As a senior in the creative writing major, sometimes I just need a break from reading literature and writing essays. I only have 39 credits for my major so I took advantage of electives and signed up for various dance classes at Seton Hill University (SHU).
Sometimes it is just nice to get away from the desk and create beats using my feet, experience poetry in lyrical music or tell a story using body movements.
By Mike Diezmos,
Photo Editor
As a senior in the creative writing major, sometimes I just need a break from reading literature and writing essays. I only have 39 credits for my major so I took advantage of electives and signed up for various dance classes at Seton Hill University (SHU).
Sometimes it is just nice to get away from the desk and create beats using my feet, experience poetry in lyrical music or tell a story using body movements.
I learned skills for communication. If I ever need to send secret messages without using words, I could always tap out the Morse code. I became cognizant of basic steps of tap in simple movements such as walking and brushing the snow off one’s shoes. My quantitative reasoning improved dramatically; I could count from one to eight and used the letters �n� and �a� in between whole numbers as intervals in order to keep a steady rhythm.
I became historically and globally aware. Musical theatre dance is a form of art history. Both went through phases, such as the Renaissance, and both mirrored societal issues through the arts.
I can go to Paris, France and strike up a conversation with a French citizen in a caf� and talk all day about frappe and coupe. The ironic thing about ballet dancers is that they are not as fragile as they look. Ballet is a violent dance, which involves a lot of beating of the leg and striking of the foot. Behind the gauze and taffeta is harnessed energy with a potential for destruction.
During the Snow Queen Ballet rehearsals, I was reminded of Degas’s ballet paintings, which incorporated negative spaces popular in Japanese woodblock prints.
In jazz class, it is important to be open-minded to different styles of dance such as hip-hop, lyrical, and classical jazz. I can learn how to find my center and balance so that energy from within can emanate all the way through the tips of my fingers.
Lee Ann Womack sang �I hope you dance.� Why not? Do not worry about your GPA; there is always the �Pass or Fail� option.
If you have room in your schedule, take dance classes or other electives offered at SHU. What have you got to lose? You might as well use up all 17 credits allotted to you in your tuition.
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