Dance Lineage

1. Mrs.Brown Christmas Ballet

2. Family Events - Dancing was always incorporated at parties or gatherings and was always done.

2.1. My dad was a break dancer and made sure I was fairly comfortable dancing in most places.

2.2. Reimagine allowed for me to get a new perspective on social dancing and how important it was to communities of color. Having that context forces me to see the significance in what isn't mainstream dance or glorified by dance critics.

3. Techniques Acquired- My sophomore year began my Modern Training. I studied in Horton, Graham, Cunningham, and Limon.

3.1. Inspired my research into Alvin Ailey, one of the most famous and influential modern dancers and choreographers of the 20th century and resulted in a 20 page essay on his biography, creations, and most popular works.

3.2. This pushed me to do more research in the things I learn in the classroom so that i can better understand both the pros and cons to the dance world as well as dance education.

3.3. Began my freshman year and took Modern 2 with Professor Garofalo, which helped me learn even more about Graham technique due to her being in the company for much of her dance training.

3.4. Began my freshman year, and started learning under Adjetey in West African 1. I learned about more than just Western and European dance origins which was an amazing experience.

3.5. Reimagine allowed for my understanding and knowledge of the people whom these techniques are associated with. It helped to explore more of the history when looking at differences and comparisons.

4. Injury - In the summer of 2019, I tore my ACL and in the fall of 2019 I tore my meniscus. This resulted in a surgery in December of 2019 followed by 9 months of recovery. This pushed me to get back my strength and try even harder to become a better dancer.

4.1. During my injury, I was able to take a Dance Pedagogy class taught by Professor Southerland and a dance repertory class taught by Professor Garofalo.

4.2. The dance pedagogy class gave me the opportunity to further research dance education and introduced to race in dance education and how it influences certain students experiences.

4.3. The dance repertory class allowed for me to look at historical works of past choreographers such as Eleanor King. It was amazing to see the effort that goes into keeping art alive in the dance community.

5. Reimagine Dance History - Fall semester 2021 - I was able to expand my understanding of dance history culturally, politically, socially, and anthropologically. This included American dance history that is not often discussed in curriculum.

5.1. Learned more about my own dance history (African American Dance history) as well as dance histories from populous minority groups in America. This provided greater context for me to utilize throughout my dance education and beyond.

6. Ashley - Hip hop/House training

6.1. Self-taught traveling hip hop and krump dancer. Also trained with Ingredients Dance Co. and toured with Dance Revolution Convention.

7. Chelsea - First Formal Training in Modern, Contemporary, Improv, and some ballet.

7.1. Trained by professional traveling company based in Texas called Ingredients Dance Co. and toured with the Dance Revolution Convention. She founded Bloom Dance Studio where I continued my training for about 12 years.

7.2. Founded Seed Dance Company in 2016, a junior dance company at Bloom Dance Studio. This was the first pre-professional company I joined, and was where I first began choreographing more consistently and performing more.

7.3. Primarily taught through technique of Martha Graham. After taking Reimagine, I was able to learn about the history of Graham's technique, what it was inspired by, and how it developed.

8. Teaching - I became a substitute teacher for hiphop classes at Bloom Dance Studio. This began my sophomore year of high school, which exposed me to teaching and creating choreography for students/for training.

8.1. Since becoming a substitute teacher, I have now taught at multiple summer dance intensives teaching hip hop and most recently, an afrobeats class.

9. During Covid - As school was now completely online, I made the decision to continue dancing locally with Neshema Dance Company directed by Chelsea as well as taking up any substitute teaching opportunities at the studio.

9.1. I undertook this choreographer's(Ashley) classes while they were in recovery, and learned the early origins of hip hop and classic moves. This let me dive into more research about hip hop and its popularity.

9.2. I began learning dances almost monthly with Neshema which really helped me regain my ability to put choreography on my body after my injury.

9.3. I did take one technique class, which was ballet, during covid. This actually greatly helped me improve how I looked at ballet and how ballet can be translated on my body. It helped me stay consistent and strengthen my body in more specific areas that I need to focus on in order to be back in dancing full time. I consider this start of my more formal ballet training.

9.4. I took comp 260, which furthered my experimentation with choreography and how I can create in numerous way. I also took Dan 160 which was a site specific improv class that gave me confidence to experiment with improv in spaces and with quality of movement that can be utilized in your improv.

9.5. With Neshema, I was also able to record dances which was interesting to do but I believe gives me an advantage when working on projects later on.