Dance in the eye of the performer by Ella Itah

A

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:04:28 UTC

In our creative collaborative project, we decided to do a survey among people of different age groups, some of whom are dancers and others who have no experience with dance, and ask them, 'How does dance make you feel?'. The concept is to see differences in people's answers and relate to dancing in different ways, some professionally, some as a hobby, or just as something that happens from time to time.

B

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:06:20 UTC

With this study, we want to observe how people from all backgrounds feel about dancing and how they approach it. Do those with more experience feel differently, or does inexperience actually make the dance more magical and simpler? Does age have an effect on how people feel about dance?

C

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:06:54 UTC

It appears from the interviewers' responses that kids view dancing mostly as a happy and enjoyable activity. Dancing in a professional context primarily creates stress for young people without experience. We also found that mature dancers manage to find a balance between the pressure of professional dancing and the joy that dancing brings them. According to a large number of the individuals we spoke with, dancing is an act of liberation, relaxation, escape from reality, and, most importantly, enjoyment and happiness. People shared that they use dance to express themselves through their bodies.

D

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:08:27 UTC

Originally, I wasn’t part of the decision about the idea for this project. When we were assigned the task earlier this year, I had a very hard time finding people and ideas that I felt comfortable teaming up with for this project. Due to the situation back home, I was struggling to stay focused in school, and I wanted to be around and team up with people who were close to me. After thinking long and hard about what to do and after talking to my friends, Abi was very generous and offered me to join her group. When they told me about their concept, I immediately felt connected to it. All three welcomed me with openness and treated me as a full partner in the project, sharing the idea with me and listening to my suggestions.

E

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:09:49 UTC

For this project, we used the series "On Pointe" as inspiration. "On Pointe" is a documentary series produced by Disney+ that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the School of American Ballet (SAB) in New York City. The show follows young ballet dancers as they pursue their dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. The dancers can be seen expressing their feelings about the ballet in the teaser. The trailer served as the basis for our project, which involved asking people about their feelings about dancing in order to gain insight into how dancers and non-dancers deal with the art form and how various factors, such as age or experience, affected the interviewees' responses. After watching the series a few years ago and seeing it again while creating the project, the show reveals that dancers often have a strong love for the art form, especially those receiving education at prestigious schools like the School of American Ballet. They put in endless hours of practice, in the studio, and on stage. Many dancers find happiness as well as fulfilment in using their bodies to express themselves. They can express ideas, narratives, and emotions in a powerful and original way through the art of dance. In addition, it appears that as the dancers grow and get closer to the professional world, the stress affects and reduces a little of the magic of the dance compared to younger dancers.

F

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:10:47 UTC

The video's visuals help to highlight the points made by the interviews. The clips show how many emotions are expressed via dance in a variety of styles, including modern, tap, ballet, hip-hop, and more. Dance has many aspects and attitudes, and everyone experiences it differently. This is further demonstrated by the fact that some people are joyful and enjoy it, while others are easily frustrated by it. We decided to use our own videos to make the project more personal and to show our journey.

G

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:11:39 UTC

To create the project, we divided the work into different parts between us so the work would be more efficient. Each one of us was in charge of a specific part to make the work easier for us.

Elena is the editor of the video. She was responsible for gathering all the materials we selected for the project into one video. As the editor, Elena had to arrange all the videos into one clip, add music, and place the recordings on top of the music.

Sophia is the producer of the project. She was responsible for organising the work on the video. She collected all the videos and pictures we gathered and sorted the recordings by age and whether they were dancers or not.

Abi and I were responsible for the timeline of the process. Since I am not in the same class as the others, we had to coordinate meetings outside of school hours so we could work on the video together. We were also responsible for setting deadlines for collecting the materials and determining what everyone needed to bring to each meeting.

H

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:12:23 UTC

In addition to our individual roles, we were all responsible for collecting photos and videos of ourselves and our relatives over the years, as well as interviewing people in different age groups and recording them.

I

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:13:13 UTC

As an interviewer, I thought a lot about who I wanted to interview for our project. I sat down with myself and thought about who I wanted to hear from and who would add value to the question we were asking. The first person that came to mind was Miriam Koffman, my ballet teacher for over a decade, the woman who raised and taught me from a young age and made me the person and dancer I am today. Miriam is an 86-year-old ballet teacher. She grew up in Israel and studied ballet at the Rembert School in London. She performed in a variety of ballets before returning to Israel to join the army and later, in 1957, found the 'Classical Ballet School—Miriam Koffman'. She has raised generations of successful dancers in Israel and around the world with an endless love for ballet, and she continues to do so today.

J

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:15:20 UTC

We conducted the interview by phone due to the distance. She shared that it is not safe for her to teach due to the situation in Israel and how much she misses dancing. When I asked her, 'How does dance make you feel?' She began to describe how she feels when she dances and how much she tries to pass on her love of ballet to the younger generation. In the full version of the recording, which is not included in the video, she says that she hopes I will follow her path and love dance as much as she does. This interview is one of the most moving memories I have of Miriam. Her honesty and dedication to ballet are simply admirable, and she is my role model. Her recording became very significant for me because since the interview, Miriam's health condition has not allowed her to continue teaching, which makes this recording a kind of commemoration of her way of teaching and her endless love for the profession and for teaching.

K

ellaitah31 — 2024-01-19 22:22:01 UTC

In conclusion, I feel like our team did a great job working together on this project. We learned a lot about the different attitudes people have towards dancing. Each one of us played an important part in this project, and I feel like we all managed to express ourselves in the creative process.

I feel that this collaborative project has given me new skills, such as giving a platform to the ideas of others while also being confident enough to express my own, knowing how to act in situations where there are limits for all members of the group, and creating a positive and dynamic work atmosphere. I've never taken part in a project like this before, but I'm sure I'll learn from it and be motivated by it in the future.