Blog 18: Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

• "What is the most important factor in choreographing a dance piece?"

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• The most important factor that goes into choreographing a dance piece is the initial connection that you are able to make with a song when first choreographing.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• The most important factor that goes into choreographing a dance piece is the amount of power/strength you use to execute each move. 

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• There are several choreographers that are popular and known due to the sole reason that they can hit their movements so hard.
• Some choreographers that would be known for this are Bam Martin, Sorah Yang and Markus Pe Benito.
• By properly hitting hard, you are able to expand the amount of movements you know when choreographing. 
• Dancing requires different textures of movements to look good and if you don't know how to hit hard then you won't be able to hit those textures. 
• If you can't properly execute then you won't be able to make it into the industry. 
• What distinguishes a lot of choreographers from one another is based on how hard they can hit. Some are seen better than others because of this. 

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

• Sato, N, H Nunome, and Y Ikegami. "Kinematic
  Analysis of Basic Rhythmic Movements of
  Hip-hop Dance: Motion Characteristics
  Common to Expert Dancers." Journal of
  Applied Biomechanics, 31.1 (2015): 1-7.

6.  What other source supports your answer?

• Weege, Bettina, Michael N Pham, Todd K
  Shackelford, and Bernhard Fink. "Physical
  Strength and Dance Attractiveness: Further
  Evidence for an Association in Men, but Not
  in Women." American Journal of Human
  Biology, 27.5 (2015): 728-730.

7.  Tie this together with a concluding thought.

• This answer is definitely something that I could relate to because a lot of my own style is solely based on execution. I'm known for using really big and powerful movements and that's why I chose power as my second answer.

Blog 17: Interview 3 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

• The most important thing that I learned from this interview is that a majority of making choreography has to do with crowd appeal. Instead of making choreography that I enjoy, in order to make it into the industry as a choreographer you have to focus on what other people would like.

2.  How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

• As the year passed and more interviews were being done, I've learned to ask more personal questions as well as learning how to follow up with questions. In my first interview, I did not ask any follow up questions at all because I didn't know how to do so but now as I interview, the questions just keep popping up.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

 

Examples of videos that other dancers use in their portfolios

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

• For my Independent Component 2, I plan to create a dance portfolio. It would consist of a total of 8 pieces that would vary in dance styles. My 30 hours would go into perfecting and creating these pieces over the course of the next 2 months. 

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

• In order to show the evidence of these 30 hours, I would have a folder made with all of the pieces I make compiled into it. I would also take pictures of me choreographing in the studio.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This component would help me explore my topic in more depth because it requires me to have deadlines. Making 8 pieces in only the course of 2 months is definitely going to be hard so that's why I'm going to need to use time management. It would also help me explore different types of music that I could choreograph more in depth to.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

• Will do!

Independent Component 1

Content:   

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, Yuji Karuhaka, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 64 hours of work.”
  (b) No sources were required in making this component.
• (d) Explain what you completed.    
• For this component, I spent a majority of my time choreographing in the studio for the three dance pieces that we were going to film for the movie. I also spent a good amount of time filming with Isaiah Maylad as well as helping him come up with a story and concept. 

• INTERPRETIVE 
  Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work. 

 
This picture was taken on scene while filming the "Let It Go" scene.

This was a shot taken from another one of our dance scenes.

This was a shot taken on-scene of Isaiah Maylad shooting a scene for the movie.

• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 
• This component really helped me understand the pressure of being an industry dancer. i honestly thought this project was going to be a breeze because I had the idea that I just needed to choreograph some dances and perform them in front of a camera. These were things that I had done before but it was very different this time around. The environment, the outfit, and the pressure were all things that I had not been used to. For example, trying to dance at the beach in skinny jeans was definitely something that I had to adapt to. 

Blog 15 - Lesson 2 Reflection

 

1. What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

• I am definitely the most proud of my activity. Even though it seemed like a skeptical idea at first, I still went through with it and it went better than I thought. I really felt like it pieced my entire presentation together and it seemed like a good majority of the class was really invested in it as well.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

•        I would give myself a P.

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

• I would give myself a P due to the fact that I met all the P requirements on the contract but I had also gone through my entire presentation without any technical problems, etc. 

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

• What worked best for me in my Lesson 2 was my hook because it really helped me set the stage for what I was going to be talking about regarding emotion when dancing.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

• If I could go back, I would definitely revise my organization because at the time I thought I had a pretty solid plan but as I was presenting, it seemed like nothing flowed together.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

• I believe that my answer #2 is going to be, "The amount of strength/power you put into your movements."

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.