Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Associate Professor Ralph Buck
In one of the articles in the New Zealand curriculum that I read for an essay in Dance Education mentioned Ralph Buck, my favorite professor here. It immediately caught my eye and I thought that I would just mention what he has done, because it inspires me on so many levels! He is the head of the Dept. of Dance Studies and has worked in the dance education communities in NZ and Austrailia. Ralph has presented his research on teachers' meanings of dance and community dance in New York, Montreal, Melbourne, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
So cool! I just wanted to have that down. He has so many cool experiences but yet has this fun, energetic being to him. He is one of those kinds of teachers that make you think...no THAT is what a teacher is supposed to be like.
Ralph is hilarious. He doesn't give a piss about stuff sometimes, but in a funny way. He uses the word "things" and "stuff" all the time to explain ideas and concepts which actually do the trick! It's funny because we all are understanding what he is getting at. He is very casual about his teaching as well. It may just be due to the fact we are in college and can handle naughty words, but he uses swear words and it cracks me up! It's just a part of his personality so he gets away with it.
It's about 12:40 now and I'm still up. I finished my papers...woohoo!!! I'm not that tired which is why I decided...heeeey I'm gonna blog! :D
Hot lava.
Ok. So in my blog from earlier today I forgot to mention why I titled it hot lava. Yes. Me and my "meanings." I'm such a deep person ;)
When I was younger Jordan and I used to play this game we called "hot lava." We used this red and black plaid blanket (which I don't know where it is...Kristofer probably has it :P ) but we put it at the bottom of the stairs and pretend like it was LAVA! You couldn't fall down into the lava or you'd die. I know...kinda morbid. Kids....haha. So we would be falling down the stairs and the other person would have to pull them up and save them! That's about all there was to it. We would do it over and over and it never seemed to get old.
Basically the moral of the story is that anytime I think of volcanos or lava I go back to this little childhood game hot lava and it makes me smile :)
So cool! I just wanted to have that down. He has so many cool experiences but yet has this fun, energetic being to him. He is one of those kinds of teachers that make you think...no THAT is what a teacher is supposed to be like.
Ralph is hilarious. He doesn't give a piss about stuff sometimes, but in a funny way. He uses the word "things" and "stuff" all the time to explain ideas and concepts which actually do the trick! It's funny because we all are understanding what he is getting at. He is very casual about his teaching as well. It may just be due to the fact we are in college and can handle naughty words, but he uses swear words and it cracks me up! It's just a part of his personality so he gets away with it.
It's about 12:40 now and I'm still up. I finished my papers...woohoo!!! I'm not that tired which is why I decided...heeeey I'm gonna blog! :D
Hot lava.
Ok. So in my blog from earlier today I forgot to mention why I titled it hot lava. Yes. Me and my "meanings." I'm such a deep person ;)
When I was younger Jordan and I used to play this game we called "hot lava." We used this red and black plaid blanket (which I don't know where it is...Kristofer probably has it :P ) but we put it at the bottom of the stairs and pretend like it was LAVA! You couldn't fall down into the lava or you'd die. I know...kinda morbid. Kids....haha. So we would be falling down the stairs and the other person would have to pull them up and save them! That's about all there was to it. We would do it over and over and it never seemed to get old.
Basically the moral of the story is that anytime I think of volcanos or lava I go back to this little childhood game hot lava and it makes me smile :)
Monday, March 29, 2010
hot lava.
HELLOOOO!! I have not been very good about blogging. Lets just say I've been quite lazy, but also very productive. I guess I have been working on the things that I will be graded on so that's a smart plan. At the same time there is no excuse cause I still could make time. I will see how well I can remember about the past few weeks. Here I go...
Ok. This ones easy. Last weekend was our little excursion to Taupo. In the rental van it was me, Amanda, Mike, Mike, Robbie, Connor, Mallory, Kathleen, and Emma. We managed fit all of our junk and nine people in the vehicle. We were on our way! The drive was about four hours and when we finally got there the hostel was closed. We didn't know what to do so we just pitched our tents and thought awww...we'll pay in the morning. Lucky for us...the bathrooms were even open. It was perfect. We got up in the morning and people weren't at the reception desk so we each save 12 bucks. Ooops. Felt kind of bad, but at the same time it was nice. We were going to hike mount doom, but then realized we missed the bus. It only comes at like 6am and the wind was apparently really bad that day so they didn't even reccommend it. We devised another plan. We were going to go hike this other trail and see a waterfall and then go skydiving!!!
Skydiving.
This was the highlight of my weekend. Absolutely amazing experience! The guys that we were strapped on to were very experienced divers. Mine was 22 and had jumped mmm...like 1500 times! Holy! Anyways...they were hilarious. Very chill. I was freakin out cause my harness thing seemed to big and they joked around and all looked at each other like ohhhh crap. We were already on the plane! Ahhh...what am I supposed to do. They were like yeah...umm....did they give you an extra large or something? Jerks. Haha. It was fun though. Their sense of humor made the experience. I think my favorite part was jumping out of the plane. It's just like this big rush. You are like alright...we're next. Ok. GO! You don't even realize that you're free falling. I felt perfectly safe. So weird! When he let out the parachute he let me steer it for awhile. Now THAT was fun. The view of lake taupo was stunning. The scenery...yeah.
Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom)
Well...lets just talk about Mt. Doom, shall we. It started out fine...didn't really think much of the 7 hours hike we would be doing. Just one step at a time right? Oh. My. Gosh. It was difficult. I think about everything I do now and look back on that experience and go awww...this will be a piece of cake. I climbed a fricken volcano! So yeah...scenery was breathtaking...once again. It was different this time though...it was like we were one with it. There was no civilization. It was just hikers and the earth. Ok. That sounds way cheesy, but seriously! There was something really cool about it.
Alright...so we started off in a group then all started to go our own pace. For a few hours it was just me, Emma, and Kathleen. THEN we started to climb the mountain (volcano). We didn't stick together. There were soooo many times where I was like okay...I'm done. It seemed like we would climb and end up a few steps back from where we started. I was literally bear crawling hands and feet. There were lava rocks and sandy ash kind of stuff that I had to overcome. I looked at this mountain as something that I needed to do for myself. I could have turned back, but I'm glad I didn't. For me, it kind of represented life. You have to keep pushing forward, because if you go back you won't end up anywhere. You'll just be right where you started. It also represented this never give up sort of attitude. It doesn't matter if you fall down or scrape your leg (that's what i did) just keep going and in time things will heal.
The top. I can't believe I made it. This sounds ridiculous, but I really can't. I was so tired, but what makes me mad is that I wasn't as sore as I thought I should have been the next day! What the heck. We won't talk about it. I must just be in good shape, right? Whatever. So I didn't think I would make it after I thought I reached the top then realized there was more. I did though and I've NEVER seen such an amazing view in my entire life. It was literally like I was on top of the world. I mean...we climbed a mountain so we were basically.
Climbing down.
More like sliding, skiing, or falling down. This was better than going up, but it was still annoying. Mallory and I had to hold on to each other for a lot of it. I fell a lot. I mean a lot. It was so sandy and hard to stablize yourself. Sooo many bruises from that day. When we finally made it down I felt so accomplished. We climbed a mountain and survived. What a relief. It felt like life or death at times. It actually was a pretty dangerous thing to do.
YAY! WE DID IT!
Back to reality.
I really needed to buckle down this week with school. I finished my video project. Finally! It had erased like three times and I had to start over...along with the entire class. Technology. I had two papers to write which I'm still fine tuning, but am proud to say I'm about done with. (which is good cause they're due in two days). They are both about 8 pages long or so and were a lot harder to write than they should have been. Maybe it's cause I haven't had school since...umm...December! Yep. I'm going to blame it on that. It was our last week working with pegasis students. It was sad. I really got to know these kids and it was so special to build relationships with them!
This week.
I feel like I have been writing my fingers off with the essays I have been doing. I am proud that I wrote all this and have to call it quits for now.
Toodles!
Ok. This ones easy. Last weekend was our little excursion to Taupo. In the rental van it was me, Amanda, Mike, Mike, Robbie, Connor, Mallory, Kathleen, and Emma. We managed fit all of our junk and nine people in the vehicle. We were on our way! The drive was about four hours and when we finally got there the hostel was closed. We didn't know what to do so we just pitched our tents and thought awww...we'll pay in the morning. Lucky for us...the bathrooms were even open. It was perfect. We got up in the morning and people weren't at the reception desk so we each save 12 bucks. Ooops. Felt kind of bad, but at the same time it was nice. We were going to hike mount doom, but then realized we missed the bus. It only comes at like 6am and the wind was apparently really bad that day so they didn't even reccommend it. We devised another plan. We were going to go hike this other trail and see a waterfall and then go skydiving!!!
Skydiving.
This was the highlight of my weekend. Absolutely amazing experience! The guys that we were strapped on to were very experienced divers. Mine was 22 and had jumped mmm...like 1500 times! Holy! Anyways...they were hilarious. Very chill. I was freakin out cause my harness thing seemed to big and they joked around and all looked at each other like ohhhh crap. We were already on the plane! Ahhh...what am I supposed to do. They were like yeah...umm....did they give you an extra large or something? Jerks. Haha. It was fun though. Their sense of humor made the experience. I think my favorite part was jumping out of the plane. It's just like this big rush. You are like alright...we're next. Ok. GO! You don't even realize that you're free falling. I felt perfectly safe. So weird! When he let out the parachute he let me steer it for awhile. Now THAT was fun. The view of lake taupo was stunning. The scenery...yeah.
Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom)
Well...lets just talk about Mt. Doom, shall we. It started out fine...didn't really think much of the 7 hours hike we would be doing. Just one step at a time right? Oh. My. Gosh. It was difficult. I think about everything I do now and look back on that experience and go awww...this will be a piece of cake. I climbed a fricken volcano! So yeah...scenery was breathtaking...once again. It was different this time though...it was like we were one with it. There was no civilization. It was just hikers and the earth. Ok. That sounds way cheesy, but seriously! There was something really cool about it.
Alright...so we started off in a group then all started to go our own pace. For a few hours it was just me, Emma, and Kathleen. THEN we started to climb the mountain (volcano). We didn't stick together. There were soooo many times where I was like okay...I'm done. It seemed like we would climb and end up a few steps back from where we started. I was literally bear crawling hands and feet. There were lava rocks and sandy ash kind of stuff that I had to overcome. I looked at this mountain as something that I needed to do for myself. I could have turned back, but I'm glad I didn't. For me, it kind of represented life. You have to keep pushing forward, because if you go back you won't end up anywhere. You'll just be right where you started. It also represented this never give up sort of attitude. It doesn't matter if you fall down or scrape your leg (that's what i did) just keep going and in time things will heal.
The top. I can't believe I made it. This sounds ridiculous, but I really can't. I was so tired, but what makes me mad is that I wasn't as sore as I thought I should have been the next day! What the heck. We won't talk about it. I must just be in good shape, right? Whatever. So I didn't think I would make it after I thought I reached the top then realized there was more. I did though and I've NEVER seen such an amazing view in my entire life. It was literally like I was on top of the world. I mean...we climbed a mountain so we were basically.
Climbing down.
More like sliding, skiing, or falling down. This was better than going up, but it was still annoying. Mallory and I had to hold on to each other for a lot of it. I fell a lot. I mean a lot. It was so sandy and hard to stablize yourself. Sooo many bruises from that day. When we finally made it down I felt so accomplished. We climbed a mountain and survived. What a relief. It felt like life or death at times. It actually was a pretty dangerous thing to do.
YAY! WE DID IT!
Back to reality.
I really needed to buckle down this week with school. I finished my video project. Finally! It had erased like three times and I had to start over...along with the entire class. Technology. I had two papers to write which I'm still fine tuning, but am proud to say I'm about done with. (which is good cause they're due in two days). They are both about 8 pages long or so and were a lot harder to write than they should have been. Maybe it's cause I haven't had school since...umm...December! Yep. I'm going to blame it on that. It was our last week working with pegasis students. It was sad. I really got to know these kids and it was so special to build relationships with them!
This week.
I feel like I have been writing my fingers off with the essays I have been doing. I am proud that I wrote all this and have to call it quits for now.
Toodles!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
From Here to There.
Heyo! Ok...so it's been awhile since my last post. My apologies. Let me recap on my week last week. In Dance Education we had the Vou (pronounced Voo) dance company come and show us a traditional Fijian dance called the Meke. They did a performance and then held a workshop where we got to learn it and perform it. This was a really cool experience. It was a very tribal sort of dance. In order to get permission to perform this traditional dance and then change it so it was a more contemporary piece they actually had to go to a village and ask if it was okay. I really enjoyed having them come and perform because I felt like I got a taste of some culture. It wasn't New Zealand's but Fiji is close! The next day I had Community Dance. We went to this place called Pegasis. This "college" (what they call grade school) was for children with disabilities. We got to teach dance! It was so much fun to actually have hands on experience with working with kids. It was cool to see them get all excited about dancing. At the end a couple of students had their own solos to show the class. I had tears in my eyes. You could just tell how free they felt when they were dancing and singing along to the music.
Backstreets back, alright!
Connor had an extra ticket for the Backstreet Boys so when we were at the airport (before we really knew each other) he asked if anyone was interested in going. Me, me, me!!!! I LOVE the Backstreet Boys! So, Thursday night was the concert. We were PUMPED. Went and got us some Redbull and we were set. I have never been so excited to see a concert in my life. I cannot even tell you how obsessed I was/apparently still am with the Bboys. The concert was amazing. I've seen better shows put on, but I loved every minute of every song that they sang. It made my life complete I think.
Weekend
Just making this short and sweet. We went out for a bit...it was fun. I met Mallory's friend Beth from one of her classes. She is a really great person. We got to see her apartment...it was sooo adorable. We weren't really getting in anywhere without having to pay a cover charge so we didn't want to do that and ended up dancing for awhile, but then just going home. Still fun though.
Tired
I don't know if it was just the weekend or what, but I was exhausted. Exhausted=miss home/friends/family etc. It was all good though....caught up on some sleep. Got to talk to Mamma mia ;)
St. Pattie's Day!
I didn't really know if I wanted to go out, but I'm really glad I did. It was a little break that I needed. Mallory and I went out with our friend Matt and met his friend Shey. They were both really fun to hang out with. We ended up all dancing the night away. SO much fun :D
From Here to There.
Mallory and I went to The Royal New Zealand Ballet on Thursday night. We wore our new dresses. The ballet was absolutely breathtaking. My favorite was their second piece. It was a little darker...I like that though. The music was intense. It made me miss playing my oboe. Is that sad all I wanted to do today was practice my oboe? After that we went to this Irish pub that we couldn't get into the night before since everyone was wanting a taste of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. (also same day as Samuel Patrick Okland's birthday!) We had a cider. Those are really quite good! I thought about my friend Lindsey. She is in Ireland right now for her study abroad. I'm sure St. Pattie's day there is fun!
This weekend.
I'm going to Taupo. It's supposed to be absolutely amazing. I can't wait. We are renting a car. I'm kind of nervous about that, but it should be fine. It's about 4 hours away I think? We are going to be camping, hiking, and all that jazz. I want to go skydiving, but I think I might wait until spring break and do it at the South Island.
TTFN!
Backstreets back, alright!
Connor had an extra ticket for the Backstreet Boys so when we were at the airport (before we really knew each other) he asked if anyone was interested in going. Me, me, me!!!! I LOVE the Backstreet Boys! So, Thursday night was the concert. We were PUMPED. Went and got us some Redbull and we were set. I have never been so excited to see a concert in my life. I cannot even tell you how obsessed I was/apparently still am with the Bboys. The concert was amazing. I've seen better shows put on, but I loved every minute of every song that they sang. It made my life complete I think.
Weekend
Just making this short and sweet. We went out for a bit...it was fun. I met Mallory's friend Beth from one of her classes. She is a really great person. We got to see her apartment...it was sooo adorable. We weren't really getting in anywhere without having to pay a cover charge so we didn't want to do that and ended up dancing for awhile, but then just going home. Still fun though.
Tired
I don't know if it was just the weekend or what, but I was exhausted. Exhausted=miss home/friends/family etc. It was all good though....caught up on some sleep. Got to talk to Mamma mia ;)
St. Pattie's Day!
I didn't really know if I wanted to go out, but I'm really glad I did. It was a little break that I needed. Mallory and I went out with our friend Matt and met his friend Shey. They were both really fun to hang out with. We ended up all dancing the night away. SO much fun :D
From Here to There.
Mallory and I went to The Royal New Zealand Ballet on Thursday night. We wore our new dresses. The ballet was absolutely breathtaking. My favorite was their second piece. It was a little darker...I like that though. The music was intense. It made me miss playing my oboe. Is that sad all I wanted to do today was practice my oboe? After that we went to this Irish pub that we couldn't get into the night before since everyone was wanting a taste of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. (also same day as Samuel Patrick Okland's birthday!) We had a cider. Those are really quite good! I thought about my friend Lindsey. She is in Ireland right now for her study abroad. I'm sure St. Pattie's day there is fun!
This weekend.
I'm going to Taupo. It's supposed to be absolutely amazing. I can't wait. We are renting a car. I'm kind of nervous about that, but it should be fine. It's about 4 hours away I think? We are going to be camping, hiking, and all that jazz. I want to go skydiving, but I think I might wait until spring break and do it at the South Island.
TTFN!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Left side brain.
This weekend was Boyz Noize. It was packed on Friday. They had flashing lights, fog, and confetti everywhere! It started at 10pm and went till 5am. I knew I couldn't make it that long. We got there around 11pm and I left with a group a little after 2am. Saturday was the horse races. It was SO great! We all wore our 8 dollar hats and dressed up. Even the guys ;) A few of us girls bought a bottle of champaigne and it was a party. Blaire bet on a horse and won 75 dollars! Woohoo! We were all absolutely beat after a day in the sun. I needed to get groceries so I went to countdown. I walked all the way back up in my heels, jacket, and hat. It wasn't just a quick five minute walk either. It was more like 15-20 minutes. I was exhausted. I crashed for a few hours before we went out to celebrate Rebecca's 21st birthday. I got ready in 15 minutes after my nap. I almost didn't go out, but I was glad I did. It was fun to dance and be there for her birthday.
Today Mallory and I went shopping. I did some damage. The first store we go to I was just like hmm...let's try this on. BAM. The dress was perf. It fit like a glove. It's a more neutral tone dress, chiffon, lower cut in front with lines of "goldish" beading. The back has a few strands of those as well. I planned on getting a dress from New Zealand I'm pretty sure this was the one I "needed." Chaching. Got it ;) Can't wait to wear it out! I'm sure there will be pictures. Gosh. I'm such a girl!
I just remembered my dream. I think it was from the nap I just woke up from. I went to a movie with Ava and then it was girls night out so we went shopping. I don't remember everything we bought, but I got her a couple of cute oufits. I do remember there being something specific that we bought though that was important. Anyways...we ate our dinner at the food court and Ava was falling asleep on my lap. I asked her if we should go home and she said yes. I started carrying her back to the car, but then suddenly realized everything we had was missing. The bags, my purse, the car keys. We go to the last place that I may have set the bags down and he says they found someone by the name of Thompson's belongings. Ava was excited that they found our stuff, but I did not have a good feeling about it. The janitor dude comes back with a red vacuum cleaner! What the heck? I don't know what this dream is all about, but I vacuumed my room the other day. Maybe that's why that was in there. And then I kind of broke down because I was so tired from the day and I had my niece with me and didn't know what to do...maybe that represents being kind of tired and worn out from the weekend. I don't know. I thought it was hilarious though. I saw that dream in good detail. There was more to it, but that's the jist of it!
Today Mallory and I went shopping. I did some damage. The first store we go to I was just like hmm...let's try this on. BAM. The dress was perf. It fit like a glove. It's a more neutral tone dress, chiffon, lower cut in front with lines of "goldish" beading. The back has a few strands of those as well. I planned on getting a dress from New Zealand I'm pretty sure this was the one I "needed." Chaching. Got it ;) Can't wait to wear it out! I'm sure there will be pictures. Gosh. I'm such a girl!
I just remembered my dream. I think it was from the nap I just woke up from. I went to a movie with Ava and then it was girls night out so we went shopping. I don't remember everything we bought, but I got her a couple of cute oufits. I do remember there being something specific that we bought though that was important. Anyways...we ate our dinner at the food court and Ava was falling asleep on my lap. I asked her if we should go home and she said yes. I started carrying her back to the car, but then suddenly realized everything we had was missing. The bags, my purse, the car keys. We go to the last place that I may have set the bags down and he says they found someone by the name of Thompson's belongings. Ava was excited that they found our stuff, but I did not have a good feeling about it. The janitor dude comes back with a red vacuum cleaner! What the heck? I don't know what this dream is all about, but I vacuumed my room the other day. Maybe that's why that was in there. And then I kind of broke down because I was so tired from the day and I had my niece with me and didn't know what to do...maybe that represents being kind of tired and worn out from the weekend. I don't know. I thought it was hilarious though. I saw that dream in good detail. There was more to it, but that's the jist of it!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Week 1
Wish I had shade
So I just have to say I had class today from 9-10am and now have a break until 4pm. I'm sitting in the computer lab with my fake ray bans on because the sun is beating down on me. I'm so hot! Ugh. Gross. It fills up pretty fast in the lab. You can definitely tell that school is now in session. Today is Wednesday. Week one of class, third day in! I can't believe we have started school finally. I love my dance classes. (like I figured I would) My professor, Ralph Buck, is amazing. He is the reason I came to this school and I don't think I will be dissapointed. He did his undergrad in Physical Education, running around a track and doing all that sort of stuff. He ended up furthering his education and realizing that he could dance and did a dance studies major in London, England. After that he was writing curriculum's for dance in Australia. He ended up moving back to New Zealand and is now pretty much a head of the Dance department. I really like his teaching stlye. It's very laid back, but organized and fun. It reminds me of the teaching styles of Veronica and Julia. All have the teaching style I aim for. Yesterday we had our first class of studio work. We sat in a circle before class and played the name game. You know that game. Here's an example: hi, I'm Haylee, and I like hippos! Ralph could have stopped us when class started, but instead he let us be. We didn't officially start the class until 10 or 15 minutes after we were supposed to. It was cool, because it created a certain vibe for the class. Everything was relaxed and we were just getting to know each other. He talked about improvisation and the fact that even though he had a lesson planned, in his head he quickly improvised and changed it. We will always have choices when we are teaching. We did some other activities that made me think a little more abstractly. I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate the contexts of the lesson he had. I won't bore you with anymore of that, because that's what my other journal is for, but lets just say this is exactly what I wanted to learn about.
Fireworks!
I forgot to tell you about the AMAZING display of fireworks we saw on Sunday, the night before our first day of classes. The chinese new years festival had been going on all weekend at Albert Park and I believe it was the last night of it. There was food, live music, and lanterns that were lit up all over. It was one of the most unique festivals I've seen. The fireworks started out just being like normal fireworks, but the finale was the just outstanding. They shot off firework after firework. The sky was lit up with my favorite ones too. The ones that are just white and trickle down and sparkle. I don't know what they're called, but they're HUGE! Fireworks aren't always my thing, but I loved it.
So sore.
Yesterday I shouldn't have done the "Pump" class at the Recreation Center. I went to my first hip hop class after that from 4-7pm and had a hard time keeping my arms out to the side. Oh well, it's worth it. I actually enjoy being sore in a weird way. I feel like I really did something then! The classes at the wellness center are really intense. They sure like making you sweat. Although that's pretty easy to do especially when a gym is not air conditioned! Eek! Back to my hip hop class....it focuses on "breaking." Breaking comes from the bronx whereas poplocking etc was first started in California. Different styles. Not to be confused with one another. I learned about top rocking and how to go down to the floor. We did a six step, CC's, and some stalls. If you're looking for a workout, breaking will make you sweat! It's a three hour class, but it seems like it will go by pretty quickly.
Right now.
I have been thinking about this weekend. I'm so excited! We have our Boyz Noize concert, Rebecca's 21st birthday, and the horse races! I think we're goin to get big hats today if we can find some at a thrift store.
XOXO
Haylee
So I just have to say I had class today from 9-10am and now have a break until 4pm. I'm sitting in the computer lab with my fake ray bans on because the sun is beating down on me. I'm so hot! Ugh. Gross. It fills up pretty fast in the lab. You can definitely tell that school is now in session. Today is Wednesday. Week one of class, third day in! I can't believe we have started school finally. I love my dance classes. (like I figured I would) My professor, Ralph Buck, is amazing. He is the reason I came to this school and I don't think I will be dissapointed. He did his undergrad in Physical Education, running around a track and doing all that sort of stuff. He ended up furthering his education and realizing that he could dance and did a dance studies major in London, England. After that he was writing curriculum's for dance in Australia. He ended up moving back to New Zealand and is now pretty much a head of the Dance department. I really like his teaching stlye. It's very laid back, but organized and fun. It reminds me of the teaching styles of Veronica and Julia. All have the teaching style I aim for. Yesterday we had our first class of studio work. We sat in a circle before class and played the name game. You know that game. Here's an example: hi, I'm Haylee, and I like hippos! Ralph could have stopped us when class started, but instead he let us be. We didn't officially start the class until 10 or 15 minutes after we were supposed to. It was cool, because it created a certain vibe for the class. Everything was relaxed and we were just getting to know each other. He talked about improvisation and the fact that even though he had a lesson planned, in his head he quickly improvised and changed it. We will always have choices when we are teaching. We did some other activities that made me think a little more abstractly. I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate the contexts of the lesson he had. I won't bore you with anymore of that, because that's what my other journal is for, but lets just say this is exactly what I wanted to learn about.
Fireworks!
I forgot to tell you about the AMAZING display of fireworks we saw on Sunday, the night before our first day of classes. The chinese new years festival had been going on all weekend at Albert Park and I believe it was the last night of it. There was food, live music, and lanterns that were lit up all over. It was one of the most unique festivals I've seen. The fireworks started out just being like normal fireworks, but the finale was the just outstanding. They shot off firework after firework. The sky was lit up with my favorite ones too. The ones that are just white and trickle down and sparkle. I don't know what they're called, but they're HUGE! Fireworks aren't always my thing, but I loved it.
So sore.
Yesterday I shouldn't have done the "Pump" class at the Recreation Center. I went to my first hip hop class after that from 4-7pm and had a hard time keeping my arms out to the side. Oh well, it's worth it. I actually enjoy being sore in a weird way. I feel like I really did something then! The classes at the wellness center are really intense. They sure like making you sweat. Although that's pretty easy to do especially when a gym is not air conditioned! Eek! Back to my hip hop class....it focuses on "breaking." Breaking comes from the bronx whereas poplocking etc was first started in California. Different styles. Not to be confused with one another. I learned about top rocking and how to go down to the floor. We did a six step, CC's, and some stalls. If you're looking for a workout, breaking will make you sweat! It's a three hour class, but it seems like it will go by pretty quickly.
Right now.
I have been thinking about this weekend. I'm so excited! We have our Boyz Noize concert, Rebecca's 21st birthday, and the horse races! I think we're goin to get big hats today if we can find some at a thrift store.
XOXO
Haylee
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