LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Season 2 is finally coming to an end, which means this House Dance activity is too. From the start, I knew that this would be a challenging activity because I have never done dance before and especially not in front of a group of people. I also never thought that dancing would have been this tiring and would require endurance. Dancing is also a performing arts which means there is an audience we are performing for, even if we are tired and our feet hurt, we need to smile through the pain, as house dance is often upbeat and happy. With traditional team sports, there is no need to hide our true feelings. Despite all this, House Dance has been an amazing new experience which has opened new doors to other activities such as Kahaani which I also thoroughly enjoyed.
When I was finding evidence for this activity, I looked through the folder of videos and I could see improvement within me. My moves were more swift and more synchronised with other members of the activity. So the more recent videos looked better as we were all working as a team, doing the same move, at the same time! Off camera, I also felt that I became more confident and was able to learn moves faster (relative to the complexity) as I was getting more used to the style and nature of this dance type. I started off by struggling with the simplest “walking” move and now I can do harder and faster footwork.
What helped me overcome the challenges was not only the support of the other members of this activity, but also practice, practice, practice! To have such a supportive community around me throughout this experience, it was only fair if I returned the same support. During the sessions, we sometimes split and work in smaller groups where we help correct areas where needed to improve our overall performance. When confidence builds up, it is evident through the energy level of my dance, this skill was extremely useful and transferable to my Kahaani Dance. When a team works together, as a player, I should be the one increasing my intensity to meet the demands rather than my teammates lowering theirs to match just one individual. This has indirectly made me a better collaborator and respond to the needs of others.
In the future, I think I should keep a more open mind and optimistic view so I can transition into a new activity smoother. It also makes me more approachable so I can meet, give and receive help from others. This does not only apply to dance, but I can also use what I learnt when working in groups for projects, in activities, or just meeting new people in general.
Initially, my goal was to do a one minute rehearsed performance and possibly a 10 second freestyle at the end. Sadly I don’t think I have achieved the former part of the goal, but rather successful in the latter. Within the activity, the focus have shifted to being able to improvise to the music since that is the core of house dance. At the end of each session, we surround in a circle and improvise for about 30 seconds in the middle of the circle. If someone were to tell me that I would be able to do that with confidence, four months ago, I would have not believe them.
Note: As mentioned earlier in the post, in the later sessions, we tend to focus on improvisation leading towards a dance circle at the end of the session. To make the environment more comfortable for all, we do not record the dances at the end. So the cover of this post is from the most recent video that was recorded.
