AS (art special) is a program offered to us by our school. In this program, we were asked to choose an art of our interest. We were provided multiple options like vocals, keyboard, guitar, drums, drama, dance, Bharatanatyam, cooking and much more. We had to take a AS and learn that for the entire year, and at the end, we had to give a performance to show what we have learned to our parents, classmates and teachers. It was called AS performance. Dance was one thing that I always enjoyed doing, thought I was too good at it I decided to learn and get better at it. I had learned dance earlier but this time I wanted to learn a different style. I really like dance because it would help me show my emotions in a different and a better way. I had selected DEP (Dance education program) in which we choose to learn freestyle form of dance in the year 2017-2018.

LO 1: identify own areas of strengths and develop areas of growth

As I said, I loved dancing but I did not practice a lot, so it had never been an easy task for me.

But when I started dancing i learnt that some steps and stunts were pretty easy for me. I had good flexibility. So decided to learn things I was not that good at. I practiced and developed skills for those steps. For example, if doing hip-hop, you should showcase the required energy or aggression demanded by the performance or the song. I was happy that I choose dance as i got the opportunity to learn these new styles, steps and improve my dance. It helped me overcome my weakness of performing on stage. I am a person, who is more comfortable while doing more of a freestyle which includes contemporary and normal dancing, a dance which doesn’t need much of a style, a dance which needs grace and is on songs which I completely enjoying singing. Thus, this is all a reason why I chose DEP in my AS so as to overcome my weakness or so as strengthen my strengths.

LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The difficulties I faced were lack of confidence, maintaining my energy level and remembering the steps. As I said before it was difficult for me to perform in front of audience and also perform solo during my classes. I could not show what I had learnt in a good and a confident way. Even if sometimes I remember all my steps I could not show it to my teacher or parents. I use to continuously think what if I forget my steps or do not do them correctly, people would laugh at me and i would have to get embarrassed and this thought process would go on while dancing which distracted me and stopped me from giving a nice and clean performance. The solution given to me by my teacher was that I should practice in front of the mirror and look at myself which actually helped me a lot. My confidence level went high and i could showcase my learning in a more effective way. The second difficulty was maintaining my energy level. As we were learning hip hop style my difficulty of keeping the energy level to the same during the practices it was difficult. So I use to see the video and practice at home continuously so that I could increase my capacity. I was fun overcoming this challenge. The third challenge was remembering the steps. While I was increasing my capacity of dancing I was practicing the dance though to us which again helped me to remember my steps. I did that like twice before my next class because we 1 class every 8 days which made it more difficult for us to remember our steps. It was fun practicing at home and increased my interest in dance.

LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

 This activity requires commitment in remembering the steps, maintaining the energy level and keeping patience. As dance cannot be taught in a day it needs time to be learnt. In this case patience is the most important thing. However, showing commitment helped me to learn how to balance your time and focus what is necessary, which would also help me in my future. I can like getting committed to things I am interested in and I show a better performance in those things. And when those obstacles appear, it is very easy to lose belief and step down, and that is where our dedication and perseverance keep us motivated to continue the path and attain our goal.

This activity has helped me a lot to improve. It was fun learning from this activity and I wish to use them in future