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.