This year I chose to participate in the High School Dance Company piece. This experience is new to me, and as what Ms Hickson said, the audition of the dance company piece demonstrated how actually dancing in a dance company would be like. For the audition, she taught us a short section of the dance, and then asked us to improvise according to the music she randomly played. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1LvQo23tHV2fhJr3y4Jq4AIQEqCeL85Vc here is a link to the audition piece that we learned. I really enjoyed learning the piece, as I got to try out a lot of things and techniques that I have never tried before, which is a brand new experiences for me. Although I have struggle a bit when learning new choreography, I managed to do it in the end. Even though this field is something I’m familiar to, I still faced some difficulties. Through this experiences, I really got to improve my skills further more.
project week
This is the planning document for our project week planning, although we did not get to go on the trip, but we still did a lot of prior research and planning. We decided to do a combination of activities and service, and we wanted to go to Thailand for this trip. We decided to do service due to the fact that all of us enjoyed working with services, and we believe that we can use this opportunity to provide as much help as possible. The service we decided to do is Children’s shelter foundation, where we can teach and play with the kids.
For our activity, we contacted 8adventures, the activity plan they provided was very interest, which includes a variety of outdoor exercises such as trekking, rafting etc. We wanted to do this programme because since this is an unique opportunity which we can explore lots of different sports, and rafting is new to me so I was really excited about it. Below are the email and the information of our planned schedule.
Although we did not get to go to project week due to the covid pandemic, we still learnt a lot from planning our own trip. This is the first time that I actually get to plan the whole trip by myself without any parents’ or teachers’ supervision. Throughout the process, we did not only learned how hard it is to be able to plan a whole trip, including booking flights and accommodations with a limited budget, but also learned about some of the global issues that occurs worldwide. Project week allows us to reflect on the issues and think about what we can do to the world regarding to these issues.
CAS reflection – dance showcase performance final refection
The overall experience was so memorable. It was definitely not easy to do four dances in total. The time needed to change and get ready was limited, and it was very stressful for me. However, I really appreciate this experience as it really brings me the memory of dancing in primary school. I used to do a lot of dancing in primary school and participated in various shows and performances. The time offered for us to change in between our dances was short as well, but this busy feeling makes me feel a sense of accomplishment. After so long I’m finally able to stand on stage again, it feels so nice to be back. There are definitely some struggles during the process, such as could not make it for some of the rehearsals due to the LoA, and trying to catch up with a new type of dance etc. I overcame this obstacles, and felt so proud and welcomed in each dance. The team work and vibe we had in our dances are so good, everyone is supportive and helpful. I remembered that during one light plot rehearsal I forgot to bring my costume so I asked if anyone have extra ones, people offered my help generously and it was absolutely amazing. I am very pleased by the final dance we showed to the audience. I tried my best to attend to every session and showed commitment as much as possible, and I also found my value and identified my weaknesses through the process. I learned so many things from people and realised that everyone is talented.
CAS reflection – dance showcase
I auditioned for two dances, which are footloose and Chicago, and got in for both of them. Apart from theses two, I also decided to do a duet on a film that I really enjoyed called Five Feet Apart since this year’s theme is “A Night At The Movies”. Therefore I did not only get to experience choreographing a dance, but also joining a team ad dance with other people.
Both of “Footloose and “Chicago” are dances that I never tried before, so the experienced was remarkable for me. Footloose is a country side dance whereas Chicago is more jazzy.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1CCVipc4E24MCf5EXCK-A-P1tjrHgqIwb
In the drive there are some videos of the practice of the dance. From recording it, I can spot where I need to improve on. Something thats also really challenging for me is that during this period, at one moment I on the LoA and missed out a few of the practices, however, I did learn from the videos the leaders has recorded and sent them my videos so they know I am catching up with their progress.
CAS reflection – dance showcase 2020
CAS development reflection – boxing
I took boxing for the first two seasons, and really learnt a lot of techniques and gained strengths from it. One thing I learnt the most is the importance of automaticity and how to make combos based on what we have already learnt. I did Muay Thai outside of school as well, but I did it as a one to one session so the way my coach teach me is to give me the cues instead of let me make up my own combinations. Training your body to get use to the automatic response is very helpful as when you are sparring with someone you really need to be able to react quickly. Every session we learn how to make combinations by ourselves. Coach will provide us possible combinations and we need to use our existing knowledge to choose the best ones for us.
I also gained some fitness as other than learning techniques, we also had physical trainings every session excluding the warm ups.
CAS initial reflection – boxing
CAS – boxing final
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1CCVipc4E24MCf5EXCK-A-P1tjrHgqIwb
These are some videos that I filmed during boxing and can kind of reflect on what I have learned during the 2 seasons. For me, I believe that gaining strengths and increase my fitness is the biggest challenge for me as I only dance and that does not contribute to much of my upper body strengths. From boxing, I trained hard on my upper body strengths and also did many core training. This is definitely stepping out of my comfort zone as I don’t normally do these training, and it as hard for my to keep up at first, however after a few weeks I found myself getting used to the intensity of the training and has absolutely had some improvements. The process of getting used to the training was definitely not east for me, as many other people in the activity is already pretty proficient and I have to catch up with their pace, but I’m pretty sure that putting myself in a higher condition will stimulate myself to work harder. Through this activity, I also identified my personal strength as I am someone that has strong endurance. Even with these hardcore exercises I don’t easily give up and always tried my best.
I also partnered up with other people and we train each other. The experience in the change in roles (the one punching or the one holding the pads) was also new to me and I got to understand better in the mechanisms behind the punches as when you are holding the pads you experience differently from simply just punching. Sometimes we also need to plan our own combo with the partner, this also evokes some thinking so I don’t only copy the moves.