The Gift of Giving

            As we go to school, go to work, spend the day without the necessity to worry about living in poverty or injustice, there are others who are not as fortunate who live in the reality of such issues. There are children around the world who live under horrible circumstances and cannot escape from the brutal environment, and many of us are not aware of it. Fortunately, there are organizations that try to change this fact.

           One of the major NGOs that act toward these issues is World Vision. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian nongovernmental organization who help children and their families all around the world to fight causes of poverty and injustice. The organization carried a long trail of history behind in which they have changed the lives of many. In the official website of World Vision, http://www.worldvision.org/, there are ways in which people like us can influence the lives of many. The website allows you to take an overview of what the organization does and have done in the past. There are many ways to get involved from participating in an event to sponsoring a child. Many high schools and Universities around the United States take part in this organization by organizing fund raising, volunteer work, donations and raise awareness to the others around them. I was also an active member of the World Vision club in high school where we sold raffle tickets, went to city orphanages of the disabled to interact with the children, and raised funds through events such as the school food fair.

            I feel that there are many misfortunate occurrences in the world that could be changed by the shift of attitude toward the issue. Many feel that they already have enough to worry about in their own lives and that they do not have time to think about larger issues that may not have anything to do with them. However an individual’s action may change lives of many. I am not telling everyone to go and donate, but to consider the issues that are happening in the world and that they could make a difference in many ways.

Another organization similar to World Vision is a nonprofit organization called One. This organization is also a humanitarian and advocacy organization that fights against issues such as extreme poverty, better development policies, and greater democracy. The difference between this organization and World Vision is that One asks for the voice on individual instead of the money. The official website, http://www.one.org/ helps us understand the issues around the world, raise awareness as well as allows us to participate in contributions as easy as posting something on Facebook or Twitter. This organization reaches out to the general public to promote their message. Their approach uses media and social media sites such as MySpace, Flikr and Facebook to encourage action. There was a promotional clip posted on YouTube that drew the attention of many. The strategy took celebrities of a specific age range to raise awareness, which was targeted specifically towards college students. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTzfQLRP4kk. As the promotional clip may state, One makes it easier for students who are still dependant on their parents to participate.

There are many ways in which people like us can make a difference in the less fortunate people around the world. By the development of the high technology, it has made it easier for us to contribute and make a difference. I decided to bring about this issue in my because I know the power of social network sites and word of mouth.

The Top 5 Most Powerful Ways For Dancers To Build Wealth

http://www.dancebloggers.com/2010/11/the-top-5-most-powerful-ways-for-dancers-to-build-wealth-%e2%80%93-part-5/

In this blog post, the author Ashani Mfuko demonstrates the ways in which a dancer can build wealth. She states how people are capable of having different kinds of skills other than dancing and suggests dancers to take the time to examine what their other skills and talents with the initial investment as $0. She states, “Invest the time or money that it takes to develop those skills in a way that will allow you to build wealth”. I feel that this sentence is stating the obvious, where if one invests in something that will connect to their wealth, the options will be infinite. She backs up her statement by listing out the successful dancers over time and explains how they have been investing time and money into other skills such as graphic design, video editing, blogging, image consultant and so on. These are some of the most successful dancers who have had the time and money to invest in skills as such as well as being excellent performers and dancers. However, becoming a dancer and making a career out of dance takes enormous amount of time and money, with little guarantee of being successful or making a living. It is great to hear modern ideas such as using the internet to wisely invest and gain wealth as a dancer, however this may not be the source to rely on if one is debating what to do with their dance major or their talent in dance. I feel many of the potential dancers realize the percentage of being successful with dance or building a career in dance is very low. Not all students who graduate majoring in dance turn out to be great dancers and performers. I feel that the author should include more information of who she is speaking to, who the ‘dancers’ are that she is referring to in order to make a more precise statement. She should also take the time to do some research on what kind of people became successful dancers in comparison to the people who could not achieve their dream of becoming a dancer. I feel she would have a better post if she could list out the statistics of the people who have made a career out of dance and those who have not and what they ended up to be.

“Talent Is So Overrated”

Often times we hear the quote, “Practice Makes Perfect” which is true if one spends a lot of time in something they want to get better at. On the other hand, some believe that if one has talent, they are capable in achieving their passion. Although there is no right or wrong in what you believe, I feel that ‘talent’ comes from practice.

            In the article I was reading from Freakonomics, it stated how although everyone does not have equal potential to everything, it is practice that makes perfect more than the influences of talent, that talent is overrated. It explained how if one is very passionate about something and would practice it many times, it would get them closer to perfection regardless the talent within. The article used an example of an essay by Jacques d’Amboise, who was the main dancer in George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, and explained how he had practiced over and over again which lead him to become a excellent performer on stage.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/practice-makes-perfect-revisited/

            On the other hand, in another article called “Natural Talent of Practice Makes Perfect?” Caitlin McCabe identifies the difference between the two ideas. She states herself as having a natural talent as a strong reader. She described how she has been reading since she was little and feels proud of having read so many books that she can identify with other readers around her. The reason she brought up the practice makes perfect was because she has attempted to try something new and attended a hip hop class for the first time. Sadly, she performed very poorly in class and could not keep up. She felt shameful and mentioned one must have talent for things like dancing. She referred to a phrase from a writer, Malcolm Gladwell who said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be good at something. If someone practiced 10,000 hours of something, I feel that talented or not, one would be able to perform well in it.

http://modite.com/blog/2009/10/14/turn-here-natural-talent-or-practice-makes-perfect/

            The two articles have different perspectives toward talent and practice makes perfect. Positively thinking, if we are very passionate about something and practice to make perfect, I believe we would be able to achieve it. Therefore we should go for what we love and be passionate about it! Perhaps I would be very good at dancing if I spent more time to practice?

Dance Bloggers!

Contemporary Dance is a type of dance that was originated from both Europe and North America. It is a combination of different forms of dance including modern dance, ballet, and post modern dance. Contemporary dance can be choreographed into any kind of music and the forms of dance range widely. I feel that contemporary dance is choreographed onto the music, and each dance is original to its music it is being choreographed to. There are several dancers that have made contemporary dance the new form of dance including Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Lester Horton. Contemporary dance is all about the improvisation and the non choreographed movements that flow onto the music.

I was surfing on the net and found a blog site for dancers called dancebloggers.com. This website is inspired to bring people who blog about dance together. I thought this site was interesting where anyone who has an interest in dance could join and write about dance. The bloggers include dance teachers, choreographers, dance students, dance observers, anyone who has an interest in dance. Any blogger can add their dance blog simply by clicking on the add your blog button and fill out some required information. The submitted blogs are reviewed and posted if no violations are regulated. There are also ways in which you can “friend” people that also share blogs on this page. This website allows dance bloggers to connect and share ideas, as well as discover new things they never knew about dance. I feel this is a great way in sharing common interest on the web.

In one of the articles, there is a post about how a ballerina appeared to be too fat for her to be on stage. The post linked to an article titled, “Dance Critic Thinks Ballerina Is Too Fat”. It explained about a former ballerina hitting stage again after a birth to a child and some weight gain. On all the comments below, it talks about how the standards of the ballerina body are unhealthy. Some shared thoughts on their own anorexic and bulimic experiences of when they used to dance ballet. I feel it is unhealthy for girls to stress themselves over how much they weigh and how skinny they must look, and it scares me to how much ballerinas are striving in order to achieve their skinny body.

Here is the website:

http://www.dancebloggers.com/

Hip Hop Finale

As we get closer to the end of this semester, we have started preparing for our final performance for our hip hop class. For the last two classes, we have combined all of our raps together and our professor has assigned us in different choreographies through the performance. The show is going to be a combination of the hip hop choreography we have been working on and the nursery rhymes that each of us had turned into a rap. Although this is our final performance, we have only gotten a total of two practices to get this together. We will practice it one more time before the final show case. I am nervous for this performance in which I have not performed on stage every since high school for my IB dance performance. I will post the details of the showcase as soon as I get them!

Luam's posts

As I was reading some blog posts off of Luam's (My favorite choreographer) website, I came across a post about Stephen Wiltshire, a young man who creates pieces of art work through his extensive techniques and memory. One of his featured art work was the work of a Manhattan view from the skyline. Since I have been interested in art ever since I was small and even thought of attending an art school before I came to Temple, this article interested me a lot. Stephen Wilshire went on a 20 minutes helicopter ride above New York City. After seven days and twelve pens, he completed a 18ft depiction of the city which was drawn all from his memory of the short helicopter ride, not to mention it being very accurate. They say that artists are a genius of its own, but this young man is more than that.

Here is a link to Laum's blog:
http://www.luam.net/luamnet/blog/blog.html

Zumba

So it seems like I am attending Zumba class twice a week every week. I introduced my roommates to the class and they said they enjoyed it as well. Because my roommates and I don't often get a chance to mingle, I feel it is a great idea to go every week and exercise together. I like how dance brings people together. It's also good exercise and I'm glad I'm getting my exercise here because I am definitely eating more compared to when I was in Tokyo. I found out that the instructor for the Zumba class is taking the same Hip Hop class the class right after mine. She said she is a communication major just like I am as well. I'm glad to know I have something in common with the instructor. Speaking of hip hop, our professor has started preparing us for the final performance. Apparently we are performing the dance routine along with some of our original rap included. I need to practice the dance so I don't forget the choreography...

Philly's Best Dance Crew

Last night I attended the event Philly's Best Dance crew to see some performances of dancers in Philly. It took place in the Student Center where more than 100 people showed up to watch the show. There were about 5 different groups of dancers ranging from 10-20 people in each group. They performed three sets of 5 minute performances and were voted by the judges of who had the best performance and choreography. The group nominated to be the best dance crew was handed a $1000 check as a prize. Throughout the event there were also prizes for the audience who have purchase the raffle tickets. The prizes consisted of ipods and gift cards. At the end there was a dance off to win an ipod and people stepped up on the stage to have a dance battle and show off their moves. It was a very energetic event and I enjoyed it very much.

On a different night I attended a dance workshop provided by the Temple Fitness Center called Zumba. Zumba is a kind of exercise and dance that originated in Colombia which consists of Latin movement on modern music. It was a 60 minute workout of non stop music and movement. There were more than 50 participants in the class and everybody seemed to be enjoying the workout. My plan is to go twice a week after my hip hop class to get my exercise.

Hip Hop Final Project

In our hip hop class, our final project is to take an assigned nursery rhyme, translate it into my own words, take an assigned artist, take the artist's theme and incorporate into the translation of the nursery rhyme and create an original rap out of it. In order to do so, we must listen to the songs of the artist, hear the message he has put into the song and take the bits and pieces of different songs and use the feeling into my rap. My nursery rhyme was John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt with the artist Common. Common talks about the streets, the ghetto and the hood in his songs. It was difficult to make the nursery rhyme into a rap but it was also difficult to get the flow of the artist's music into the rap. I will be performing tomorrow in class so I will post the rap next week!

Hip Hop

This is a video of our hip hop class learning the routine of our final dance number. Near the end of the semester we will be performing this in front of an audience. The past couple of days we have been learning break dancing, popping, and locking. The class is a lot of fun where the professor is motivated and enthusiastic.

When dancing, the core is very important. The core is how you learn to balance yourself when dancing. In order to create your core, you must have strong abdominal muscles so when you turn or do any kind of large movement, you can stop or control your body using your abs. Muscles are very crucial in dance. Dancing takes strength where a easy looking step takes your entire body strength to achieve. I would like to go to the gym more often to strengthen my core.

iNERT!A Dance Workshop

This weekend, I attended a dance workshop sponsored by the Temple ASA where members of iNERT!A taught us a choreography. It was held in the dance studio of Pearson Hall where there were as many as 30 participants excited to learn new moves from the semi-professional dancers. This was the first workshop for iNERT!A of the year. The routine we were taught was modern dance, with a lot of level changes and lyrically choreographed dance moves. One of the members of iNERT!A auditioned for the show, "So You Think You Can Dance?" in New York City last year and made it to the finals. However he could not make it to the Las Vegas round. He says he will go to Brooklyn this year to audition once again. My friends and I had a lot of fun where we got to experience a new form of dance. It was a little challenging to learn the choreography in a short period of time of about an hour but at the end we all felt it was good exercise. The following day I had very sore muscles on my legs... I am looking forward in attending the next dance workshop!

HOK from Quest Crew

During my internship at FOX Entertainment in Japan, I had a great opportunity in working with a great crew. In the summer, they organized a summer party at Okinawa with almost the entire crew of FOX, famous Japanese and foriegn artists for performances, and models for the runway. I helped assist with shoots and took care of celebrities for the three days I was there. One of the celebrities I was in charge of was HOK from Quest Crew, who won first place in America's Best Dance Crew. HOK was a down to earth funny guy where he treated all of us like his friends. However when he started performing on stage he was a compltetely different person. He was concentrated and filled with energy. While watching his performance I felt inspired and almost could not believe I was getting to talk to a great dancer like him. Watching people dance inspires me in practicing new moves myself. I hope that I will have more time in the future to go to classes to learn different styles of dance.

Hip-Hop

Being a communication major I had a great opportunity of enrolling the Hip-Hop class in Temple University. It is an upper level theater class which counts towards my major requirements. This semester, I learn hip hop for the first time. I feel that I have started to get the hang of it but still at times uncomfortable with the movements because it is so different from the dance I used to learn. But I love moving my body and everybody sweats a decent amount every class. I feel dancing is a great way to exercise and release yourself from the everyday stress. We have started learning our final performance piece which will determine our grade for the class. I will try to take a video of the class this semester and post it on my blog.

Not a dancer

Although I am not a dancer, I love to dance. I have only taken a couple years of contemporary dance classes back in high school but ever since then I have fallen in love with it. Contemporary dance is something like a combination of jazz, hip hop and ballet. It's hard to imagine but it concentrates more on the dance techniques as well as new philosophies of movement.

Every time I come across a video of someone dancing I stop and watch it over and over again. I get inspired by the movement of the body and how it articulates in the music. One thing I love about contemporary dance is that many of the choreographers use the latest hit music. I love music and I love being ahead in terms of artists and songs so when a dance is choreographed to my favorite song, I once again cannot take my eyes off of it. One of my favorite choreographers is Luam. She is a great dancer and she teaches lessons in NYC. I am excited to go take her class possibly during thanksgiving if not during Christmas break!

Here is a link to one of my favorite choreography by Luam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNvsOE8PCH4