Dance Subculture

1.     Narrative of Thought: When I first chose my subject, I thought I was going to go into the world of competition dance the way I saw it.  Being an ex-competition dancer myself I thought it would be interesting for others to be able to experience what I did.  I also was a modern dance student, so I was going to compare the two worlds and go that direction.  My subject has actually changed a lot since then, for two reasons; one that I can’t do a focus on a subculture that I am a part of, and two, following people through their endeavors is actually a lot different from my own experience.  I thought everyone had the same thoughts and opinions as myself, but it turns out there’s much more dynamic to this world of dancers.  I decided to steer away from my previous route and focus on young dancers, how they are seen in the outside community, as well as in their own subculture and research their opinions of the world of competition dance. 

2.     Look at strands on the web:

a.     Shared language: “Merde,” facials, makeup, hair, platinum, high gold, gold, silver, studio (two meanings), conditioning, jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, kick, lyrical

b.     Shared artifacts: costumes, makeup, hair gel, hair pins, hair binders, bobby pins (different from hair pins), bun forms, hair spray, hair nets, earrings, rhinestones, warm-ups, shoes, trophies, crowns, ribbons

c.      Common rituals and traditions: crazy dance moms, praying, stretching, going through dances, chants

d.     Shared beliefs and attitudes: Superstition of telling a dancer to “break a leg” and “good luck”, watching the dance before yours before going on stage, split between “holier than thou” and modest

3.     Shared beliefs and attitudes:

a.     “Break a leg”/”Good luck”: To a dancer, the usual good luck saying of “break a leg” can be considered an omen.  Most of the dance world is very superstitious and telling a dancer to “break a leg” can be taken very seriously.  Because legs are very important to the dancer, a broken leg can mean sitting out the rest of the season or even problems for the rest of their lives as dancers.  Saying the phrase, “merde” is usually preferred.  Loosely translated, “merde” means, “shit” in French.  The reasoning that “good luck” isn’t said to dancers is because of their superstition that wishing good luck would bring bad luck.  According to an online dance forum, dancers believe that saying something negative will bring positivity to performances.

b.     Watching the dance before: Many competition coaches tell their dancers not to watch the dancers backstage before they go on for fear that they will forget their dance and start performing the dance they just saw.  This is another superstition, because in all reality, dances can’t be picked up that quickly.  It’s a way of keeping the dancers focused and bringing down anxiety before their turn on stage.  There is also an aspect of comparing one’s dance to the ones in the same category, at times psyching the dancer out to the point of compromising the best performance a dancer can have. 

c.      “Holier than thou” vs. Modest: There is a split in the competition dance world between having a “holier than thou” ego and modest.  It all comes down to what is important within the studio.  This is actually more prevalent between the younger dancers than with the older ones.  Some of the girls believe that acting rudely to competition is a way of showing confidence and poise, while other studios coach their teams to always be respectful and kind to everyone competing against them.  You see a lot of both at competitions, but those who are rude are notorious for acting this way and that way of acting is not tolerated in the general community.  

Dance Subculture

Dance Shoes: Dance shoes are pertinent to any dancer, especially competition dancers.  Everyone has to have the same shoes, otherwise you could get marked off points by the judges.  It is also important not to lose them, seeing as they are very expensive.  At first glance, if someone were to hear this reasoning, they would probably think that people were overreacting and it's not as big of a deal as it's coming off as.  On the contrary, if a team has registered one of their dances for a certain style, the shoes must correlate, and it could seriously hurt their chances of winning if the rules weren't followed.  Dance can be a very expensive sport, and shoes are no exception.  People may think you have to be well off to dance, but there are some shortcuts.  There are a lot of used dance shoe stores, and a lot of studios sell used dance shoes, cutting down prices sometimes up to 95%.  The three most important things this artifact tells me about this subculture are of the art of it, the price, and the precision.

Caboodles/Makeup: Caboodles are plastic makeup cases that are now mostly only seen at dance competitions and other places where heavy makeup is used.  They were a huge fad in the 80's and 90's, but died out as other makeup cases arose.  Almost every dancer has one of these, because they are perfect for carrying large amounts of makeup and come with a mirror inside.  I chose this artifact because it's every dancer's best friend, they can organize their makeup and be able to touch-up or change quickly if needed.    It's just another thing to add on the price list, and some may have a problem with that after seeing the end bill.  But it's all part of the complete package to having a successful competition.  Along with dance shoes, a seemingly flawless face that isn't washed out is a must.  It is counted towards the final score and can be the deciding factor when it comes to points.  This is a big part of the subculture and how it is defined because it is widely controversial.  Many people would fight that children as young as four don't need makeup and they should dance the way they are.  In all reality, it has nothing to do with trying to objectify girls or make them seem older than they are, it simply has to do with the fact that they are on stage, and the lights wash their faces out.  There is a little glam factor in it, because it completes the package, but it's all part of the competition.  The three most important things this artifact tells me about the subculture are that it's controversial, it's important to scoring, and that it's perfectly normal to the dancers.

Rhinestones/Costumes: Rhinestones and costumes are probably the most important part of competition minus the actual dance.  The costumes have to correlate with the dance itself and be appropriate with the music.  Whether it's appropriate for the age group is a different story.  This is why people misinterpret dance competitions so much.  Costuming can be risque, and some critics can't get past that.  I myself have mixed feelings about the subject, because I grew up at a studio that was modest in costuming, a rule actually being that no costumes can show stomach.  People think that it's degrading towards girls and giving them the wrong idea young in life.  It's connected to my other artifacts to make the complete package of a perfect competitor.  The three most important things this artifact tells me about the subculture are that it's, again, controversial, can be risque and is widely misinterpreted.

LIST

1. Experience at ISA (International School of Amsterdam)
2. Experience with Beacons
3. More on my preschool ideas

I read through my narrative and realized that I was lacking in what my preschool really was trying to accomplish.  Thus, I took time to write the ending paragraph.  

This was the extent of my preschool explanation:

Now the ultimate goal of owning my own preschool doesn’t seem so far away, and I’m motivated to do anything I can to make my dream a reality.

I added: 

There will be three main focuses in my preschool: community service, fine arts, and education.  A child is never too young to give.  Thus I will create opportunities to help the less fortunate through activities like, but not limited to, sharing music, helping at food shelves, and having clothing drives.  I will also instill the love of fine arts in each and every child that walks through the door, giving them choices between dance, theater, choir and instruments.  The education portion will be just like any other school, teaching math, writing and reading, but I will also add languages, geography and science.  Though they are young, I believe that solid building blocks are the key to success in any child.  The children will learn by doing instead of just seeing, and it will help them to excel in the subjects taught.  My idea is to not only have preschool, but also a pre-preschool of sorts for two to three year olds and also a Pre-K for five to six year olds.  That way, they will have enough time for the philosophies taught to really make a difference in their lives.  Keeping thesis in mind and experience under my belt, I am determined to create a preschool righting the wrongs of modern day segregation and intolerance.  Though it’s a small step, I hope to contribute to ending discrimination, creating a brighter future, and bringing communities together, regardless of race, religion and economical standing.

The "Music" of Figurative Language

I am a really big fan of musicals, and a lot of the songs use figurative language to get their points across creatively, below is a song from the musical, Next to Normal.  It’s called, “You Don’t Know.”  The main character is trying to explain to her husband how she feels every day of her life being depressed.  It’s one of my favorite songs in the show, very deep.  

Next to Normal - You Don't Know (Alice Ripley)

Do you wake up in the morning and need help to lift your head?
Do you read obituaries and feel jealous of the dead?
It's like living on a cliff side not knowing when you'll dive. - Simile
Do you know, do you know what it's like to die alive? - Hyperbole

When the world that once had color fades to white and gray and black. - Hyperbole
When tomorrow terrifies you, but you'll die if you look back.
You don't know.
I know you don't know.
You say that you're hurting, it sure doesn't show.
You don't know.
You tell me let go.
And you may say so, but I say you don't know.

The sensation that you're screaming, but you never make a sound.
Or the feeling that you're falling, but you never hit the ground. - Metaphor
It just keeps on rushing at you day by day by day by day.
You don't know, you don't know what it's like to live that way.
Like a refugee, a fugitive, forever on the run. - Simile
If it gets me it will kill me, but I don't know what I've done. – Personification

Good writing like this really brings in the audience.  Listening to this song, you cannot only hear the strain in her voice, but also in her words.  It’s a very impactful part of the show and this is the first time you really see the pain she is suffering.

Writing Prompts

List of ideas:

1.     Story of my baby blanket, how I lost it and the devastation I felt. 

2.     Moving to Amsterdam

3.     Messing up in a play in college

4.     Getting a bear from my great grandma in her will

5.     Moving out

6.     School difficulties

7.     Emotional problems I’ve had to deal with.

Questions:

·      School – Why has it taken me so long to be able to get back to school?

·      Men – Why are men’s thought processes so different from women’s?

·       Fast Food – Why is fast food so delicious but so bad for you?

·      Television – What is it about crappy reality TV that makes it so irresistible?

·      Public Restrooms – What is it about public restrooms that make people uncomfortable?

·      Shoes – Why are shoes so expensive?

·      Sports – Why did I stop playing sports in high school?

·      Jobs – How did I get so lucky with the job I’m at now?

Fastwrites

Most of us harbor dreams – my dream in particular is now becoming within reach and I’m heading towards it as fast as I possibly can.  I’ve always dreamed of being a teacher.  Since I was little, I would make my stuffed animals come to my “school,” write out very descriptive applications for my “daycare” and even pretend to be my friends’ teacher.  My dream recently developed into a full-blown plan.  I want to own my own preschool.  This preschool is not going to be like a normal school, in which parents pay tuition for their kids to learn how to count and write their name.  My preschool will be devoted to culturing kids who otherwise wouldn’t get the chance until later on in their lives.  I come from a mixed background… no, not culturally, but living-wise.  I’ve had the experience of living in a different country, living in the suburbs, and living in the city.  I know the differences between city-folk and suburban-folk.  My quest will be to blur the lines just a little bit, culturing these children by taking them on volunteer trips to local food shelves and homeless shelters, never putting them in danger but instilling in them that they can make a difference no matter how young they are.  My dream of being a teacher faded about two years ago, when I struggled to acclimate with the new role of being a college student.  It took me a long time to be able to overcome those hurdles, but today I’m glad to say I’m back on the right track and am ready to make my dream a reality.

One of the biggest “turning points” in my life was when I left high school.  Most people have a little trouble adjusting to college life away from their families and discovering who they are going to be for the rest of their lives. I had an especially hard time with this.  I went to Gustavus my first year out of high school, and realized halfway through my first semester I wasn’t ready to leave home whatsoever.  I hated the fact that my family was so far away from me, and I was hurting from past things that I had foolishly kept a secret to everyone.  The next year, I attended MCTC and failed again because I just wasn’t going to school and was still facing the troubles I did at Gustavus.  I decided to take another semester off.  I was still stuck in high school and didn’t want to come to terms with the harsh reality that I was on my own now.  After many sleepless nights and a lot of analyzing my life, I finally have got my act together and made a step in the right direction. Through all the analyzing of myself, I realized that I wasn’t making reasonable goals with myself, and I was setting myself up for failure.  It was one of the biggest realizations to me because I pinpointed at least part of my problem and I was determined to fix it.  It hasn’t only helped me in my school life, but I’m a lot happier as a person now too.

Judging What I Have

Abundance: I generated the most writing from the first prompt, and found myself wanting to actually write more than I did on the subject.   It’s actually what I’m deciding to write my essay on and that’s why I stopped at two fastwrites rather than three, because I want to start writing about the first prompt in more detail.

Surprise: I found it really confusing to write about my biggest turning point, especially in just a fastwrite, because there is so much more information I could give on the subject, but I would have to start from the beginning and it’s just too much to put in a paragraph.

Confusion: I think my first prompt raised a lot of questions, such as how will I be able to make my dream a reality and how soon can it actually become a reality?

Honesty: I’m willing to write honestly about my first prompt, which will actually probably combine with my second prompt in a way.  I’m a little standoffish of the second one because it is kind of a touchy subject.

Survival of the Fittest

I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life, and not once had I dared go to the Mall of America on a Saturday afternoon.  Even as a child, people warned my family about getting swallowed by the sea of tourists and shopping enthusiasts that came out to prey on the (now second) largest shopping mall in the United States.  With the sign indicating it’s name glinting proudly in the sun, currently at it’s highest point in the sky, I should have known it was a bad idea. 

Last weekend, I made a promise to my dad that I would take my little sisters back-to-school clothes shopping.  Thinking I would be most successful at the “moa,” as it’s so proudly known as to the native indie-hipsters and teenyboppers, I originally set the date as Friday after school.  Unfortunately, my sister Camila has dance after school on Fridays so I took Gabbi alone.  Skipping out the door, she giggled, knowing that she had once again completed her lifelong quest of being “first” in the family.  The mall was calm Friday night; we ate a delicious meal at Famous Dave’s and shopped for jeans and shirts able to withstand the ever-approaching months that our state is known for.  We ended with dessert at a modern-esque ice cream shop made up of all white tiles and pink accents called Freeziac.  It was a rather enjoyable experience, beside the fact that my wallet took a pretty hard hit.

The next day was Camila’s turn.  I picked her up from dance, excitement so prominent on her face it was as if she was screaming at the top of her eight-year-old lungs.  I rumbled my ’99 Mercury Sable to life and we were off to what I thought would be an equally enjoyable time with the older of my two sisters.  The trouble started the minute we exited from 77 onto Lindau Lane.  Cars were parked one after another on the ramp, with no signs of moving.  It was clear that the enjoyable, relaxed day I thought I would have with my sister would turn into batting off angry shoppers and dodging wide-eyed tourists.  It took us fifteen minutes just to get into the parking lot.  By this time, I was fed up and drove up the long, concrete mountain to the top, which is so righteously named after our far state of Alaska.  With Camila in tow, a firm hand holding hers, we elbowed our way to the food court, where we had Chinese instead of a nice sit-down meal.  The restaurants were roaring with people and a 25-minute wait was an eternity neither of us wanted to suffer through.  The stores were overcrowded and stuffy; clothes strewn about every which way, which made sizes near impossible to find.  The Mountain Dew Camila drank for lunch had her in a more rambunctious mood than normal, and although she fit in with the screaming four-year-olds being pulled around like show dogs on leashes, I had had enough.  We traversed our way through three more stores and successfully spent the remainder of my paycheck finishing just as we had the night before; a custom-made ice cream treat from the sparkling, new Freeziac. 

It was a day I will remember forever, swimming through seas of people, navigating through piles upon piles of overpriced children’s clothing, and ducking to get out of touristy pictures in front of restaurants and attractions.  I never would have thought that going shopping at the mall would turn into survival of the fittest.  I’ve learned my lesson, and I’m never stepping foot in the Mall of America on a weekend afternoon again.

Literary Narrative Response

I have been writing since I could write.  Ever since I was able to write sentences I've tried to keep journals and write stories and whatnot.  I remember being so excited every time I got a new journal thinking to myself, this is it, I'm going to write in it everyday.  And I would actually write that out in my journals!  "Dear Journal, my name is Kylie Hess and I will write in you everyday!  See you tomorrow!", "Dear Diary, my name is Kylie and I love to write!  My new year's resolution is to write in you everyday! I know I've been bad at it in the past, but this time I will keep up with it!" Anyone looking at them would laugh, seeing the months and months that passed before the next time I wrote, only to say something along the lines of, "Dear Journal, I'm so sorry I haven't written in you lately!  I can't write much right now, but will soon!"  I always had only the best intentions when starting journals.  Later on in life, I took writing much more seriously.  I started some short stories, completing only a couple.  I shared some of them with close friends who said I should send them in to magazines or newspapers.  I chose not to, convincing myself it was for the better.  I was too afraid of rejection.  I've always seen writing as an outlet, so I'm hoping this class will rekindle my love for it and continue past this class.

I think a really pivotal point in the school aspect of my writing was when I was given an assignment to write on anything I wanted.  I took a college class for a day at Bethel when I was in middle school.  The professor looked at all of us, much younger than his usual students, and said, "I want you to write.  I don't care what you write about, but I want you to really feel what you're writing and express that on the page."  He gave us about 30 minutes to write on our own.  We were able to choose our classes that day; thus, everyone in the room wanted to be there.  The silence for that half an hour was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in a classroom.  There were so many ideas rushing about the room that you could almost feel the wind as they passed you.  It was such a great experience in my life not only as a student, but as a writer.  If I remember correctly, it's what really sparked my interest in serious writing and pushed me to continue on with creative writing outside the classroom.

I smile thinking about how much technology has impacted the way we write in only the past 10 or so years.  I remember sitting in class in third grade as the teacher told us we had to learn cursive because when we got to high school we would only be able to write that way.  After about fifth grade, I didn't write in cursive at all!  We no longer had to write papers by hand because of our ease in access to a computer.  Now I'm hearing that they are taking cursive out of curriculum all together!  A typical day in my life now consists of mainly texting.  When I was beginning high school, I think the only thing I did was talk on instant messenger on the computer.  I didn't even send a text until probably my sophomore year.  Now it's the only way most people communicate.  I send a lot of emails but if the people I'm talking to are local, it's generally just easier to shoot them a text.  I'm also quite partial to tweeting or commenting on people's walls.  Such a huge leap from just ten years ago when social networking was just a mere idea.

As a hormonal teenager, the best time for me to write was when I had just had something "traumatic" happen to me.  This time, it was another fight with the equally as hormonal teenage boyfriend.  We had fought about a rather touchy subject; abortion.  If I remember correctly, he said there was no way we could keep a child if it was to arise and I wasn't so sure.  Tears streaming down my face, I pulled out my laptop, opened up a new page in Microsoft Word and just started writing whatever came to mind.  The outcome ended up being one of the most heartfelt and successful pieces I've ever written.  It was a short story depicting the life of a teenage mother alone with her son.  The imagery and real passion in the story  was what really set it apart from any of the others I had written.  It just came to me like I was actually there; actually experiencing her pain mixed with happiness that came when thinking of her son.  To this day, I believe it's the most successful stories I've ever written, and I take a lot of pride in it.

Reflection: This writing went well for a fastwrite.  It was different than other school writings, because generally it's a grueling process of research and grammer/spelling corrections.  In this assignment, however, since I only had five minutes per prompt, I found myself leaving most of the mistakes and continuing on.  I typed as fast as I could think until my time was up, only stopping to correct a couple mis-worded sentences.  I ran into problems when I couldn't think of a word.  I was thinking about what I wanted to write so quickly that words would escape me and I had to take a minute to think about what exactly I was trying to say.  I don't think it's something I can change, if I had had more time to work on it then I wouldn't have made the mistakes, but in the time crunch my mind sometimes thinks faster than I can type.  Generally, I see that my first attempt at a sentence is grammatically incorrect.  Thus I have to go back and correct my mistakes.  I think that's one of my worst habits as a writer; the thoughts aren't as fluent as I'd like them to be.  Hopefully in this class, I will learn how to think more clearly from the get-go in order to not have to go back and correct my mistakes as much.  Also, I see that when I'm "telling the story," my words come out better than when I'm just merely explaining something.  I see it as a positive writing attribute.