I AM UNIQUE
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
I AM UNIQUE
Every team member has something different to offer towards the team. We must remember that we are all unique, means not all of us are going to have the same skills, talent, and abilities. Rather than focusing on other dancers and comparing yourself to others, it is important you always stay focused on YOU and what your talents are.
GOOD – NOT SO GOOD
Each person born is unique in many ways, from personality to the way our body is formed. Some members may be naturally flexible while others have great memory and memorize routines faster. Some people are double jointed will learn flips quicker and easier, others may have muscle limitation takes them longer to gain flexibility.
In addition to uniqueness, everyone is also going to have natural favors towards ballet, jazz, tap, or hip hop. Not everyone is going to be gifted in each of the areas in dance. You will find that you will do well in one, but struggle in the other. Generally people that do well in jazz dance often do well in tap. People that do well in tap will often do well in jazz but not as well in ballet. Some people will do well in ballet but not as good in tap. We must accept what are strengths are, and accept our weakness as well.
We should not limit ourselves just because we might not do so well in ballet, jazz, or tap. Why? The more you explore and the more dance techniques you learn, the better dancer you become even if you may not end up a perfect prima ballerina, or talented quick tapper like Shirley Temple, or the best in quick movements in hip hop.
Not only should we recognize our own weakness and strengths but to realize our team members have theirs as well. It is important you recognize areas your team members do best and areas they struggle and understand that everyone will have weakness somewhere. Compassion, understanding and encouragement to help motivate yourself and others will help everyone overcome their obstacles in areas they have the least strength.
HOMEWORK: Think about your own person uniqueness, what are your strength what are your weaknesses? Are their dance members in your class you want to be at their level?
PERSONALITIES
Do not confuse yourself with habits or certain behaviors with personality, for example, being bossy. This is not a personality this is a poor behavior habit. Personality is based on how a person responds to others and themselves. Some people are natural leaders (leader does not mean bossy) and others are followers. Leaders are often more self motivated, disciplined, can start without hesitation, lead, guide, encourage themselves and others. Followers often question and doubt themselves, rather be in the back row but yet part of the team. It is OK to be either or, whether you’re a leader or follower, you have something to contribute to your team and to yourself.
HOMEWORK: What is your personality? Are you a follower or leader? Are you confident or shut?
WORKING RESPECTFULLY WITH OTHERS
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
WORKING RESPECTFULLY WITH OTHERS
The key to team work is working respectfully with others. This takes a lot of patience, understanding, cooperation, and communication skills. When each member in the team works respectfully individually, they naturally work respectfully as a team. It is important that you, contribute to the positive influence towards your team members and the team as a whole. There is no “I” in team work.
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS – LEARNING HOW TO COMMUNICATE
How you say things will make an impact on yourself and others. It is important that we stop and think about what we want or say to others. Is it necessary? Is it your place to say it? Is it positive? When giving feedback or criticism to other team members, we must remember, to think through our comments before we say them. We must learn to get into the habit of asking ourselves questions about what we want or feel we need to say. For example, a team member is always lagging, behind, not doing as well as the rest of the team. How do you approach this team member? First you must ask yourself some questions. Is this team member really creating a negative impact on the team and routine? If yes, why? Is it because the member is always late, appears they never practice, does not give their absolute best and energy? The best way to approach this member is to then ask them the same questions for example: “Cindy, I have noticed that you have not be up to par with the team. I see that you attend weekly, and I have concerns about your progress. Do you practice at home? What can I do to help you get up to par? Rather than lecturing, accusing, and belittling, approach in a concerning manner and ask question and offer to HELP. If you do not wish to help the member succeed or improve, then it is NOT in your place to comment.
HOMEWORK: Share with me situations that occurred you handled well regards to communication with another member.
SHARING AND LISTENING
Team work requires both the ability to share AND listen. You cannot always be the one that knows it all and always the one that does everything right. Even your dance teacher does not always know it all, or always right. It is important that members learn to share, but also listen to others. We cannot progress and learn, if we do not learn to listen.
EMPATHIZING
This can contribute towards learning how to communicate with team members. It is important we learn to empathize with those having a harder time with techniques and learning routines. We must remember that if you are in a higher level than another team member, to empathize “remember you were in their shoes once too” with them and help them, motivate, and remind them that you too once struggled but with faith and practice and putting in your time, eventually they will be where you are today.
COOPERATION & NEGOTIATION
Part of team work is working together to put together routines whether it be a group dance or duo/trio dance. All members will be asked to contribute dance combinations to add to the routines. It is important that each member learns to cooperate and negotiate means not having your way all the time.
WIN WIN SITUATIONS
The goal to team work is having a win win situation, means everyone can communicate, share, listen, and cooperate to make the team successful. Win win means everyone can agree work together, and create a team where everyone is equally important and a contribution to the team.
HOMEWORK: List all areas you need to work on regards to this article. Perhaps you need to work on cooperation, empathizing, so forth. List them below.
I HAVE SELF DISCIPLINE AND CONTROL
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
I HAVE SELF-DISCIPLINE and SELF CONTROL
I HAVE SELF-DISCIPLINE
What does this mean? There are many things about dance and all of it requires self discipline. Here are some things you need to have control of:
1. Stay focused during class or on the dance floor
2. Limit myself from being the distractive member
3. Learn and remember I can only fix me, and ONLY me
4. Correct myself on corrections in techniques when called out and keep it fixed
5. To be able to see my own mistakes and correct my own techniques
6. To be able to listen and be aware of my surrounding at all times
7. To practice often outside of class time
8. To remember my absent from class puts a strain on the team and attend class weekly and regularly
HOMEWORK: Go through the top eight list and answer whether or not you have discipline in those areas.
I HAVE SELF CONTROL
In addition to self discipline, self control is also important. Students must learn to separate feelings from their actions. For example, the teacher calls you out on lack of improvement. Rather than acting out on anger, you should think about why you were called out. Did you practice in the past week? Is the teacher right? Are you putting in your best effort? If you said no to all the questions, then you have to accept that you failed to take responsibility for yourself and your team by doing what you need to do to keep up to date on routine, techniques, and exercises. If you answered yes, and you have been doing your best, rather than acting out anger, let your teacher know that you have been practicing, trying, and doing your best. It is important that when something happens that makes you sad, scared, angry, frustrated, that you step back and think about what is making you feel the way you do, and think on your actions how you respond will affect you. If you think things through you will make better responses, if you act on impulse, you will likely make poor responses that come with consequences for your action or behavior. Below are some things to remember regards to self control:
1. Your actions and behaviors
2. Your emotions
3. Able to take in feedback both criticism and compliments
4. Able to give feedback both constructive criticism and compliments
5. Learning from your mistakes and preventing yourself from making same mistakes
6. Controlling your attitude
7. Controlling yourself
8. Watch what you say, and what you say should be constructive or positive
HOMEWORK: Go through the top eight list and answer whether or not you have self control.
FACE & EXPRESSION IS EVERYTHING
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
FACE & EXPRESSION IS EVERYTHING!
Just Face it: The Importance of A Dancer’s Facial Expression
Each and every dance created and danced only comes to life when a dancer fully adapts it and becomes it. Every dance needs to be interpreted and communicated to the audience. It’s a dancer’s job to breathe life into any choreographic piece. The only way to do this is through true emotion, personality and expression. Early in performing training, a dancer forgets about their face expressions or lack thereof. As the performing skills progress a student becomes aware of their face and begins to experiment with it. Some choose to just smile…
The soul of a dance is in the face
When performance training starts to mature a dancer learns to use facial expression as the soul of their dancing. It becomes the very gesture that sells the dance to the audience as an actor sells his acting to theatre watchers. It’s the true emotion of dancing that makes it an art in the first place, without it it’s just athletics. A dancer who does not express emotion and expression during dance performances becomes uninteresting and dull.
Face expression draws attention to the dancer
One of the best tools of the trade is learning to facially adapt to the dance. Audience eyes are drawn to those dance performers who learn how to master the emotion and expression within the set choreography. The mood of the dance is what audiences interact with through interpretation, reciprocal emotion and psychological illusion. It is the actual connecting factor between the dancer and the audience, and one of most importance.
Tips on face expression
Here are a few tips to keep in mind to help with expression development:
* Let the lyrics and music guide; let the music move you!
* Give a genuine emotional response.
* Let yourself go! Just allow yourself to physically feel an emotion on stage.
* Practice emotion and facial expression during practice and class time.
* Don’t overdo it! This is not cheerleading.
The face defines the mood of the dance
Some dancers who learn how to express themselves well can sometimes go a bit overboard. An audience or a judge who sees a dancer overdo it seems to view them as acting fake. It can really interfere with the message of the dance. In cheerleading it’s another story, but in the dance world the expressions have to be natural looking. That is a part of what institutes dance an art. The artistic value of a dancer is in presenting expression and emotion, a dancer makes the choreography concept come to life by giving it true life. The body does a lot of the expressing, but the face is 50 percent of it.
Don’t overdo it!
An expression cannot be mimicked. If true emotion is not flowing from the dancer, chances are, the performance is not believable. It is up to the dancer to find a true connection with the piece. Let each facial emotion portrayed, be one of true nature. With practice and courage, facial expression will boost a dancer into the next level.
HOMEWORK: Focus on facial expression in the current class and routines.
PERSONAL POWER & INFLUENCE
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
PERSONAL POWER and INFLUENCE
“I use my personal power to make choices that influence what happens to me and my community.”
I HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE A POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE
Everyone in the KKZ program have the power to create influence in the class room, to the team, and to themselves. Every student has the power to create positive or negative environment by choices in their actions, behavior, and things you say. It is important we remember often, that we need to contribute to the program in useful ways and to help create a positive atmosphere by choices I make.
HOMEWORK: Think about your influence in class, are you positive or negative? Explain.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS
We are all human even your teacher makes mistakes, says the wrong thing, or might do something that does not bring a positive effect to the program. Students have the same impact. Not everything you say and do will always be a positive effect to your team or class. It is important that as team members we take and accept responsibilities for our actions and behaviors. If you say or do something you realize you should not, take responsibility for it, apologize, discontinue repeating the behavior, and learning from your mistakes. When you blow things off or ignore your mistakes, you are not taking responsibility for yourself.
HOMEWORK: Do you take responsibility for your actions? Focus on responsibility for the season.
IT IS OK TO MAKE MISTAKES AS LONG AS YOU LEARN FROM THEM
It is ok to make mistakes whether it be something you do, say, or being late for class. It is also important that along with taking responsibility for your mistakes, you learn from them and not repeat them again. There are some behaviors that occur with dance team members that seem to be repetitious, such as bossy behaviors, team members that are always telling others what to do, or being critical, negative, gossiping, belittling others. These types of behaviors become habits to many. If you have a habit of certain behaviors that upset, distract, or discourage your team members, it is important that YOU need to correct your behavior and find solutions to help you discontinue your behavior. Remember, there is no right in being wrong.
HOMEWORK: Do you get frustrated when you make mistakes or need to be corrected? How do you deal with it?
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT I HAVE THE POWER OF INFLUENCE
You as a student have the power to influence the mood of your team members. If you are constantly upsetting, irritating, and focusing on your team members, this means you are not focusing on yourself. If you are not focusing on yourself, your team members will be the ones to progress while you will be delayed because you are not correcting, fixing, and improving yourself. Being focused on other team members too much can cause you to be a downfall to your team, why? Because you will be the dancer not up to date in the moves, corrections and doing what the teacher tells YOU to do.
HOMEWORK: Do you focus too much on others and not enough on yourself? Do you focus on yourself with the same motivation as your team members?
If you are not putting in the same effort, time, and energy as your team members, this can also have a negative influence not only on your team but you as well. It is important that ALL team members must equally put in the time, practice, effort and energy weekly in class. A team that fails to work equally is a failed team. You have the power along with everyone else, to make a positive and successful winning team.
I AM AN INFLUENCE
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
I AM AN INFLUENCE TO MY TEAM MEMBERS
What does influence mean? Influence means how your actions, behaviors, and opinions affect others around you. For example, a girl in your class shows up in an outfit you think is ugly. What you say has an influence on her and others around you. If you tell this girl her outfit is ugly, your influence to her and your team members display you are not nice, your rude, and you have a negative opinion and attitude. You have to remember, not everyone thinks like you, maybe this girl loves the outfit she is wearing. Just because you do not like it, does not mean the outfit is ugly. It is important to always remember that what you say, do, and think affects others around you, especially in dance class. If you want your team members to be positive, encouraging, and caring about you, you must express and give compliments, encouragements, and expression of caring to them. Sometimes team members may act badly or poorly, there are ways you can express your concern about their attitude or comment without being rude too. Simply by saying, that is not very nice. If you do not have something nice to say, it is best to not say anything at all. Most importantly, remember your team mates are nervous at shows, they are frustrated when they cannot get a move right, or feeling disappointed if they are behind on memorizing a routine. You have an influence to help your team members succeed by sharing you are nervous too at shows but have FAITH you will both do well! You can have positive influence by telling everyone good luck and you know they will do well. Saying, keep trying you can do it, when they are struggling. When you say these words you make an influence to your team members, and in time they too will share these words back to you.
Let’s take the time to think about how you have influence in your dance class. Write your answers on the back.
1. What kind of influence are you to your team members? Be honest. Are you bossy and discouraging? Are you often critical and making members feel bad? Do you show off and brag about your skills that you are better than others? Do you lack confidence and faith in yourself that you feel you have nothing to contribute? Tell me which one are you, then tell me how can you change your influence to your team members and the class.
2. Enable to become a good influence to others you have to be a good influence to yourself. This means, having confidence and faith you can be a great addition to the class and team. Confidence does not mean arrogance. What does arrogance mean? Arrogant behaviors is when a member act like they know it all, think they are better than others, or belittle others in the class by showing off and bragging. You must ask yourself, if you are being arrogant, would you be impressed with yourself if you were in other people shoes? It is important that you remember, that how you act and think and feel about yourself, is how you are presenting yourself to others. Perhaps you’re the one with little confidence and feel you are not as good, or capable, or have anything to contribute and offer. If you do not have faith in yourself, then you also do not have faith to share with others. You have to remember, even if you are not the best dancer in your class or team, you are better than the new kids starting dance for the first time. You have a job to be a role model to our newer members and beginners. They depend on you to show faith and confidence they can do it too. Which one are you? Arrogant or lacking confidence? How do you think you affect those in your class, and new members in the program? What kind of influence do you want to be in the program?
THE EMPOWERING PERCEPTIONS
Mar 12, 2010 STUDENT Self Awareness
THE EMPOWERING PERCEPTIONS
Please read the homework below and fill in the areas. Remember your homework is due at the end of the month!
I AM CAPABLE!
What does that mean? “I am capable”. It means having faith, confidence, and believing you are capable of doing something, or everything. Having the attitude and thinking “I am Capable” in dance is very important. You cannot succeed learning, memorizing, and performing movements if you do not believe you are capable of doing the steps and routines taught in your class.
It is important to believe in yourself. Your teacher believes in you, your team members believe in you, if no one believed in you, you would not be a part of the team. You are part of the team because you are capable! If sometimes you feel you can’t or it is too hard, or having troubles memorizing or doing certain moves, remember…. Even your dance teacher at one time had to learn the same things you’re learning. It was not easy for Miss April, she had to practice every night after school to memorize dance routines and master steps and movements.
HOW TO HAVE “I AM CAPABLE ATTITUDE”
1. Believe in Yourself even when you cannot get it right, eventually you will get it right.
2. Have faith that with practice outside class you can get the routine learned and moves mastered.
3. Never say NEVER or I CAN’T, when you say this, it means you give up before you try.
4. Sometimes there are certain moves no matter how much we practice we will never get it perfected; even your dance teacher cannot do all moves. Do your best, that is what really counts!
YOUR HOMEWORK: You can use the space below or use the back of the paper, answer the following questions:
1. Do you believe in yourself that you are capable in class? If yes, tell me what areas in class do you feel the most confident. If no, tell me what areas do you feel the least confident.
2. If you answered no, think of ways you can make it better, whether your having a hard time with memorization or cross floor techniques. What can you do to help make it easier for you?
I AM NEEDED!
Every member in your class is NEEDED! Why? A dance team is not a team without members, you and all your team members are all part of a team that is what makes a team. Everyone in the team is needed to be a team. A dance routine is the same way, without every member in the class; the dance routine would not have dancers to make it come to life. YOU ARE NEEDED by your team members; you are part of the team. It is important that you give your best every week and at all performances not just for yourself but for your team. They need you to help make your class and routines a success!
