Final Blog Post

For the past term I have been working on a dance performance. Coming into the project I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. I started out the term choreographing material that was inspired by a poem I found, 999 Smiles, and progressed by choreographing to music, which then later got cut out my performance. This performance has transformed an incredible amount of times. Although I may have finished choreographing and teaching my dancers the movement almost two weeks ago the order of the movements and the feeling of the movements have changed a number of times.

I thought it would be somewhat of a challenge to relate dance to english. However, what I found is that tying in writing or reading with this project wasn't that big of a challenge. I ended up reading The Illustrated Dance Technique of Jose Limon, which helped a lot with my technique. I noticed that my balance had become much stronger since reading the book and practicing the exercises from the book. I didn't notice that much of a change as far as my reading skills. Perhaps I may have read that book a little bit faster than other books, however that is the only change that I had noticed. As far as writing I have been writing daily in this blog and also I have produced a small artist statement for my dance piece. I did notice that my writing has become a little more fluid, I would have to say that the fluidity is coming from writing every day in my blog.

Organization was a huge part of this project. One thing that I can say is that I have improved as far as organizing my priorities during rehearsals, I have noticed that I can get a lot more done with an hour of rehearsal now than I was able to in the beginning of the term. One thing that I have learned about myself is that I cater too much to other peoples needs rather than my own. For example, if one of my dancers complains that she doesn't want to do rehearsal for a day I would probably tell them they can skip rehearsal for the day rather than telling them that they must come to rehearsal. Listening and speaking has been a challenge this term. As a director you always have to be listening to your performers and be able to tell them exactly what you want. One huge problem I had was speaking, I could never tell my dancers exactly what I wanted from them, however I have come a long way from how I explained things in the beginning of the term, I notice that my dancers are less confused by what I ask from them. I never really had a problem with listening to my performers, I always make sure I know what they want and need as to make a comfortable rehearsal environment for them, which is crucial for a good performance.

I can happily say that I am really proud of my final product. I am incredibly excited to see the performance tonight. I have worked really hard on this project with all my time making costumes, advertising, directing, and choreographing. I am really proud of my dancers and I cannot wait to perform tonight.