three pages refelction free-writing paper

Textbook Response paper (RR1)

Modern dance is always a dancing genre that I have huge interest in. Not being trained as a professional dancer, I learn dancing on my own or with my friends as a daily hobby. Before I take Modern Dance class and being suggested to read the textbook Beginning Modern Dance by Miriam Giguere, I never thought about the importance of studying dance knowledge from the books since I used to consider Dancing as physical academics. After reading the beginning introduction part of the book, I inwardly told myself to read this textbook seriously and I was sure that I would be benefit from all the tips from the writer’s life experience or distinct explanations of dancing techniques.

The most inspiring thing for me from the first group of chapters is knowing I need to have mental preparation before I dance, keep my brain active in the whole progress of dancing and retrospect after I danced. I did notice that there were many thoughts and self-reminders in my mind anytime while I was dancing but I was actually tried to focus on my body rather than my brain activity. The most important reason causes me thinking in this incorrect way is because I feel like I have trouble with building the movement in to my muscle, for example, I had a hard time with remember which one of my feet should went first while I was dancing. However, I am getting much better these days after reading the following paragraph in Chapter two “A mindful approach to new experiences allows the brain to absorb more information and to make fuller use of the information gained. Most important, an openness in thinking allows for the possibility of change in behavior because it moves you away from automatic response patterns.” These words inspired me to realize that understanding how movements are developed steps by steps with coherence connection of my body can maximizes helping myself to remember choreographic movements by watching and following. I can’t wait to see my progress in dance classes since I always dream of being a quick learner of dance pieces. After solving the memorize trouble，I guess the next step for me would be training myself to put more inner motion and ideas into dancing pieces on the purpose of specialize or personalize it with my uniqueness. Exactly as Miriam written in textbook “Getting yourself in the habit of being mentally aware in dance class can lead to advances as a performer, too” Later on in class practice or when I have chances to go to an live performance, I will preoccupied with how several mindful dancers makes one same movement or gesture looks enchantingly different.

Moreover, I am glad to have chapter three includes anatomy and muscular system study materials. For my previous experience of learning Popping dance, I understand a dancer need to aware and control each tiny part of his or her body. Different from what I could found in a biology book, the author of this textbook talks more about the relationship between human body and body movement. It is great to see vivid diagram pictures explaining Joint movements, flexion and extension, abduction and adduction for instance. On the one hand, dancers can prevent themselves from being injured by learning these techniques and on the other hand, dancers also obtain a deeper understanding of how to command their body in order to build a successful dance performance. In addition, I thought I know most of the “common sense” but actually the textbook corrected many of my misleading thoughts of warm-up activities. The following suggestions the book covers are what I did not know: “Don’t bounce” “You don’t need to stretch every muscle every day” “Don’t overstretch” “Dancing without heavy weight lifting doesn’t lead to muscular strength”

Another exciting thing to know is the learning four element of Dance: Space, Time, Weight and Flow. This chapter helps me organize all the information about basic dance positions and movements. Nowadays I have a dictionary catalog about dancing gestures and movements in my brain---This is more than awesome!