Thursday, May 29, 2014

Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement

The thing that I'm most proud of is that a lot of people actually enjoyed my presentation and the activity was engaging. I was most proud of this because I really wanted my presentation to be engaging so people won't get bored and sleep. It was heavily activity based.

2.Questions to Consider

a. I would give myself a P+ on my Block Presentation
b. I would give myself a solid P on my overall senior project

3. What worked for me in senior project was that I actually found a mentor and I was surprised to find a decent amount of sources. Dancing is a pretty hard topic to find research on.

4. What didn't work was my 10 minute presentation because I had so much to say for so little time. The exit interviews also didn't work for me because it was a bit difficult to get your message across about dance.

5. Finding Value

This senior project has helped me in future endeavors by preparing me to be confident in what I'm going to talk about. In order to get more attention, I need to find a way to energize my presentations. An example would be that when I was presenting, I really enjoyed my topic and showed energy, thus causing the audience to enjoy it as well. The concept of showing energy also applies to my senior project topic. Overall, I feel like I've gotten better as a presenter.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Sorry for the Late Extra April Post


Their Schedule

Mentorship

Content:

Literal:
Mentorship Log
Heather Gonzalez, The Lab: Creative Arts Studio

Interpretive:
The most important thing I've gained from this experience is relating what you've learned and researched to real-life situations. My EQ is more of "How to" question rather than a "What is" question. During research and mentorship, I got good information for my EQ, and I got actual observations on how my mentor does her tasks. After reflecting on what I've learned and what I've experienced, I've applied them in finding answers for my EQ.

Applied:
Shadowing dances have been really helpful to me in finding answers to my EQ. I even took a few classes. As I was shadowing the classes, I was able to see which moves complemented the song and which moves looked a bit odd. Not only that, I got to see different teaching methods and how it worked and how it didn't work, affecting how far into the song the dancers progressed. Taking classes helped me see things in a dancer's perspective. Some dancers can pick up choreography quite quickly while others can't, thus taking the difficulty of the dance routine in mind.





Monday, April 28, 2014

Exit Interview

Content:

1. My EQ is "How can a hip hop dancer best prepare a routine for an audition?" My following answers are:
-Immersing yourself in a song helps you find ideas on how you're going to convey its theme.
-Taking hip hop classes helps you find ideas on how you're going to make and teach your routine.
-Freestyle dancing can help you highlight certain moves you did that can be used for your dance routine.

My best answer is "Immersing yourself in a song helps you find ideas on how you're going to convey its theme."

2. To get this answer, I had to listen to many songs many times to figure out which types of moves really compliment the song. From the beats to the various sound effects and to the lyrics, I've thoroughly analyzed each element of a song. I've done this many times long before I chose my topic and gained more experience by mentorship.

3. The problems I faced were running out of ideas, the song going a bit too fast on certain verses, and knowing whether or not we can actually pull off certain moves. To solve running out of ideas, I looked on Youtube and dance routines in the studio to borrow moves. For fast verses, I had to think of alternative moves that had less movement and memorization but still looked cool to the song. For moves that we can't pull off, I had to think of easier moves that still looked attractive.

4. The two most significant sources I used to answer the question are sources from two different websites-- Dance Spirit and Human Kinetics. The source from Human Kinetics talks about what specific elements make dance routine more attractive. The source from Dance Spirit talks about how to get ideas for your dance routine, what the audience expect you to show, and being original with your own ideas.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Independent Component 2

Literal
a. I, Mark Patena, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b. -Interview with Val Ramirez
    -Arney, Juliane. "Sample Class: The Kids Wanna Dance!" Idea Fit. Health & Fitness Association, Mar. 2005. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/sample-class-kids-wanna-dance-2>
c. My Independent Component 2 Hours Log
d. I've planned to make another choreography that will be used in my final presentation. I've first asked people on what they want to see in a hip hop routine. Considering their responses, I had to do long planning on how I should teach it to the audience as well as keeping the difficulty appropriate to the "new" dancers. I've filmed myself dancing to the chorus of "Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake. It would be impossible to finish the whole song during the final presentation.

Interpretive 
Getting feedback from people is one good way to improve your dance routine. Keeping their responses in mind will require some editing in your dance routine. Also, the speed of progress when showing your choreography depends on your teaching style.    





Applied
This component helped answer my EQ because I got more experience teaching new people a dance routine. It got me thinking on how to get your dance choreography across more effectively. With the right moves for a song, you keep your dancers more interested. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Third Answer

"How can a hip hop dancer best prepare a routine for an audition?"

"Freestyle dancing can help you highlight certain moves you did that can be used for your dance routine."

-Randomly doing any moves to the beat of a song can help get your mind and creativity going.
-Freestyle dancing always helps you be original when it comes to planning your dance choreography and not look like a copy of one.
-When you make a mistake, freestyle dancing helps improvise dance steps to help you get back on track with the group.

http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/07/warburton-dance-study.html
http://www.hiphopmoves.org/freestyle.html

Due to it's improvisational nature, freestyle dancing gives you many brainstorming for ideas and helps you during the actual performance.