Thursday, April 30, 2015

April Blog Post

          For this month i did a few things that helped me for my senior project. I made a few choreographies for different occasions. For one i did choreography for someomes sweet 16, its a bit frustrating due to the fact that a lot of people learning the piece are people who i dont know and never danced before but want to be in the sweet 16. Its ok though because its a good learning experience for me to learn how to teach people like that. Another routine i made was for someones performance for a tv show and thats a great experience for me because it makes me work under stress and pressure which is a good choreographer's skill. And Last but not least i worked with my company and my mentor im doing a last competition before summer starts and its pretty much the same as we did before, like practicing and formations and getting in sync with the team and just getting ready for the pressure and excitement competition gets us.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Independent Component 2

Independent Component 2 

Title:  Independent Component 2
Label:  Independent Component
Due Date:  Monday, 4/27 by 8AM

Content:  

LITERAL

(a) “I, Brandon Salinas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 45 hours and 50 minutes of work.”

(b) The book "Hip Hop Dance (The American Dance Floor)" by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, as well as Urban Dance Camp channel on youtube.com has helped me achieve what i needed to learn for this component. 

(c) My independent Component hours can be found HERE

(d) i choreographed routines and taught the choreography to people who do not know how to dance or never tried, for example the powderpuff routine. I also choreographed a routine for the dance elective for the final pep rally event. My final event i did was choreograph and teach kids for a sweet 16 surprise dance. All these consisted in having to make choreography by myself and later teach people who knew how to dance as well as people who did not learn how to dance and i gained experience from both circumstances. 
  
INTERPRETIVE

          Because my essential question is about choreography and dance performances, doing these events is a great way to get to know a better perspective in teaching and making your own routine. Having to come up and teach three routines made me use all the helpful tools i learned from these past few months. When it came to the Powderpuff routine, i had to make the meetings and choreography but let the guys who joined the team come up with which music they want to dance to. This was a great way to get the team to dance what they wanted to and become more confident with themselves as well as me having to learn how to choreograph something i did not choose to dance to, it was a win win experience. The many hours of practice with the boys made me realize my best answer for this project, which is having to know how to practice in any type of environment, because of having to always move around due to the construction and cal poly events, like archery, to learn the routine. The performance itself was a learning experience as well, because i had to teach the guys how to make facials expressions and learn how to breathe, which falls into my first answer.




These are most of the boys at powderpuff routines, they are doing the different formations i have made for the overall routine.



This is the powderpuff routine the day of the performance, i was proud of all of them for practicing and coming to practice for almost 2 months.


          My other main part of the independent component was to make choreography and teach the guys in the dance elective for the upcoming pep rally. This was different from the powderpuff event because these guys actually have some experience in dancing so my methods of teaching were different. For one, i would teach a lot quicker with them and we would learn half of the choreography in an hour. For two, i would focus more on the little things like feet position and arm posture so all of us can be more in sync and look alike. 




These pictures were taken at one of the dancers houses for practice of the routine i taught. 

APPLIED

          overall, this independent component has helped me strongly agree about my first 2 answers for my essential question, i saw a clear understanding in how its hard to teach and practice choreography in an environment thats not meant to be dancing but having the skill to do so can greatly make your dancing and performance better in both short and long run. Teaching the boys in the dance elective was also a good way to learn about facial expressions and performing with them, because they have experience in dancing, i could focus more on other things like positions and facial expressions to get a better performance out of them.