Personal Narrative: My Dance

This semester I was once again enrolled in DA 401. Over the course of this semester, I have worked conscientiously to improve my dancing through a concentration on various technical components. I feel like I was already more successful at some of these components than others, so I decided to focus on some of the other components that were more vital to my dancing and that I needed the most improvement in. Of the many technical aspects of ballet technique, I chose to focus on four – strength, flexibility, performance qualities, and risk. Success in each of these areas is important to being a technically advanced and well-rounded dancer, and I will continue to concentrate on these technical components in the pursuit of further advancing my ballet …show more content…
My goal this semester was to focus on using the correct muscles, such as the abdominals and the glutes, to execute movements and hold positions. In the past, I would overuse my psoas, causing inflammation in my hips and pain in my lower back. While I still do not have complete control of my core and may not always use the correct muscles, I think that I have gotten stronger in the correct areas. I now only experience this sort of pain off and on, and it usually is not as severe as it has been in the past. Like last semester, school has kept my schedule so full that I have not had the time to see my physical therapist regularly. I was able to visit her, however, during my spring break; she continued to work with me to teach me how to dance correctly and gave me stretches to help to release my psoas and hip flexors. I am pleased to have felt some relief this semester, and I will continue to work towards strengthening the correct …show more content…
Before coming to Brenau University, I had a tendency to dance plainly and even stiffly at times; now I feel like my dancing has a bit more personality to it. Over this semester, I have really been encouraged to be more expressive with my arms and head in ballet class, helping to enhance the amount of performance quality in my dancing. I think that having roles other than corps has especially helped with this. I felt that performing as Snow White allowed me to explore performing more of a character role, something that helped to push me to step out of my comfort zone. Still, like these other areas of evaluation, there can always be more. I think that I have improved in this area, but I would like to enhance my dancing even more by developing more artistry to add to my already established