LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

This year I auditioned for a Hip Hop piece for dance showcase by an external choreographer, Mr Hafeez Hassan. Dance Showcase has the reputation of being a challenging show and proved to be just that. Although I have some experience with Hip Hop as a style of dance I was pushed out of my comfort zone from the beginning. Before we began to learn the choreography for the show we learnt various routines which were always accompanied by warm-ups. The routines were fast paced and encouraged all of us to get used to the feel of the dance we were aiming to portray. Through the warm-up, we learnt different types of dance moves such as locking, breaking and popping. Throughout the course of learning the choreography, I pushed myself to become better with every practice. I found freestyle difficult as I was used to performing more choreographed routines. As the theme of Dance Showcase this year was uncaged, our dance represented Oppression and  Liberation. We danced to the song glory which was a part of the album Selma – a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. We represented the struggles of the African American people who were forced to be slaves and at the end, we showed the audience their achievement of freedom. To show our personal take on this, we each had a solo step to express ourselves. Towards the end, I felt myself becoming more comfortable with freestyle and the entire experience definitely refined my skills as a dancer and helped me learn a lot of new skills.