1. My STEP Signature Project was centered around the dance form, Ballet. I traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 10th to the 15th to attend a beginner Adult Ballet workshop for a maximum of four hours per day at the Amy Novinski Dance Studio. This intensive will help to teach me the foundation as well as the fundamentals of ballet to help build my dance repertoire.
2. I will say being that this was my first time traveling solo, this trip taught me a lot about independence. It also taught me to trust in myself when it came to making decisions about my safety. It was exciting, but also a bit frightening at times due to the fact that I am a woman. Being in a new state/city alone can be a bit nerve racking, even so I didn’t let that stop me from meeting new people and going out into the town. I also got to experience travel the way that I love to being able to immerse myself in another cities culture and try to understand the people who live there, because no place is like home every city has it’s own energy. In regards to the intensive itself, I learned that asking questions should never be a problem to gain proper understanding as well as talking to other students learning around me. These things both help for a more comfortable environment with no room for confusion and uncertainty.
3. I think the biggest interactions that helped me to push for the change I went through, is interacting with the people in the city everywhere I went. Being open and friendly can help to prove well, especially when wanting to know certain things in an unknown environment, like restaurants I would enjoy, pretty parks and also the go to places. I think also being friendly also proves to make the experience more enjoyable, because I am walking into every room with positive energy eager with curiosity to learn and see new things. In terms of the ballet intensive, I have been searching for a proper adult beginner intensive in regards to ballet for a long while. Having a teacher who clearly loved what she was doing, who was patient and also excited to answer questions, made the learning experience easier and I wasn’t embarrassed to mess up. It made me more confident in myself as a dancer and just learning in general. I also developed a respect for the dance form. Although I don’t plan on being a ballet, this intensive was needed to help instill the core foundation. I believe dance helps to teach you how to be graceful, intentional and clean in movement.
4. These things are all significant and valuable to my life because this trip taught me many things about myself. Everywhere I went with a smile, I was told it seemed as though I radiated good energy and was living my life for me, which I want to continue to do in all aspects of my life. I want to continue to inspire through dance, traveling and also teaching. Having a teacher who radiated such positive energy inspired me to be better at the dance form and also made me want to be able to do the same for other people. I plan to use the knowledge I gained from this intensive to hopefully help me succeed in my audition to double major with a dance major. Although I don’t want to go into ballet, I would love to excel as a Hip Hop dancer as well as Afro beat.
I attached a link that takes you to an Instagram post that further explains the background in why I chose to do a ballet intensive.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgDLTDTr9Zz/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=