Tracking My Progress in Jazz 3

I am taking a number of dance classes this semester. One of my favorites is Jazz 3. This dance class focuses on the jazz style of dance, which is the basis of dance forms such as hip-hop and the dances you see going viral on TikTok. Since Jazz 3 is still technically an academic course, there still needs to be some aspect of writing in the course. In the past, we'd have to write a research paper on a historical figure or movement in the dance style, but this year we are trying out weekly journals instead. They are rather informal and give us freedom to talk about our experience with the course content in and out of class. For one of our first journal entries, we were prompted to write about our goals for the semester, what we want to get from the class and what stands in our way of achieving those goals. I wanted to share some of my goals for the semester with you all on my blog!

One of my main goals for this semester is to gain flexibility in all areas of my body, but specifically in my lower back and hips. I lost a lot of flexibility for sitting dormant for five months and only stretching intermittently, but already in the first two weeks I have started to see some of it creeping back. I want to focus on my lower back and hips so that it will be easier for me to snap my legs out when doing various leaps in class and at auditions.

My next main goal was to become more confident in freestyle and improvisation in my dance. It is an amazing thing to be able to not be in your head and just let the music inspire your movement, but it is especially important for me to become extra confident in this area in my senior year because in auditions in the real world they often provide a section at the end of a dance audition to freestyle for about thirty seconds so they can see your personality and strong suits as a dancer. 

I struggle with this because I get in my head and don't always let myself be free and in the moment. I worry too much about looking good all the time. While this is valid because I want to look good while auditioning, in a classroom setting I need to let myself follow impulses so I can see what does and doesn't work.

One way to help my freestyle audition problem is to take the semester to really categorize what my strong suits are and figure out my own unique thirty second dance package that shows off my personality and my strengths. I know I am really good at turning and doing pirouettes, but I need to figure out other moves that feel really good in my body and figure out ways to transition between the steps in an interesting/innovative way.