April Reminiscence// my dancing journey

It's nearing the end of this school year, and things are starting to get really hectic and stressful. AP exams and SAT testing starts soon, not to mention the 50 other assignments all my other teachers have decided to give me (woohoo). Because of this, I've barely had time for eating and sleeping, much less dancing and filming. I'm really really looking forwards to completing my exams.

This month, I wanted to write a more chill blog post, one that would require more thinking than typing. I thought that April would be a good time to reflect on my journey this year, as Quest speeches are approaching rapidly.

At the beginning of this school year, I started this Quest full of ambition and anticipation for the year ahead. I wanted to learn and film 25 dances by the end of the year, but as you can tell my Quest project didn't quite go as planned. I've mentioned this in previous blog posts, but I struggled a lot with my confidence and dancing in front of the camera, and this dramatically slowed my progress. However, I've improved drastically over the year, and I'm glad that I have the videos to prove it. I was inspired to write this post when I was watching videos from a few months ago-- it makes me proud to see how I've grown as a dancer through this Quest project.

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Red Velvet Peek-a-boo (November 2017)

This was the first cover I ever filmed, and it was SO awkward. My eyes were always wandering around or looking down, and I had little to no facial expressions (except for embarrassed smiles)

Gfriend Me Gustas Tu (December 2017)

This dance cover is just as bad- along with my facial expressions as mentioned before, I really needed to work on dancing with energy and extending my arms and legs fully. Also, I didn't really know how to control my audio, so you can barely hear the music in the background.

Blackpink As if it's Your Last (January 2018)

Same as Me Gustas Tu... I have a LOT to work on regarding the quality of my dancing and of the actual video overall.

Benedictus (February 2018)

This was the first (and only) dance that I had the opportunity to self-choreograph and perform this year. Benedictus is a contemporary piece, so I was much more comfortable with dancing it-- I had so so much fun preparing for this performance and it reminded me of how much I loved to perform onstage.

GG Medley (March 2018)

This video was a major victory for me, as it was the first dance cover I'd filmed that I was actually sort of proud of. It's not perfect-- I still avoid eye contact with the camera and my transitions are clumsy, but my facial expressions and video quality definitely improved!

Latata (April 2018)

Latata was my absolute favorite! The second I saw the choreography I knew that I wanted it to be my final dance cover. Compared to my first video in November which took 15-20 takes, this cover took only 3 tries to get right! Of course, there are always things I can work on, but my facial expressions improved so much, and I think it's clear that I'm much more comfortable in front of the camera now. Also, my editing and audio quality has improved significantly, if I do say so myself ;)

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Throughout this year, I see that I've not only grown in my dance skills, but also in my confidence and ability to overcome my fears-- I hope you can see it too.

bye bye~

ellie