Jessica Nguyen

Contemporary Dance (Int)

Katie Faulkner

Mid-Semester Reflection Paper

This semester, being able to manipulate different body

I have developed greater awareness of my body from our warm up exercise in the

beginning of class. Doing everyday activities and going through our day has become more fast-

paced and taking the time in the beginning of class to lay on the floor and breathe has greatly

heightened my awareness of my body. Being able to lay down and feel what body parts are

touching the floor, which ones are not, and sinking ourselves into the floor has made me pay

attention more to each body parts. This exercise also makes me more aware of when I am tensing

up a certain body part that does so on impulse and how to control my muscles when in a still

position in class.

Memory and comprehension of choreography is one of the biggest improvements for me

as a dancer this semester; especially for more complex choreography. Because we tend to learn

more exercises and phrases per class than, for example, a beginners dance class, it has helped me

improve my memory in what counts and dance moves each choreographed phrase has and what

order it is in. My comprehension of individual dance has also improved this semester, as it was

more difficult for me to execute each dance move after we had just learned it.

Despite my growth, I could still improve as a dancer by my performance

The midterm project was a very interesting one to do. The possibilities in how to

configure each piece of choreography and the way to do each dance move were really interesting

and fun to do. Especially from watching other groups perform their projects, it was really cool

seeing how just one dance move can be interpreted in so many different ways and the emotions

connected to them really varied because of how slow or how quickly the person performed it. It

also showed me how there are endless ways to piece together a phrase and how to make

combinations interesting by variation, opposed to something that is more predictable.