1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?
- I plan to interview my dance captain, Lauren Alvar. She is a very experienced dancer and is trained in various different dance styles, some of which include contemporary and hip hop.
2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview. What is the date and time of the interview?
3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
- As a dancer, what impacts you the most when dancing and why?
4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).
- If I'm trying to learn about how to make the perfect dance piece, what do you suggest I do to reach this goal?
5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.
- Do you believe that choreography is done through a process that everyone generally follows? and why?
- Can you distinguish one factor that is the most important when making choreography?
1. Where are you doing your mentorship?
- I am still doing my mentorship hours at Stylz Dance Studio located in West Covina.
2. Who is your contact? What makes this person an expert?
- My mentor/contact is my dance director, Elizabeth Amber Woods. She is qualified as a professional because she is not only my dance director but is also an instructor at Stylz. She has been hired for numerous industry jobs and has performed with several teams ranging from Academy of Villains to 3-23. She has been in the dance community for a majority of her life and continues to inspire many dancers in the area.
3. How many hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).
- During the school year I have completed a total of 26 mentorship hours.
4. Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.
- My mentor and I are pretty close considering the amount of time we've spent together these past few months. She sees a lot of potential in me that most people would just overlook. I spend a majority of my hours learning how to better understand how my body works. She explained to me that the only way to enter the industry is to understand your body in ways that you would only be able to understand. Only then would I be able to develop my own style and become more known. She teaches me choreography pieces she makes but also brings in other choreography to teach me different routines. With each new piece I learn, my mentor encourages to push me to my limits in order to better myself in execution but also performance. With all of this being said, in the future I hope to focus more on my choreography rather than learning other people's dances. For later mentorship days we plan to actually make choreography together in order to expand my dance in a more creative aspect, but also work on new things to generally better myself as a dancer.
1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?
- Over the course of winter break, I participated in numerous activities revolving my senior topic. I spent a majority of my time at the studio training in both my choreography and my ability to learn choreography from other people. I also choreographed one of the pieces Isaiah Maylad and I are going to use for our independent component. That means I just have two more pieces to go! Finally, I joined a second team known as HoneyBadgerz and we have recently started rehearsals for a performance later this month.
2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?
- The most important thing that I learned over break is that the key to being a good dancer is to practice. I believe this is very important considering I was never really practicing as much as I wanted to during the year because of having to deal with school and working part time. However, over break, since I had no school to worry about, I used that opportunity to practice as much as I can. With this being said, I can already feel the improvement I've made in just these two weeks alone because of how much I've trained. The source of this finding was due to me going through my old dance videos before break and looking at what I've been creating after the break. The side by side comparison is very substantial.
3. Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?
- I plan to interview my current dance captain, Lauren Alvar. She has experience in several technical dance styles as well as extensive experience in hip hop. She has been dancing for several years and is more knowledgeable about the dance industry than most people out there. She was head choreographer for a team known as Barkada and is currently dancing with the HoneyBadgerz, OTG, and Nu Era. Although she is new to the industry, she is very qualified to be the third person I interview for my senior project.
