Hey friends,
I'm writing today from UTAH!!!! We're on the last day of the American Collegiate Dance Association (ACDA). We flew in on Wednesday and got in in the evening - and that night it snowed 3" :D Every single night theres a "concert" aka a 2.5 hour performance of different dances from colleges all over the northwest. Throughout the morning and early afternoon we all take a range of classes that are offered. There are tons of different genres and the professors and teachers are from all over.
We brought our Dance X piece from the fall semester to this conference and got to perform in the Thursday night adjudication concert. We did really well to be honest, and what's really great about when we go is - LC doesn't really have a strong dance program. We're a student run, student choreographed and student organized program. Most of the schools that are represented at ACDA are giant state schools that have large dance programs with students who are all dance majors - and truthfully, we hold our own. We got a lot of really good feedback from the other students as well as the adjudicators.
While I was here I took a few classes - capoeira, afro hop, and broadway.
I'm writing today from UTAH!!!! We're on the last day of the American Collegiate Dance Association (ACDA). We flew in on Wednesday and got in in the evening - and that night it snowed 3" :D Every single night theres a "concert" aka a 2.5 hour performance of different dances from colleges all over the northwest. Throughout the morning and early afternoon we all take a range of classes that are offered. There are tons of different genres and the professors and teachers are from all over.
 |
| Dance X from the fall! |
We brought our Dance X piece from the fall semester to this conference and got to perform in the Thursday night adjudication concert. We did really well to be honest, and what's really great about when we go is - LC doesn't really have a strong dance program. We're a student run, student choreographed and student organized program. Most of the schools that are represented at ACDA are giant state schools that have large dance programs with students who are all dance majors - and truthfully, we hold our own. We got a lot of really good feedback from the other students as well as the adjudicators.
 |
| PERFORMANCE DAY |
While I was here I took a few classes - capoeira, afro hop, and broadway.
Capoeira is a Brazilian martial arts dance. It was an AMAZING class with a fantastic teacher who was from Brazil and told us all about the history and his family and showed us all these demos and then showed us the traditional musical instruments. It was full of tons of kicks and cools tricks and a bit of acro. I'm still sore 3 days later!
Afro hop was not great, and we actually walked out of class because the teacher was quite disrespectful and we felt she was extremely racist and sexist. As much as I do get annoyed with how politic LC can get sometimes, I appreciate how much it's taught me. ACDA is an absolute blast and I am so honored and love coming - but it is a white dominated conference. The teacher was white and just came across very ignorant. Our entire group had more POCs than any other school and frankly, we probably were 1/2 of the POCs at ACDA.
Besides that though - the entirety of this has been a blast and exactly the getaway that I needed.
Today I took a broadway class - which was more just jazz, but it was super fun and we learned a combo that the teacher had actually performed at the Kennedy Center years ago!
It's been a really great time, and I've learned some really cool things. We've also just had a blast because we were fun and silly; we may not be pre-professional, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We all hugged each other before going on stage, we aren't competitive, and we don't nit-pick at each others mistakes, like a lot of the bigger schools did. The classes are intimidating sometimes, but truthfully, we're all there to learn and technique isn't all of it. We all had a blast and I'm so sad to be leaving tomorrow morning.
If you have any questions about dance at LC or ACDA shoot me an email :)
ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers,
Kate
Today I took a broadway class - which was more just jazz, but it was super fun and we learned a combo that the teacher had actually performed at the Kennedy Center years ago!
It's been a really great time, and I've learned some really cool things. We've also just had a blast because we were fun and silly; we may not be pre-professional, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We all hugged each other before going on stage, we aren't competitive, and we don't nit-pick at each others mistakes, like a lot of the bigger schools did. The classes are intimidating sometimes, but truthfully, we're all there to learn and technique isn't all of it. We all had a blast and I'm so sad to be leaving tomorrow morning.
If you have any questions about dance at LC or ACDA shoot me an email :)
ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers,
Kate