The most important skill/technique I learned in dance this year was stretching.
I know it wasn’t a
major part of dance, but I probably won’t dance again, and stretching is very important for your
body. It helps my mobility and keeps me from getting all stiff. At the beginning of the year, I
wasn’t very open to dancing at all and was very lazy and stiff with my movements. Now, I’m
still don’t go full out but it’s definitely better than at the beginning of the year. I enjoyed the
ballet dance style the most because it’s so graceful and the movements are so pretty. It was also
easier to do because it’s slower than the other dance styles we studied. The biggest challenge I
faced in dance class was learning all the dances for our performance. I overcame this by paying
attention when we practiced in class and putting in the work instead of not caring. I did feel
discouraged when I saw the other dances and wondered if our class would do as well, but we
ended up just fine. I feel okay about my performance this year, but I could have done better. I
think I did well learning the individual movements, like flatback and yoga poses, but it was a lot
harder when I had to memorize an entire dance and put the movements together. It always went a
lot faster than I was used to. It was fun to learn the individual movements, though, because they
helped perfect my technique. I contributed to the class environment by participating in group
activities and interacting with my classmates while doing so. I tried not to be disruptive or
difficult because that would create a negative environment. Feedback wise, my instructor told me
to dance more energetically and full out. I usually danced “lazily” and softly, even when the
dance required us to be loud and fast. This helped me improve because I needed the extra
encouragement to help me along. If I were to give myself feedback, I’d tell myself to put more
effort into dance moves and stay energized. I’d also tell myself to have more confidence when
performing because I think that’s what’s also slowing me down.
Overall, I progressed well for my first time ever doing dance. It’s something I wasn’t very
familiar nor confident in. I never expected to be put in dance. I feel good about the
accomplishment I made this year, like performing on a stage in front of others and trying to be
more open about other activities. In the future, I aspire to be more confident in myself
performance wise and work on being able to learn the dance because I always found it difficult to
keep up when being taught a new dance. As stated earlier; in the future, I want to focus more on
ballet because I enjoyed doing it and felt very happy. I did ballet when I was little but quit after a
few years, so I think it’d be fun to try it again. To improve my dance skills outside of class, I can
sign up for a dance class near me to keep in shape and continue to progress like I did this year.
Being in dance class has improved my confidence and self expression because dancing is
something that not a lot of people feel comfortable doing, so it put be out of my comfort zone
and made me more confident in myself and my actions. The most enjoyable aspect of being in
dance class this year has been learning with a community of people who also don’t really have a
lot of experience, so it’s fun to learn new things together and create friendships while doing so.
I’ve made some new friends and improved my dance skills at the same time. My perspective on
dance has changed a lot since I started this class. In the beginning, it was my least favorite class
and I really did not want to dance. I dreaded going and didn’t have fun while learning dances.
Now, it’s a new experience I’ve learned a lot from and I’m more open to learning new styles of
dance to improve. Dancing has also helped me learn about a bunch of cultures and what dance
means to them + what it communicates. If I hadn’t gone to dance, I never would have known that
dance has such an impact on so many lives.
