Blog 14: Third Interview Preparation

 


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? 

• January 24th, 2:30 pm

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?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

      

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.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

                            


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.

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

• The one thing that I am the most proud of in my lesson is the fact that I got more passionate about my topic than I thought I would. Right before my presentation I was so nervous that I kept forgetting everything I was going to say but as soon as I started, all the words just came to me. I knew exactly what to say without even thinking about it. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• I do believe that I should receive at least a P. I not only made the time requirement but everything I said was in a way related to my topic. I used no "filler" information, and I also went really in depth as to how dance is so much more than what people think of it as. Hopefully after my presentation, a new found appreciation for dance among my peers would've sparked.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

• If I were to go back, I would definitely change the amount of confidence I gave off when I presented. It was evident that I was nervous but even though I had known my information and had prepared everything I was going to say beforehand, I still ended up stuttering a lot during the presentation. This is going to help me in my next presentation because it shows me that I'm going to need to rehearse a lot more so that my words could come out more naturally and therefore solving my stuttering problem.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

            

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

• I am spending a majority of my mentorship at the same studio that I train at, Stylz Dance Studio. When I do go in for mentorship, my mentor usually spends most of our time teaching me different pieces and techniques that I could use to extend my knowledge of dance. I also learn different exercises that I must execute every day in order to fully condition my body into a dancer like state. I do believe that most of the tasks that I perform are meaningful to my topic considering the fact that I'm pretty much getting a hands on learning experience from not only my mentor but also from other experts that come in and visit the studio as well.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

• My mentor, Liz Woods, is the director of a team called Nu Era of which I am also a part of. I joined the team just this summer and she was more than willing to help me expand my understanding of what it means to be a dancer. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person

• At this point in time, on a scale from 1-10, I would say that me and my mentor are at about a 7. It's true that we train together and keep most of our mentorship time strictly professional but there are times when we just let loose and bust jokes at each other considering the amount of time that we've spent together through mentorship. 

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

• I believe that the interview went really well because, as a whole, it inspired me to try even harder than I already am in my dance career. She stated in the interview that it only took her about two months to progress as much as she had did, and I hope to push myself hard enough in order to make that same progress that she made. I really need to improve the amount of effort I put into my practicing because, in this month alone, i don't feel I;ve made any progress in my dance abilities. In order to address this, I will push myself to the limits  until I actually feel a sudden change has been made in my performance. 

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

• I do have a mentor and as of today, I have already completed my second interview.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.  

• The fields of dance that I plan to further study about would either be the process of making dance choreography or the actual process of teaching dance to a class. The reasons for why i plan to focus on one of these topics is because my end goal in the future is to have a teaching slot at any studio within the area. In order for this to happen, I would need to greatly improve both my choreography and teaching abilities.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

• Some sources that I believe would help me a little more would be videos such as interviews and dance tutorials. These kinds of videos are very accessible on YouTube so it shouldn't be too hard to find them.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

• What is the most important factor that goes into the process of making a choreographed dance piece?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• For my first Independent Component, I plan to collaborate with one of my fellow peers, Isaiah Maylad. Together we were going to make a short film that utilizes dance to express the emotions of what the characters are feeling. I plan to complete my 30 hours through extensive time spent choreographing and rehearsing. I will also be the one performing as well as acting in the final product. Finally, my hours will also go towards things like location scouting, preparation, and also some editing done with my partner. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• Evidence that is to be shown as proof for my 30 hours will be done through pictures and short videos that I will take while I'm in the studio choreographing. I will also keep track of all of the days that I meet with Isaiah in order to keep our hours consistent. 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This short film would help my exploration into dance because in the dance industry, famous choreographers tend to put out their work in the form of a "concept video". They showcase their latest dance piece while telling a story that's incorporated with the piece. What Isaiah and I plan to do is take this idea of a concept video and turn it into a full blown short film. This would give me experience as to how concept videos would be shot as well as what is required of me when I film my pieces in the future. 

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

• Done.