How to Dance

During my fourth blog post I will be explaining what to do if you want to start dancing. I will also tell the most important factors when it comes to dancing. 

First thing to know is that when dancing be yourself! Being yourself has to be the most important factor to dancing. Honestly if you don't express your personality or feelings in your dance then it looks bland and boring. It doesn't matter if you're not a good dancer or not, dancing is for anybody. Just do what you feel, and let go. Dancing is a way to let all of what you're feeling inside show on the outside. For me dancing is a great stress reliever.

Another way to learn how to dance is to try dancing at a studio. Make sure to find a studio that fits you. Finding a studio is a very important part at dancing. You should make sure that the studio fits your time schedule, and is in an appropriate area where you can drive there and make it to class on time instead of being late all of the time.

Practicing is another important aspect to dancing. That saying "Practice makes perfect" is very true. If you practice your dance like you would do it on stage then you most likely would not have that much of a problem actually performing the dance on stage.

One more important thing to dancing is your on stage performance. I know how hitting the stage for the first time can be. It is very scary and nerve racking. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to clear your mind of all things and just dance! It's like the more you think the more you mess up. At the competition that we had on Sunday I thought about my dance while we were performing and I ended up messing up very badly. So just go with the flow, stay calm, and try not to think too much and you should be fine.

Dance picture can be found at: http://www.ric.edu/whatsnews/media/photos2/dance/dance_detail.jpg

Senior Flash Mob

A flash mob is a group of people mobilized by social media to meet in a public place for the purpose of doing an unusual or entertaining activity of short duration. In a Dulles Virginia mall, there was a dancing senior flash mob.They came from a retirement home called Ashby Ponds. The person to come up with the idea to do a flash mob was Jessica McKay, the public affairs manager at Ashby ponds. The oldest out of the group of twenty-five was eighty years old. The youngest was sixty-six years old. The song that they danced to was “Tonight is the Night” by Outasight.There were practicing for two months, once a week.

The people of the retirement home began planning for this flash mob sometime last year, and they had discussions and meetings about it. Later on they decided that they would give it a try. By late January the community got a dance studio called Arthur Murray Dance Studio to help them with this plan. The studio help with choreography and worked with the senior group regularly. Dan Dunne, director of communications with Erickson Living, which operates Ashby Ponds, says the participants were committed from the beginning.

The dance lasted for almost three minutes. Everyone seemed to love their surprise dance.There were many mall shoppers that were surprised by the flash mob. While some of the people at the mall were just friends, family, and neighbors that already knew about the flash mob. After the dance was over a group of four women gathered up and talked about how they felt about the flash mob dance."You get all piped up for something like this," one of the women says.

Jessica McKay says that she does plan on trying the flash mob again at another location. She says, "We're going to give them some time to recuperate, and maybe we'll do another flash mob and surprise people somewhere else."

http://www.wtop.com/?sid=2826627&nid=159

History of Ballet

In my second blog post you will learn what ballet is and its history. Alexander Pushkin says that "Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul". This quote is a perfect explanation of what ballet truly is. It shows that ballet is not just a list of movements put together, it is a dance that is used to express yourself in a way of moving your body. Even though I’m not a big fan of ballet I've chosen ballet because I believe it is one of the most important types of dance. A lot of other types of dances originate from ballet. If ballet never happened then the world of dance would be way different from what it is today. 

Ballet started out in Italy during the Renaissance in the 1500s. In Italy instead of saying ballet they called it ballet de cour (court ballet). There would be ballet dances performed on a court for entertainment for everyone to see. The dancers would wear fancy, decorated masks. They also wore layered clothing, which was difficult to move in.

Eventually, ballet dancing began to spread to France and soon all over the world.The first professional ballet school was in 1661, and it was created by Louis XIV. Only men were allowed to dance in the studio, they had to wear masks and play women roles. In 1681, women were allowed to be professional ballet dancers. The first ballet performed by women is called Le Triomphe de l'Amour, in English it’s The Triumph of Love.During the second half of the 18th century males dominated ballet dancing.

Over the years ballet dancing has made a drastic turn. Today there are many women ballet dancers and anyone is allowed to join a studio.There has been more types of ballet. Now there are many other ballets like contemporary, romantic, neoclassical,classical, and many more. Dancers are not required to wear fancy, masked, jeweled costumes to perform anymore. You can wear whatever you want to, but the usual outfit of choice for ballet would be a tutu.

  Renaissance:http://www.cockaigne.org.uk/research/images/balletdecour1660small.jpg

Today's Ballerina:http://www.trespassmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ballet_cuba_500.jpg

Dance

Dancing has played an enormous role in my life for the last nine years. My passion for music first started at a very young age. When I was around five or six I would always sing and dance to songs on the radio.


Eventually I decided to join a cheer team around the age of five. I didn't find much of an interest in cheering. So after a few months of cheerleading, I was with my Aunt Lillian when we saw an ad on dance classes for beginners starting that summer at a studio called Broadway Bound. I so ecstatic to start something new and meet new people, but I was also nervous that I wouldn’t be good enough. 

After a few weeks of impatiently waiting summertime finally came around. I had so many butterflies on the way to the studio. When I arrived to the studio we started out on basics like pirouettes, then splits and dances. After that day I’ve loved dancing ever since. Now I compete at different competitions, do solos, go to dance conventions, and many other things. We actually just had a competition on Sunday that we did great at, and I can’t wait for the next one. 

We are doing a jazz, hip hop, lyrical, and tap dance, and I’m doing a hip hop solo.Everybody at the studio aren’t just friends, it’s like we are a family. I think dancing has and always will have a big impact on my life and the decisions that I make in life. Dancing and music is something that I have a strong passion for. When I dance it helps me to clear my mind of all things, and it makes me happy. Dancing also helps to keep me in shape. It gives me something to do instead of going around and doing crazy things. I love dancing and I hope I can keep doing it for even more years to come, this is why I chose to do my blog on dance.

Citation: The picture is available at: http://www.signaturedanceacademy.com/