Dance Analysis
Dance
Today was one of the best days of my BEd program and my EDCP320 class. I was feeling nervous for the dancing portion due to my traumatic experiences in the past. Growing up, I had a very rude and scary dance teacher for all my starring roles in all 6 major musical productions. Although she was a very talented, knowledgeable dancer, and a good choreographer, she would scream obscenities, say very offensive and racist comments to students, including myself, who made mistakes in dancing, and publicly humiliate, belittle and deliberately insult the students (e.g. becoming so frustrated as to fall onto the floor and acting all dramatic when we made mistakes). Therefore, I have always been literally afraid of dancing, even if I performed dances in musical theatre productions. Although I don’t have “two left feet” and am …show more content…
not an awkward dancer, I was never a very strong dancer and always associated dance with fear and humiliation. However, this class literally changed my perception of dancing.
Although I felt a little hesitant, the activities allowed me to feel very comfortable because our instructors today were encouraging and supportive. For instance, Cecilia said to me “good job Ellyce” and they emphasized that we could go at our own pace and style—we weren’t forced to do any uncomfortable or difficult dance moves. By the end of the dance lesson, I was having a lot of fun that I felt like continuing. Their teaching method promoted creativity, co-operation (when we had to make a dance sequence of 8 counts in small groups) and community because, during the dance song, we would intermittently dance in our small groups and together as a big group, following the dance instructor, and this went back and forth. I’ve realized that dance is first about conscious memory, followed by muscle memory—it later comes automatically. Dance starts to become fun during the muscle memory stage. For the first time in my life, I could say that freestyle dance was fun and fulfilling. I think today’s dance lesson strengthened my love for dance and decreased my association of dance with
fear.
*Note: the date on the paper indicates the date of the activity, which is different from the final upload date.
Today was one of the best days of my BEd program and my EDCP320 class. I was feeling nervous for the dancing portion due to my traumatic experiences in the past. Growing up, I had a very rude and scary dance teacher for all my starring roles in all 6 major musical productions. Although she was a very talented, knowledgeable dancer, and a good choreographer, she would scream obscenities, say very offensive and racist comments to students, including myself, who made mistakes in dancing, and publicly humiliate, belittle and deliberately insult the students (e.g. becoming so frustrated as to fall onto the floor and acting all dramatic when we made mistakes). Therefore, I have always been literally afraid of dancing, even if I performed dances in musical theatre productions. Although I don’t have “two left feet” and am …show more content…
not an awkward dancer, I was never a very strong dancer and always associated dance with fear and humiliation. However, this class literally changed my perception of dancing.
Although I felt a little hesitant, the activities allowed me to feel very comfortable because our instructors today were encouraging and supportive. For instance, Cecilia said to me “good job Ellyce” and they emphasized that we could go at our own pace and style—we weren’t forced to do any uncomfortable or difficult dance moves. By the end of the dance lesson, I was having a lot of fun that I felt like continuing. Their teaching method promoted creativity, co-operation (when we had to make a dance sequence of 8 counts in small groups) and community because, during the dance song, we would intermittently dance in our small groups and together as a big group, following the dance instructor, and this went back and forth. I’ve realized that dance is first about conscious memory, followed by muscle memory—it later comes automatically. Dance starts to become fun during the muscle memory stage. For the first time in my life, I could say that freestyle dance was fun and fulfilling. I think today’s dance lesson strengthened my love for dance and decreased my association of dance with
fear.
*Note: the date on the paper indicates the date of the activity, which is different from the final upload date.