SUMMER IS COMING

The countdown has begun! 9 1/2 more days left and I can positively say every student in our school is ready for a real break. I know I've been counting down since the very first day of school but it feels good to actually confirm the reality that summer is coming. This summer a lot of exciting things are happening! Of course we live in New York, and like I said in my very first post on this blog, New York is full of opportunities. This means that as the new generation we have the ability to discover more, create more, and redefine stuff. Anyways, that being said, I feel it's important to acknowledge these opportunities but also take a moment to step back and think over what you want. As far as I know, this summer I am ready to expose myself as much as possible to the world of performance and dance. Especially in New York you can always find great entertainment at low prices if you look between the lines, so I am ready to do so and really be able to grow as a dancer. I challenge you all to find something that you will be able to really engage yourself in this summer even if you plan to get out of the city! Have a nice summer everyone :)

Summer Arts Festival!

Overall, I thought the Summer Arts Festival went really well! I thought I would talk about it on this blog because I feel like it went by really quickly and we weren't able to really reflect on our hard work. I was surprised how quickly everything has happened in general and how the school year is almost over. I really enjoyed dance this year and am excited for next year :) I especially loved the variety of dance we did this year and all of the different styles we were able to explore and learn! I also loved all of the dances we performed at the arts festival.  'Wade in the Water' really showed how culture can truly be incorporated into dance and tell a story which I thought was very interesting. I also loved the Hawaiian dance and how it was so simple but so beautiful because of it's simplicity. I personally thought the audience liked it the best because of it's simplicity. I also feel like many people aren't always able to grasp every meaning behind a dance, so they just take what they infer. This isn't great because then they may be interpreting in a bad way, and although dance is partly great because of it's open-interpretaition and all of the different views there are, it is also really great when anyone can fully understand a dance in one way which reminds me of the Hawaiian dance. Comment down below what your favorite dance was from the Summer Arts Festival!

Dance Moms: Is it a :) or :( ?

If you haven't heard of the reality tv show Dance Moms, then you are missing out. Although it is one of the most ridiculous shows ever, I think it's interesting to compare the kids who dance on it to the kid's who dance at our school. To sum it up, Dance Moms is a show staring Abby Lee Miller's dance company in Pittsburgh where each week a group of girls go out to competitions and perform. Ms Miller's tactics when it comes to teaching choreography have been criticized ever since the first Dance Moms episode released but through all the drama and craziness, somehow the girls are able to win lots of prizes and are happy (mostly) in the end. The reason why I'm talking about this is because the other day I saw Abby Miller's company perform a dance called, "The World Is Ours" and I just saw how generally repetitive and boring it was. Obviously the girls on Dance Moms have much more technique and are constantly training compared to students at school, but when I see the dances we do, I find them so much more meaningful and interesting. For example, the dance "Wade in the Water" that we learned is about slavery. However in Dance Moms they've danced based off of stories of waiting for a dentist and kids not being able to go to sleep because they are scared of monsters. I'm not trying to criticize Dance Moms, but what I'm really trying to say is that the dance we do at school makes us very lucky students. Dance Moms isn't about sense but impressing judges. At 447 we are about creativity and relevant messages that matter. To conclude, if you haven't realized yet how fortunate we as students are to not only get the dance education that we do but how what we dance matters to this world, go watch an episode of Dance Moms on YouTube and you can see. Thanks for reading this post!

Review: NYC 2016 Distinguished Faculty Dance Concert

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to the Fredrick Loewe theatre in Manhattan to see Ms. Farrell perform and many other NYU alumni and faculty perform various dances, from ballet to hip-hop. I thought it would be fun to do a review because I have a lot to say about! I may be bias since our amazing dance teacher was in the concert so disclaimer- I won't be reviewing the pieces she performed in because I would just be raving the whole time. Anyways, one piece that I remember very well is a hip-hop number called "Forever, You." The music was a combination of many popular and unknown (older artists from the early 2000's) songs like Rihanna's song "Work" and Jill Scott's "It's Love".  The energy was INCREDIBLE as were all the other pieces, but it was one of the most entertaining numbers to watch because the audience could really tell how much fun the dancers were having. There was a voice over going on in some parts of the dance of a woman talking about hip hop and how important it was to her and to be quite honest I can't say much about it because I was so distracted by the dance that I wasn't really listening, but the women's voice and the choreography were such a great pair together and really made the piece one to remember. Overall if I were a real critic I would give this concert five stars! I just want to say thank you to Ms. Farrell for letting us students have the chance to go see such an amazing performance :) Peace out.

Below is the poster for the performance so if you are interested to go see it you can find the dates and time. Tickets are only $5 for students!

Can dancing lead to better health?

Studies have shown that dancing does in fact improve you health and fitness, but can it really get people to be more active? In a recent article published by TIME Magazine, an experiment was done with two groups of older people to determine wether this "myth" was true. The final results concluded that dancing boosts the brain's strength and also is a great way to stay fit. The second group of elders proved to be 38 seconds faster in a 400-meter walk then they were before they started the dance program. This may seem like very little change but it really wasn't. Actually, this change could expand your lifespan. It actually turns out that if you do 30 minutes of constant exercise everyday, you could live longer. This includes dancing. Anyways, if you are as interested as me on this topic, go click the link down below so that you can learn more about all of the great benefits of health!

Check out the article!

The Man Behind the Company: Alvin Ailey

I am super happy that we recently started our African Dance Unit and are beginning by learning a dance originally created by Alvin Ailey. I have grown up going to performances by his company, but had never anticipated I would ever learn any. Furthermore, I began thinking about who Alvin Ailey really was. Obviously he was a dancer and created this company, making a lot of his dances based of of his childhood, but what was his motivation? how did it all start? Anyways, I did a bit of research to answer my pondering questions. Not only was Ailey a dancer but an activist. In 2014, many years after he died President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award recognizes people who have made a contribution to our country by a private endeavor to end an issue or make fairness. What is so amazing about this is Ailey didn't just win an award that shows all the amazing activism he has done, but for the president to be awarding him this so many years later after he had died, shows that he was such an influence. Below is a picture that is on Ailey's wiki page dating to 3 years before he formed his company. I feel like this picture shows honorability and bravery which completely describes Ailey. However, what goes on behind this picture is what I'm really trying to talk about. The editor of his wikipedia page would have had some thought into putting that picture up, and most likely that thought was that Ailey was an admirable person. Lastly, what I'm trying to conclude is Alvin Ailey did more than just dance, he fought for African American's rights and stood up for everyone resulting in his many awards. After doing this research about him, I feel like there is a greater purpose behind our dance in class and so it makes me appreciate it more. I hope this blog post could speak to you and inform you a little on how special Mr. Ailey is, and how great it is to be learning his dance!


                                                       

Dancing With The Stars

Dancing With The Stars or for short, DWTS: A dance competition featuring professional dancers who train celebrities with no dance experience what so ever. DWTS happens live every Monday nights on the channel 'ABC'. I thought I might write about it because not only is it really fun to see people who you never thought could dance, actually dance, but you really get to connect with all of the contestants. On this season (number 22, I think), there are so many new ideas coming out of each of the dances. There's real symbolism to it all. My favorite professional or "pro" dancer is Mark Ballas. He was classically trained when he was younger, but now does a lot of contemporary work. I really like his choreography because he has such a creative mind, and he comes up with these extravagant pictures, which he then translates into his work. Last season he did a "jazz" routine about the season in Japan when there are all of these buds on trees. Jazz and Japan don't relate in any way but Mark made them seem so fluid, put together. In the dance, he and his partner Willow Shields who you may know from the Hunger Games movies (she played Prim), were ninjas, and so they did all of these choppy movements and at one point there were climbed up on these invisible ropes. All the effects that can go into a dance is pretty incredible. Another person who I really like on DWTS is the celebrity Bindi Irwin. She's currently dancing on this season. Her father was a famous "crocodile hunter". When I say that I don't mean he killed crocodiles, it's just he did a lot of insightful research about them. He was an incredible figure in the world of animal studies, and a few years ago he died because a stingray killed him. Bindi always went on missions with him, and grew up always alongside animals. Although Bindi has no dance experience she is such a natural dancer. Down below I have a picture of her and her partner, Derek, dancing. This is there dance from last week. I hope that if you like this post you go watch DWTS. You can find episodes of it on Youtube and on the ABC website. Thanks for reading, Pippa :)

Here are more pictures of competitors from recent seasons on DWTS: