Educational piece

Dancing is a form of art in which dancers express something through the moves they perform. It can also be used as a form of healing and meditation in some cases. Today I will focus on one in particular called contemporary dance, where the choreographer does much more than just composing a dance. He directs the whole atmosphere.

A contemporary dancer focuses on the following things:

·         Serves as a general director

·         Makes decisions based on every aspect included in his creation

·         He could also be the producer, manager or could be part of the whole production by performing on stage as part of the group of dancers

·         Practise dance composition by body movement

·         Familiar with the art of inventing or arranging movement and choosing dramatic structures to organize and present it to the audience

·         More concerned with movement than the relationship with costumes, lightning  and other scenic complements. Although it’s part of the whole production.

Look at the images below about contemporary dances:

The prior focus remains body movement but should shed light on the message the dancer is trying to bring. The choice of music should also support the symbolism of the dances performed and create a harmony to express it more effectively.

Narrative Piece

When I realised that I could dance great!!!!!!!

As a little boy, I used to watch a lot of Michael Jackson and Wade Robertson shows. My mother and father also told me that they were great dancers when they were young and that is where I realised that I also want to dance.

At the age of 12, I saw group dancers in Lamberts bay, called the mysterious b.boys. They were a very great group. They used to beat all the groups in the Cederberg district. I really liked this group, because they worked hard and achieved a lot. They weren’t that much older than me.

The following year, when I turned 13, I signed in for auditions for this group. The dance audition was a solo and we had a week to prepare ourselves for this solo dance. I practised very hard for this audition. The Saturday morning about nine, the auditions started and I was 7^th in line. The first 6 were done and only 1 made it through. When it were my turn, I felt dizzy, but got myself together and went in there and done my thing. I gave my all to that one chance.

I got in and the group told me I was the best dancer in the auditions. I started to practice with the Mysterious b.boys and we were getting along very good.

We danced at the ‘Dance yourself crazy’ competition and we won the competition. I got an award for the best dancer for the competition and there I knew I had a lot of talent in dancing.  

Descriptive piece

How I feel when I dance...

Dancing like it is the only night I have left to dance and I have to make the most of it.

As I walk into the dance, I can feel my heart starting to beat faster, like a horse is running over it. When I’m inside the dance I see a lot of people laughing, dancing and sweat dripping down their bodies. I start to feel a positive vibration inside of me. When I hit the dance-floor, it’s like the music takes me to a higher level of living. I feel free from pain, stress and anything negative does not count for that moment, when my eyes is closed and dancing like I trust my body more than anything in the entire world.

As I’m dancing, sweat starts to burst out of my body and my whole body is boiling as my body-heat takes over the cold and dark feeling inside of me. Then a feeling deep inside of me kicks in, It’s like nothing can stop you. That moment it feels like I’m moving at the speed of light into eternity. It feels like you in the middle of ecstasy and that you have waited your whole life for this night and that you can go anywhere with your thoughts.

As I start to get tired, I feel the sadness coming back towards me. I just pull myself together and remind myself that this could be my last chance to dance like this, that it’s just me, the dance-floor and the beat pumping it up inside of me.

As I push myself to take that last few steps and make that last few moves, it’s like the song that is playing is telling me that I have only this one night to double my pleasure and dance forever.

Dance Jumper

I am Yannich Petersen, I live in Lambertsbay down the west coast. I am 23 years old and are currently a third year student at cput in Wellington. I am studying education and want to complete my course because I really love this course.

In my blog I'm going to talk about dance, because dance can be descriptive, narrative, educational and reflective piece about dance. Dance is a great talent in life and people should live it to the fullest, because thats what I do, chasing the dream.