Blogpost 7 : Make Your Own Choreography

Choreography is the art of creating dances. It is one of the most imaginative way on expressing art and emotion. The word derives from Greek which means ‘dance’ and ‘write.’ Literally, the dance choreography was really written years ago in like 17^th to 18^th century. But in late 19^th and 20^th century, it is known to be called as the dance notation; it is a recording of dance movement through the use of symbols.

I just attended a dance class today with the other DC members and with Coach Japheth Reyes at Groove Central.  We took the ‘LA style’ dance class. I can say this class is truly worth it. We really learned a lot in the basis of choreography. Coach Jap always tells us that each dancer has uniqueness in choreography. Each has its differences, creativity and quality. It doesn't have any requirement when you need to make choreography but it does need your passion for dancing. If you have no passion, you will not be able to create a unique choreography made just by you. That’s why he encourages us to discover ourselves in dancing. Because once you discovered yourself already, you’ll be making your choreography as well as you are writing your own life story.

I researched an article entitled, “Making dance: The choreographic process” in artsalive by Lesley Leslie- Spinks. This article shows how choreography is uniquely made by choreographers who has inspiration, determination and a refined craft of dance.  It also tells that choreography is not an easy thing to do. Choreography consists of what you are and what you want to showcase to others. Basically, choreographers are having a hard time on what is really his purpose in his choreography.

“Making visions of dance come alive requires inspiration, determination and refined craft. A choreographer may have vivid ideas for a new work. However, translating this imagination into dancers' bodies and shaping it into a dance that is ready to be performed is a very challenging, yet equally rewarding, process…For most choreographers, making dance is a passion. The poetry and excitement of movement motivates their creativity and they find their greatest potential for expression through the unique elements of dance.”

I agree of how the author translates choreography as the dancer’s passion. As you create a move, that move motivates you to make another one and another one. It is your unending passion of showing what you want to show and what you want to say to your audience.

Another article that I found that is also in relate to the topic is entitled “How to choreograph a dance” in wikihow by Cmseagle. It provides steps on how to successfully make your own choreography. I really like his opening statement which is, “Dancing and choreographing comes more naturally to some people than others. While technique is very important, time and patience are also required so don't get frustrated! If you want to choreograph as a career it is best to have a dancing background. This will enable you a better chance as you have experience. Remember you will also need to be a good performer, have a lot of self confidence and be open to meeting new people. You need to know what you are doing, otherwise you have no chance!”

When you try to make your own choreography, don’t limit yourself. Choreography is made not to limit but to express what you want to express. Try to pick the best music. Soothe the mood. Move your body at the same time know your hits. This will be able to help you connect a move to another. Remember making your own choreography does not need any requirements. Just your passion to dancing, and that’s it.

Blogpost 6 : Dance Your Way to a Better Health

Dance can be your best exercise. When you dance, you exercise your cardio, endurance and strength of your body. Many forms of exercise are also a form of dance. That’s why dance really is a healthy habit for everyone.

Last summer, my parents took me to a dance class wherein the only purpose is for me to lose weight. Well it is really effective. See my weight before the workshop is 135lbs but after the workshop I weigh 123lbs. Now as I go on through my journey in APCDC, our coach always tells us that our health is important with what we do. We must be physically conditioned always to show a wonderful performance.

 I found an article entitled “Dance your way to good health” in fitness written by nikegirl24. The article tells how dancing a great out of mind and body work out. It also shows how dance helps us maintain a healthy body as we age.

“Any kind of dance has you using all the different parts of your body. This also means that all the different muscles in your body are being used. This helps to strengthen and tone your muscles without hurting your joints. It also helps to strengthen bones, and tone your entire body. Specific dances also have certain benefits for your body. For example, belly dancing helps prevent lower back problems; ballroom dancing helps keep the heart in shape; and salsa dancing helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol. All forms of dance however are known to lower your risk of heart disease, help with weight loss, and strengthen the bones and muscles in your legs and hips.”

 I totally agree of how the author defines dance as the usage of all the parts of the body. It’s so informative because knowing the specific details on how dance help us lose weight and strengthen our body really convince not just me but the people also.

An article entitled, “Dance – Health benefits” in betterhealth is also connected to the topic. This article encovers how dance is not just used, for showcase, competition and performance, but also for making our body fit as well. I really admired his opening statement that is, “Dance has always been a part of human culture, rituals and celebrations. Today, most dancing is about recreation and self-expression, although it can also be done as a competitive activity. Dancing is an enjoyable way to be more physically active and stay fit.”

Let your body loose and work out your figure. Don’t just settle on what you have right now. Be the better you. Do something about your body. You can go to the gym, or have yoga. But I strongly suggest that you should dance. Dance does not only make you flexible but makes you have a strong heart, bones, muscles and mind.

Blogpost 5 : Dance = Happiness

Happiness is what we treasure in life. We cherish happiness because it is one of the most precious things that I know that is needed to be given value of. But reaching the happiness that you really want is hard. There are things that stop happiness from happening. But we all have ways on how to overcome these that stops me from being happy: dancing.

There’s this one time when I was really feeling like I’m lost because of the stress and everything. I was this close to giving up but I tried to let it all out. I locked myself in my room and listened to loud music. I just keep on throwing things around like a mad person just to let everything out. But still there’s something deep inside that I can’t get out. Then a song played. It is entitled ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay. I tried to lie down in my bed and just listened to it. While I was listening, tears keep on dropping from my eyes. I started to move a little bit not knowingly, I was already dancing. I got up on my bed, danced all throughout my room. As the song fades, I ended up looking in the mirror, smiling at myself, feeling so light. It’s like dancing lifted me up and lead me to happiness.

I researched an article entitled “Mind Your Body: Dance Yourself Happy” in psychologytoday written by Lane Anderson. This article tells how dance improve your social skills, lift up your spirits, even reversing depression. It also conveys studies that prove dance can affect people emotionally and physically.

“The physically expressive nature of dance also helps people release and thereby recognize pent-up feelings, the first step to dealing with them. "Depressed patients tend to have a curved back, which brings the head down so it's facing the ground," says Donna Newman-Bluestein, a dance therapist with the American Dance Therapy Association. "Dancing lifts the body to an open, optimistic posture."”

This article really informed me well on how dance really help those who are not only emotionally but also physically weak. It’s like dancing serves as their therapy for their weakness. I can compare dancing to a cast on an injured person. The cast will help the injured person heal the affected part of the body within a particular time. Just like dancing, it will heal the person’s emotional weakness and will lift us up from our misery.

Another article that I can relate to is entitled “Dance your way to happiness and success” in thechangeblog by Jerry Stocking. This article shows how mind is easily bothered with sadness but when dance takes place, dance highlights the body which will make mind a little part of you. I like his ending quote, “While your mind seeks to take what it considers to be the direct route, your body doesn’t have to. Dancing from here to there reminds you that it is the journey, not the here or there that is important.”

Whenever we feel troubled, lost; find time to just relax and listen to music. Let everything out to express what you really feel. Try to dance. I know it’s hard but somehow it will help you lighten up the heaviness you fell inside and lead you all the way to happiness.

Blogpost 4 : Dance:Proper Decorum?

We all experience having etiquette anywhere today, in school, in the workplace, even in everyone’s homes. In school, we follow the sense of respect to teachers, camaraderie with other students; in the workplace, we treat each co worker as professionals and in our home, we certainly follow a distinct time curfew and etc. But do you think dancing has etiquette to be followed?

In one of our dance classes when I was in grade school, we are guided with such “dance etiquette”. We practiced dance etiquette like when you ask someone to dance, on what you should wear, who to ask, personal grooming and etc. Learning this proper decorum is somehow logical to all of us that whenever you ask a person to dance, ask him with respect and to wear proper attire that will not distract others when you dance.

I can relate to this topic an article entitled “Elements of Dance Etiquette” in utdallas. This articles covers all the elements that is needed to know in dance (etiquette). It also consists of such minor rules in dancing to be able to establish proper social dance behavior.

According to the author, Aria Nosratinia: “Why do we care about dance etiquette? Because it is nice to know how to go about in the dancing circles. It makes the difference between having a happy or unhappy dancing experience, the difference between people wanting, or not wanting to dance with you.”

Knowing this quote from the author enlighten me that dance etiquette are not just to establish proper dance behavior but to know also if you are having happy or unhappy experiences in dancing. Learning through this etiquette will prevent anyone from being humiliated to someone also, for example, when you tried to ask someone to dance and he or she declines it, learning this proper decorum  will lead you to a respective way of accepting his or her declination.

Another article that I can I relate to is entitled, “Social Dance Etiquette” in sfzydeco. In this article summarizes that dance etiquette are categorized to gender. Male dancer etiquette is far different from female dancer etiquette. This article also tells about how to not limit yourself to dance but limit yourself in a way you are seen dancing with respect.

According to Salsa Crazy : “Let me start by acknowledging a simple truth. As you become a more advanced dancer, the ability to express yourself through the music greatly increases. You no longer need to count, nor think about "what am I going to do next"? Your body is now comfortable doing all the moves, yes, even the neck wrap. The dance becomes, ideally, an extension of yourself and your personal interpretation of the music. With this in mind, let's get to the meat…What you do, is ultimately going to be determined by the specific facts of the situation (and your mood at the time), but etiquette urges restraint! Reign it in, keep it tight, give them a little more space. It takes a great dancer to dance fast and smooth in a very small space. I'm not saying it's easy to dance with speed and grace in a large space, but I am saying that to dance in a controlled manner, in a smaller space, requires much more skill. Anyone can flail at enormous speed in a vast space. We see it all the time.”

Try to picture yourself dancing in a very small room in which you cannot move easily.  It takes a skilled dancer to work on his movements even though your space is too small. Just like following the proper dance decorum, you must keep your dance high and your pride down. Let yourself loose at the same time, lose that unpleasant behavior. Try to be a good dancer at the same time a gentlemen and a lady when you dance on the dance floor.

Blogpost 3 : Dance on Camera

Do your parents get crazy whenever they tell you back in the days how movies like “Footloose” and “Saturday Night Fever” are the hit in the late 80s? Have you see dance evolve as years go by through movies? Can you differentiate what is dance like on the camera and in the real world? Is it really the same or not?

Dance on films somehow have a different impact unlike watching dance live. You can see in dance movies how a dancer goes through before his or her big performance in the finale while in a live dance, you’ll just appreciate his or her performance on stage without appreciating his or her efforts before the dance. We are also fond of how cinematography signifies each movement of dancers in a movie while in a live dance you can’t see the highlights or movements of the dancers.

The movie “Step Up” (sequel) has really got a big impact on my dancing life since I was 13. I didn’t even bothered to miss all those movies because I think in this movie is where I got inspired of dancing. I am so amazed how each movie highlights a persona. On how this person goes through his life as a dancer and how he or she overcomes his or her trials until the big performance in the end. And also through these movies, I see dance so easy to do. It’s like they show dance as simple yet really complicated when you get to learn how to do it. And also I never get to forget how the protagonist gets his guy or girl after their big performance: a simple happy ever after movie.

I found an article entitled “Overview on Dance on Camera” in dance-tech. This article tells the difference of a stage work performance to a dance film. It also focuses on what dance elements are focused in a dance film and how is dance is seen through the camera.

According to the author Deidre Towers, “The makers of dance films consider the placement and movement of the camera, the lighting, the balance of foreground and background, and the composition within the framing of each shot in the overall choreography. A dance film can take many forms: documentary, dance designed for the camera (cine dance or screen dance), a screen adaptation of a stage work, animation, or kinetic abstraction.” 

I agree on how dance was taken to forms like a documentary type of movie similar to the film “Step Up 3D”. The protagonist in that movie is a movie maker/dancer and was able to come up with a documentary about his co-dancers in his crew. The film shows how each of the members of the crew was found and when they started dancing in the first place. It really serves as an inspiration to anyone.

Another article that I connect to the previous one is entitled “Dance for the Camera” in narthaki. It tells about a director’s story on how she makes a dance movie and its different to other kinds of movie. According to the author, Ileana Citaristi:

“Dance is certainly a wonderful thing to film because it is all action and motion, which is exactly what film should be... As the cinematic space is different from the concert space, it has its own logic. The space created by the dancer is delineated by the gestures, is filled by the melody and punctuated by the beat. The cinematic space is delineated by the lenses, is filled by the light and punctuated by the cuts. “

Dance is surely can be anywhere. In the streets, clubs, schools, on stage even on cinemas or television. Through movies, dance is seen as a passion and life to the characters. Dance is the only thing that rotates in their world. I hope these movies inspire everyone out there to get up and dance their heart out.

Blogpost 2 : Chorophobia

Do you fear dance? Do you always reject someone’s invitation to dance? Do you not show up on school parties like homecoming parties, prom and graduation ball because of the dance part? Well you suffer on what they call CHOROPHOBIA.

Chorophobia is the unreasonable fear of dancing. It is somehow linked to fear of events in partaking to dancing. While others find themselves more expressive through dancing like when music plays their body can’t stop moving, there are some who suffer from it. They find dancing really uncomfortable because they care too much on how they look when they dance or at some point they have a history about it.

I have a friend back in high school who I know is a potential dancer. But when it comes to performing up on stage, or when someone asked him to dance in some parties, he feels a sudden tremble inside. It’s like he sweats and his heart was beating fast every time when someone asks him to dance. I asked why is that so. He told me a very tragic story when he was a kid. In grade school, he always joins dances in their school for extracurricular activities. One time, while he was in a middle of a dance, his pants fell off. The audience was in an extreme laugh seeing only his underpants while he dances. That’s why he fears dancing in public because he thinks that something might fell off again.

An article entitled “Chorophobia” in allaboutcounseling interests me on how the author defines Chorophobia as real and curable. It indeed gains hope to those out there suffering from it. One of the statements that really caught my attention is this:

“Chorophobia is difficult to understand for most people and, unfortunately, usually results in the teasing of the afflicted person for their abnormal social behavior. There is hope, though, as treatment methods have been successful in most cases and can be done individually or with professional help.”

I agree on how fear of dancing is completely hard to understand especially knowing me as a dancer. And it made me realize how teasing them because of their behavior really affects chorophobics deeply. This teasing is somehow creates a crack in their social behavior and it might fragment and lose his overall confidence to public. This will not only result to never dance at all but will result into social apocalypse. But in the positive part, it is curable and the person who is affected may undergo treatments or therapy.

Another article that is entitled “Fear of Dancing” in wikidance focuses on how dancing is something that we can learn to do and will help you overcome your fear in dancing. “The only people, who can dance, are the ones who were taught how. Everybody else is either afraid of dancing, or just happy to wiggle about and call it dancing. If you are one of those who are afraid of dancing there is good news… dancing is a learned skill, everybody can learn to dance.”  

Don’t hesitate yourself to dance. If you have a thing in the past, well forget about it. That’s why everyone says that “past is past.” We can start our new selves by just starting out as small. Just listen to some music. Try to move your fingers. Stomp your feet. Nod your head. Just remember that dancing is the movement of the body so when you move your fingers, feet and head; you are already dancing. Keep your hopes up. Just like coach Japheth Reyes would say: “Let go and let God.”

Blogpost 1 : Dance to Express

Dancing is the action or movement of body in the flow of music, or even without music. It is one way of practicing your motions, your smoothness in moving your body. Dancing cannot always be for showcase purposes but as a lifestyle as well. Other people dance to show off, others just dance to develop and other just dance to EXPRESS.

In one of our dance trainings, our coach asked us to just lie down and close our eyes. He played music and asked us to listen deeply and let everything out through dancing. While I was listening, I felt a sudden burst deep inside. I started to move with my hands, my head, my upper body, and my legs. I didn’t care of how I look when I’m dancing. I just let it all out. Surprisingly, I’m not the only one who was carried away by the song. After the dance, my co-dancer was seen by my coach crying while he was dancing. Our coach asked him why he cried. My co-dancer just told us that he is going through a problem right now, and the song really carried him out from his problem. It’s like dancing pulls us up especially when you listen to it deeply.

I found this article entitled “Dance and Self-Expression” in survivinggrief. This article focuses on how dance is expressed through different perspectives. It is not only expressed through your emotions but it is also used for rituals or ceremonies. This author provided some ways on how to establish a self expressive dance.

According to Sandy Fox, “Dance is a great way of tapping into deep emotions and connecting with yourself after loss. When I talk about dance I don't mean the kind of dancing you do on a night out with friends in a club but rather solo dancing to allow self expression. It's very hard to let yourself get caught up in music and dance with abandon to it when there are others around.”

I truly agree with the author’s statement on how dance cracks you in your shell and just letting it out through dance. But her idea of dancing to express is very hard when there are others around didn’t quite seem true to me. As a dancer, when you want to listen deeply and let your body move out, let go with everything, you don’t care who or how many are watching you. We don’t care about their judgment, their criticism. But we care that they comprehended what your dance is trying to say.

There’s another article entitled “Dance as Expression” in griercooper. I really admire what she stated in the last part.  “We all need healthy ways to deal with intense emotions, and dance is a potent alternative to hitting a pillow or yelling from the peak of the nearest hillside. Humans are emotional creatures, which is both our greatest blessing and our largest challenge. Having the proper tools to ride those powerful currents can help make the ride a whole lot more fun.”

All of us wants to deal with sudden emotions and didn't figure out how to get out of it. Not just dancers but everyone can dance to express. Just find time with yourself. Play out a music that best suits your emotion or mood. Play it loudly. Close your eyes and listen deeply. Let go. You’ll never know that you are already up on your feet – dancing.