Busy!!

This week has been a pretty busy one. All I can say is TGIF! If I'm not in class I'm usually trying to sneak in a nap, write a paper for a class, or study for a test. The bits of nice weather that we've been having are making it easier to get up every day. This week the campus has been buzzing with the excitement of opening day for the Red Sox. Student's were definitely glad to see the Sox win the first game of the season. Some of my friends even got to go to the game. (Needless to say I was very jealous.)

Students are beginning to decide their housing situations for next year. As a freshman we filled out a survey that placed us in a residence hall suitable to our living style. Now we get to choose our roommates, and which residence hall we want to live in before returning to school. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!

That's all for now.

Improvisational Structure

In Dance Composition class we are learning about creating an "improvisational structure". This is a map or recipe or set of instructions that a choreographer gives their dancers to create a piece. The dancers are usually given a pattern, song, space, and duration of time to improvise movement. The concept is a little confusing but, without a doubt, interesting and intriguing. The choreographer can use objects, artwork, text, and many other resources to come up with an improvisational structure.
For example: In class, our professor broke us up into various sized groups and gave one group a paragraph of text to form a dance out of, while another group got a one lined piece of text and the remaining group got a math problem. All were very different and could have been interpreted in many different ways. I know all you future dance majors out there probably understand this concept a little better than others but I just wanted to share how interesting this class is.

The Future

I just wanted to announce that I am graduating on May 9th with my Associate's in Dance and have been accepted into the Alvin Ailey Independent Study Program for the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. So, this summer I am moving to New York City with my best friend, Sharlane (who was also accepted into the program), and we are getting a two bedroom apartment. This past Saturday we ended up spending the entire day looking at different places (around 14 of them) throughout Manhattan. There are only four weeks left of school and I can't believe I won't be back at Dean next semester. Time really does fly and attending Dean has been awesome. I can't say I am not stressed but I am trying to get everything done and in on time. Fingers crossed these last couple weeks will go smooth.

Pedagogy

So I pulled an all-nighter last night in order to write my pedagogy paper. I had a while to write this but just couldn't find the time so it ended up coming down to a last minute thing.
Pedagogy, for anyone that doesn't know, is the art of teaching. So we are taught how to teach dance in this class. Our paper was a minimum of 12 pages (mine ended up being 26 pages) and was the business plan for a studio we were "opening". In it we had to include a studio name, our philosophy, a table of contents, our rules, our floor plans/studio space, all of the ballet terminology we learned thus far and how to properly teach it, as well as a complete syllabus for level one ballet dancers (age 8) from Sept to May and the summer months. It was not exactly hard, just extremely tedious. I am happy with how it came out. The assignment definitely was interesting but fun and I now know I never want to teach ballet in my life. No thank you. : )

Accepted Students Day

Hi everyone,

If you have been accepted to Dean College, you're invited to Accepted Students Day!
Friday, April 24
9:30-11:15am Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:45-11:00am Campus Tours (optional)
11:15-11:45am Welcome and Overview
11:45-1:00pm Student Panel Discussion & A Parent's Preview to Life at Dean
1:00-1:45pm Lunch
1:45-2:30pm Optional Afternoon Programs (Financial Aid, Academic Support, Campus Tours)

We have a fulfilling and fun day planned...so please join us!
Call (508) 541-1508 or email me at KGramatico@dean.edu for more information or to register.