Dance Class Reflection
This course gave me the opportunity to pursue my long-held interest in dance. I had often thought of taking a belly dancing class and paid to take a class at City in Motion a few weeks ago, but when the bus drove right past me while I was waiting at the bus stop, I knew I would not be able to get to class on time. I was unable to attend that first class, so I contacted the City in Motion Dance Company and they said that I could use the credit I had from that class to put towards a different class. Although I was interested in learning to belly dance, because of the fast paced, sudden movements, I then realized that I also admired those same qualities in hip hop dancing. I then decided to take a hip hop class instead, …show more content…
Once I arrived at the dance studio, I had to press a button on the intercom system for admittance. While I was waiting to go inside, an African-American gentleman dressed in jeans and a black jacket walked up beside me and unlocked the door. It was Bobby Ray, my dance instructor! We walked up the stairs together, at the top of the stairs there were the two other dance students standing inside of a giant dance studio. The room had an entire wall of mirrors, a wall full of windows, and two more walls with a few bars protruding from them. Bobby Ray filled a plastic tub with baby powder, and said that we could wipe our shoes on it so that we would not slide around while we were dancing. Once we had all powdered our shoes, he started by playing some upbeat electronic music through a speaker to let us stretch and get warmed up. He began the class by writing the word “mechanics” on the mirror, and said that all dance is built on mechanics, it is the reason watching professional dancers can look so mesmerizing. He explained that once dancers understand the mechanics of a dance, they hardly have to think about it; they can feel what they are supposed to do …show more content…
The open-ended ability to dance as both a soloist hip hop dancer, and also as part of the class ensemble was very enlightening to me as a student. I really appreciated how Bobby Ray was able to meet me and the other students at our respective levels of dance ability. I am definitely an amateur hip hop dancer, so he did a very effective job of explaining the choreography in a simple manner. Bobby Ray was also very relaxed, and said that sometimes he gets these new ideas for dance moves while he is teaching class, so occasionally he would have us try a new move or dance step as he was discovering it for himself. He also noted that we were welcome to experiment with our own style of hip hop with his input and
This course gave me the opportunity to pursue my long-held interest in dance. I had often thought of taking a belly dancing class and paid to take a class at City in Motion a few weeks ago, but when the bus drove right past me while I was waiting at the bus stop, I knew I would not be able to get to class on time. I was unable to attend that first class, so I contacted the City in Motion Dance Company and they said that I could use the credit I had from that class to put towards a different class. Although I was interested in learning to belly dance, because of the fast paced, sudden movements, I then realized that I also admired those same qualities in hip hop dancing. I then decided to take a hip hop class instead, …show more content…
Once I arrived at the dance studio, I had to press a button on the intercom system for admittance. While I was waiting to go inside, an African-American gentleman dressed in jeans and a black jacket walked up beside me and unlocked the door. It was Bobby Ray, my dance instructor! We walked up the stairs together, at the top of the stairs there were the two other dance students standing inside of a giant dance studio. The room had an entire wall of mirrors, a wall full of windows, and two more walls with a few bars protruding from them. Bobby Ray filled a plastic tub with baby powder, and said that we could wipe our shoes on it so that we would not slide around while we were dancing. Once we had all powdered our shoes, he started by playing some upbeat electronic music through a speaker to let us stretch and get warmed up. He began the class by writing the word “mechanics” on the mirror, and said that all dance is built on mechanics, it is the reason watching professional dancers can look so mesmerizing. He explained that once dancers understand the mechanics of a dance, they hardly have to think about it; they can feel what they are supposed to do …show more content…
The open-ended ability to dance as both a soloist hip hop dancer, and also as part of the class ensemble was very enlightening to me as a student. I really appreciated how Bobby Ray was able to meet me and the other students at our respective levels of dance ability. I am definitely an amateur hip hop dancer, so he did a very effective job of explaining the choreography in a simple manner. Bobby Ray was also very relaxed, and said that sometimes he gets these new ideas for dance moves while he is teaching class, so occasionally he would have us try a new move or dance step as he was discovering it for himself. He also noted that we were welcome to experiment with our own style of hip hop with his input and