a slight change in the sequence that intensified the challenge (such as adding jumps instead of just plies or adding a few extra steps at the end). By the end of the 20 minute test, I was literally pouring sweat off of me. We are going to test the same 20 minutes of material again at the end of the first term to see how we have progressed, which will be neat. Next, I had Teaching Dance Technique, where we are learning the art of teaching the technique of dance. We talked about what we define technique as and what it means to have a personal teaching philisophy. I am excited because by the end of this class, we will all have our own individual ideas and opinions about teaching that we will be able to articulate into a written philosophy of teaching. My third class of the day was Dance in Education, where we looked at some different definitions of dance that we were asked to find from various sources throughout the week. My favorite definition of dance that I was able to find on a Theatre Company's website reads as follows: "Dance transforms images, ideas and feelings into sequences of movement that are personally and socially significant." I love the overall sense that this quote gives. It doesn't seem to be too profound with its simple terms but also completes an idea without cutting it short. My last class of the day was ballet with Julia. I am finding that the more I relax into her class, the better my results tend to be. She is really big on using less effort to execute movements and making ballet more about efficiency instead of "hard work."
In the next entry, I am going to back up a bit and talk about my weekend, seeing as I began this entry last Friday and then picked it up again after the weekend. cheers! :) mk
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