Dance Major Journal Dance Writing by Dance Majors Spring 2011 FROM: the Dance Department, University of California, Irvine THIS ISSUE: Dance Majors Abroad and at Home Including— A White Bboy in Ghana Improvising in Spain Tapping in Africa All About Gaga Nudity in Dance Body image, dance stereotypes, studio villains…and more… Editorial Board: Hope Bataclan Stephanie Deere Corinna Ductor Jessica Hambright Nicole Jackson Alysha Shroff Shane Scopatz, distribution Kaira Karnad, photo editor Evan D. Johnston, art direction and production Dance Science Editor: Professor Jeff Russell, UCI Dance Department Founder and Senior Editor: Professor Jennifer Fisher Dance Major Journal arose from the ―Critical Issues in Dance‖ course at the University of California, Irvine Dance Department in Spring 2010. Thanks to all the students who contributed to the discussions in the Fall 2011 offering of that course, which produced this issue. This issue of DMJ is dedicated to Karen Ricketts, the UCI Dance Department‘s guardian angel of all things administrative, as well as a stalwart audience member and nurturer of dance majors. She retired in February of 2011. Her daily steps may lead to a different location now, but she‘s sure to be choreographing her own life just as gracefully as she did while helping the dance department run for 28 years. ON THE COVER FROM LEFT: Darina Littleton (2011), Shannon Leypoldt (2010), and Katie Montoya (2011), dancing for the camera during UCI‘s summer visit to the University of Ghana, Legon. SUBMISSIONS: If you are a dance major, please send essay submissions for possible inclusion in the next issue to: Prof. Jennifer Fisher, Dance Department, 300 Mesa Arts Bldg., University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92617. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please inquire at the above address. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dance Majors Abroad A White Bboy in Africa, Joe Knox, M.F.A. .................................................................................................1 Tapping in Africa, Darina Littleton .............................................................................................................7 A Home Away From Home, Katie Montoya ...............................................................................................9 Dancing with Purpose in Ghana, Jenna Tatone .........................................................................................12 A Collaborative Process Under the Spanish Sun, Lindsay Berliner ..........................................................15 Dancing in a Strange Land, Ahn Na Kang .................................................................................................18 Dance Majors at Home Recent Alumni Spotlight: Ching Ching Wong, Rachel I. Berman ............................................................20 A Legend at UCI: Israel ‗El‘ Gabriel, Stephanie Deere ............................................................................23 The Hidden Minority Group, Alysha Shroff ..............................................................................................28 Learning to Partner at UCI, Brian Gonzalez ..............................................................................................31 The Double Major as Double Agent, Nicole Jackson................................................................................33 You‘re Majoring in Dance and Drama… Why? Kaira Karnad ................................................................35 Make it a Double, Stacey Thornton ...........................................................................................................37 The Future of Drama 101, Shannon Corcoran ..........................................................................................39 Above and Beyond the Dance Degree, Jessica Hambright .......................................................................41 Outside Your Kinesphere: how to get to the next level Auditioning Internationally, Marcos Perez ...............................................................................................44 The Benefits of Attending Summer Dance Intensives, Kellie St. Pierre ...................................................46 A Leap of Faith: A Dancer‘s Foray into Gymnastics, Kathryn Endo ........................................................49 Maintaining Your Balance: dance science, wellness and awareness Assessing Your Injuries, Amy Quanbeck ...................................................................................................51 Poster Boy for Dance Science, Evan D. Johnston .....................................................................................54 Dancers Working in Health Care, Shannan Slagle ....................................................................................57 The Elephant in the Room: Eating Disorders, Stephanie Deere ................................................................59 Why Do I Still Dance? Because I‘m a Dancer, Jacquelyn Castillo ...........................................................64 Hot Topics: critical issues in dance Thoughts on Nudity in Dance, Justin Keats ..............................................................................................66 The Case for the Dance Major, Laura Obler .............................................................................................69 Us versus Them, Hip Hop versus the Dance Dept? Jonah Aki ..................................................................71 Cognitive Approaches and Sensation in Contemporary Dance, Shane Scopatz ........................................73 At 5‘ 8‖, is 124 Pounds too Big? Jennifer Hunter .....................................................................................76 Keeping Dance in Your Life, Lauren Stoll ................................................................................................78 The Fine Line Between Teaching and Abuse, Jaclyn Kriewall .................................................................80 Stereotypes: the good, the bad, and the misleading, Corinna Ductor .......................................................82 A White Bboy in Africa by Joe Knox, M.F.A., guest contributor As a bboy with light skin tone traveling to Africa, I had no idea what to expect. I was headed for Ghana in West Africa as part of a UC I dance-led interdisciplinary trip called ―Collaborative Conversations on the Continent.‖ It was a chance to interact directly with the Ghanaian Dance Ensemble, and I was traveling with dancers from UCI‘s Insight jazz ensemble, even though I do not have any experience in jazz dance. I am a bboy, or a breakdancer, and my culture comes from a mixture of African American and Latino cultures in New York City. However, I had always heard that bboying had specific ties to traditional West African culture. I wanted to investigate the deeper roots or original bboying. I had also just completed an MFA in music at Joe (front) battling Bboy Machine (center) UCI. My thesis focused on the differences in breakdancers who performed to departure, so that I arrived in Accra with my right live music to those who performed to pre- hand in an ace bandage. I knew I would not only recorded music. I had also organized live music be representing myself on the continent, but every events for breakdancers called ―Live Cyphers.‖ bboy and bgirl I know here on the west coast of These Live Cyphers were not only very popular the United States. I felt I needed to represent my among bboys, but also served as integration tool culture and the amazing dancers at UCI who have for street dancers like poppers, whackers, and enriched my life. Most of all, I felt the lockers, as well as local jazz musicians. The responsibility of being the lone representative of cross-pollination was highly successful at the community called Bboys Anonymous, a UCI creating new styles and building a stronger, Breakdance Club. I wanted to enrich myself in healthier community. traditional African culture and bring as much of it My biggest fear going into Africa was the as I could back to my breakdance club and our level of my own bboy skills compared to the Live Cyphers. Ghanaians. Would I be able to compete with Another part of me felt guilty for being African bboys and interact with them at their able to go to Africa. Though it had always been a level? I imagined that bboys in Africa, the dream of mine, I felt guilt about my African motherland, would be miles ahead of me, but I American friends. I imagined they might think had no idea. My fears and assumptions drove me things like: "Why do you get to go to Africa and to train to the brink of serious injury before my not me?" and "It's my motherland not yours, it Dance Majors Abroad 2 should be me!" These assumptions I carried like legs remain on the ground and sort of glide baggage to Africa would eventually be totally around the torso. One of the dancers had the destroyed. Because in reality, Africa is move so fast and so smooth I wondered what my everyone‘s motherland regardless of skin tone, bboy friends back home would think when they and what I found in Ghana was an unfathomable saw it. I tried to learn it, and though I got the interconnected experience that defies articulation. move down, the speed at which is necessary to In this article, I want to describe my encounters, create the glide illusion is still slightly beyond my which were life-changing. capacity. I learned that the movement was part of Upon arrival I immediately wanted to dig their traditional repertoire, but they didn‘t know a into the bboy scene in Accra,