Day One - Collaboration
The group of girls started off their week with learning about different emotions, how to deal with them accordingly, and collaboration. Beginning the day with warm-up, they moved into contemporary dance with Ms. Erica Cooper. First things first, before learning the choreography the girls have to understand the basics of contemporary. They proceed to do across-the-floor exercises to practice moving through space. Still waiting to get to the dance all together as a group, the girls talk about emotions playing into communication, growing with their emotions, defining their emotions and learning to be okay with them.
Later, after a small break, the girls meet up with Ms. Kayln McCollister. Once circled up with Ms. Kayln, everyone goes over the importance of collaboration. They all have their own examples of collaboration like making movies, music, and sports. After discussion and journaling, they all come to the agreement that collaboration is working together as a team. Putting their knowledge of collaboration into work, the girls get shown the stick animations by IT-oLogy’s Tech and Creative Arts camp for the first time and are put into small groups or pairs to choreograph the dances.
Soon after, follows everyone meeting Kelsey Edwards, also known by her stage name, Medusa. Kelsey, with a Hip Hop background, teaches the girls some basics in Hip Hop. She proceeds to guide them in finding the right bounce for such dance style and tells the girls that dance in Hip Hop comes from the hype everyone gives each-other. Picking up on the moves and practicing the dance a bit more, the students end their day with putting in some more practice for the the contemporary dance.
Day Two - Trust
The second day of camp, everyone dives into the topic of trust, starting with contemporary practice. With today’s practice, everyone takes part in discussing the emoji's we see in media and how they reflect emotions. They speak on their original meaning and how it may differ in how we interpret them. They also covered the negative emotions one might feel from time to time, how to navigate through them, especially during a time where someone close may not understand the emotions you currently feel. The girls share ways to find an outlet for those anti-emotions and how they can support each other.
Being a day closer to Friday, after getting in some practice with the stick figure dance, everyone is encouraged to practice dancing to the music chosen. By then, the girls are able to come up with a rhythm and their dances become more fluid. Not too short after, is the time to once again practice Erica's piece. New movement is added, expanding on the concept of navigating through your emotions and how they can be shown through dance.
This also becomes the second and last day of Hip Hop, having Ms. "Medusa" return, giving the girls a full choreography to the song Level UP by Ciara, letting them have their fun with a free style choice at the end of the routine. The girls gather into a circle, cheering for their peers and hyping each other up.
With Ms. Kayln, the girls do fun activities to practice what it is to trust one another. Hand in hand, the group tries to untangle themselves from the human knot they made up together. Self reflecting and journaling the experience, they move on to another activity where everyone is to gather in partners and lead someone who's eyes are closed around the room. Trying it twice, once with hands on shoulders and once more with hands hovering away from the person, they then explain the differences they felt from walking and how they are examples of trust.
Day Three - Leadership
Learning the qualities of leadership, the girls share what they believe is needed to be a good leader like being fair, caring, and responsible. They all then shared who they knew they believed to be a leader. Many of the girls chose to share family members and some shared teachers, which led into the next activity requiring them to learn qualities on becoming a leader.
Joining hands, the students formed a circle with a single hula hoop. They were asked to pass person to person without letting go of hands. The girls went through multiple rounds improving in time with each one and sometimes adding a new obstacle. Resulting from the small game, the girls learned in order to be a leader, you need to be confident with yourself and your own choices, flexible with other people's choices, able to communicate, and be able to problem solve.
Jumping back into the practice of the stick figure dance, the class has improved immensely! A freestyle added to the end of the dance, shows a taste of the things each of them have gotten from the camp, plus the free expression they were encouraged to show. Called back to the circle again, each girl went up to show their freestyle and getting into their groups after to present the progress on their stick figure dances. Because practice makes perfect, they went back to it till our second guest dancer arrived.
Kelsey returns, but this time with Davon, ready to share the basics of Krump. The students are first asked what they think Krump is and to share their prior knowledge of the dance style. It's established that Krump can be seen as stiff and aggressive, but the aggresivness seen in the dance is really just a large way of expressing emotion. New terms are learned and soon the basics are paired with them, the group learns everything from the proper stance you should take in krump to the way you turn. The girls absorb the information showing they know how to jab and chest pop, proving their knowledge in of course, another freestyle.
Day Four - Diversity & Inclusion
They day before performance, everything is being put together and polished, we even get a visit from the It-oLogy kids who stay over in the other studio. Before the seemingly endless amount of practicing of each piece, it was time for the girls to discuss Diversity and Inclusion. Learning the definition of both, the girls share what they think diversity is and isn't, leading to a conversation about what stereotypes are and how we should avoid separating anyone into a group based on a stereotype you might have heard. They also share how to not divide other's, giving examples on how they would include someone into a group or activity.
After journaling and contemporary the girls are able to receive their emoji pins. Each pin being a different emotion. Ms. Erica has them take part in a dance game where one is to dance showing the emotion they wear. As the girls dance and practice things for the next day, everything is slowly set up. Curtains are put up for the back and lights are tested for each song accordingly. Breaking between practice the dance students finally get to meet the faces who created the stick figure animations the girls made a dance based off of, the It-oLogy students.
It is only after practicing so much that the girls get to enjoy a new style taught by Ms. Kayln. After basic stretches and warm ups the girls get to do a classic, ballet. The day ends with the girls tired and practiced out. The next day they are to learn jazz, continue the practice of their routines and prepare to perform for friends and family.
Write-up and photos by: i am art’s High School student Intern of 2018 - Zanyia Holt
