Red Flag Journal 6-5-14

How much time did you spend on your project?
This week I spent a total of 5 hours on my project.

What did you do that was hands-on?
This week I made a lot of progress. Bella and I finished the routine and worked on cleaning it. Cleaning a dance means that you go step by step to make sure you and your partner are doing the exact same movement in-sync. I also had to change up the music a tiny bit so I worked on cleaning that up as well. We met at the Y again last night and made great progress.

What research did you do?
I went on Youtube and watched a couple dance videos this week. I have the links posted at home, but I was searching for an idea about how to end a dance. Turns out, it clicked in my head and we have a great ending to our dance.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
No meeting with a mentor this week.

Do you have at least 3 journal entries? Do your journal entries include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
I have the minimum of three journal entries this week. They describe my hands-on work that I accomplished this week, as well as my hard work that I put into cutting the music and finishing the piece.

Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
Yes I was in class this week, but I did not use my journal. The activity in class was more a use of hand-on activities such as evaluating Tyler.

Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was: Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
I am so proud of what I did this week! Although one duet my not seem like a lot of work over the course of 16 weeks, but you have to understand the different skill levels Bella and I are at. This being said, it was very challenging to choreograph certain moves that would look good on both of our abilities. A duet is also one of the most difficult pieces to choreograph in the dance world because in a group dance, it is easier to hide someone in the back say if they didn't know the choreography. However, a duet is much more complicated because two people are shown at all times and if they are not always perfectly together, than that may look very strange.

What are your plans for next week?
I plan on finishing up the paper due for next week, as well as having one more rehearsal time for Bella and I. It will be the last rehearsal before we have to perform so it is mandatory! I am also going to start on my power point presentation and gather all my bibliography's at home and make a works cited!

Bella Cullota

This is a photo of Bella with her stage makeup on. Although it may look like a lot of makeup for such a young girl, it is very important to have dark makeup while being on stage. It allows the audience to see your facial expression as you are performing. Since Bella and I will have a small audience on the day of my presentation, we won't be wearing such heavy makeup. We wouldn't want to scare the audience away! 😉

WISE presentation

After watching Tyler Frike's presentation this past Monday, I learned a lot of techniques that I can use while giving my presentation. Today in class we viewed his strengths as well as his weaknesses. When giving my presentation, I will try to avoid reading from all the sides the given information. Although Tyler had some weaknesses, he also had many positive aspects. I really enjoyed the way he connected his stock market investing project to his family. When he have personal stories about him and Matt it made it way more personable and funny. Even though the stock market is a somewhat boring topic, Tyler made it interesting with his charisma and his charm that won the crowd over. 

Dedicated dancer

Bella and I are finished! We successfully finished our routine for my project. The dance is absolutely gorgeous. As I was dancing full out today it felt amazing, and I could tell Bella was feeling it as well. She has gotten so used to the style of dance I have portrayed to her that it makes me so happy! Her movement is so flowy and light and looks so elegant as she moves across the floor. I'm so happy she got to do this with me. Today we also danced to the cut version of the music which went super well. The music was clean cut and crisp and sounded awesome. Not only did Bella have a rehearsal with me, but she had a five hour long dress rehearsal right after mine. Hair, costume, the whole shabang! I did her makeup for her which I'm going to post on my next post as well as her hair. I'm so thankful to have Bella to count on. She really came through for me. Not only did she attend every rehearsal, she also had a great time which is the best part of this whole experience! I'm so so happy with the outcome. 

Red Flag 5-29-14

How much time did you spend on your project?
This week I spent 8 hours working on my project.

What did you do that was hands-on?
This week, I spent a majority of my time figuring out how to cut my music for my dance. I've cut music before, but I wanted certain parts of the lyric to be in a different place of the song, so figuring that out took me awhile. Easily, I spent four hours working on it. My cousin bought me a tutorial type thing to help me cut music four years ago, and I never really opened it or tried to do it, but I used it for this and it was awesome!

What research did you do?
I spent time researching whats the best music cutter like that, I have the website documented at home but I didn't make a blog post about all my research yet. I plan on getting that all together soon because I have the information at my house.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
I still have not met with Mrs. Pearl. I'm nervous to talk to her.


Do you have at least 3 Journal entries? Do your journal entries include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
I only have 2 journal entries this week so far. On the 7-8 hour bus ride for the Senior Trip, I plan on getting a lot of blogs done instead of sleeping or staring out the window.

Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
I was not in class this week.

Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was : Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
Although it may not look like it from my lack of journals, but I am feeling very accomplished and ready. Bella is really grasping the idea of my choreography and it makes me feel very productive. It is hard to document certain things that happen in the dance studio, it's more of a watching and learning type deal. I have had so much fun doing this dance, I'm so glad that I chose this for my WISE presentation.

Attire

Bella and I had a very nice rehearsal yesterday. We discussed the performance and the aspects that go along with it. We decided on a costume, and we believe we know what we want to wear. I decided that we both should wear red. This red with symbolize the evil in me because I want Bella to do everything that I do. I figured she should start out wearing red as well during the whole lyric when it says "I feel lovely" because this states that she is not certain whether or not she is actually beautiful. Until the lyric changes to "I AM lovely", she will then take her red dress off as a symbol as independence. I think she should be wearing white underneath the red. The perfect part of this all is that I have all these costumes from previous dances, so reusing these will be the perfect thing to do!

The surprise

As I mentioned in my last blog, I got a nice visit from Bella's mom during our last rehearsal last week. She usually waits in the car upon Bella's arrival, but I feel that she was very interested in what was going on and what magic was being made during that rehearsal. She came up, and it was unexpected to me. I've known Bella and her mom for quite some years so to me it wasn't awkward. She quietly creeps in with a smile on her asking if she is allowed to watch. I thought this would be a fantastic idea. Performing in front of an audience that you're comfortable with is always a good idea to get you prepared for the real show. I thought this might help Bella prepare too, seeing that she is a little nervous to perform in front of some of her school peers. She watched and gazed in awe as we moved across the floor. Bella's mom as always referred to me as a role model to Bella, so seeing me improve some of Bella's dancing really made her happy. She thought the dance was beautiful and she was very proud of what we accomplished. I think Bella's moms visit really gave me assurance that I was doing the right thing, and doing it well!