I think it's more important than what the exact definition of dance itself but my thought of what dance is because it will affect the direction of my dance and I believe I'll at least figure out more about this question through my study.

My theme was 'breathing' .

The reason why I chose this to represent myself was I couldn't say which thing I like, or who I am. Before the semester I had no problem  saying, "oh, I like this and I'm this kinds of person and I dance like this". But especially at this time I was maybe a bit depressed and I didn't want to label myself. 

After I excluded all things, all I had left was the fact I'm still breathing no matter how I am now. 

I tried to show 'breathing' through diverse visual scenes including the scene containing the meaning of breathing without verbally. 

It helped me to understand what a motive means and how to show the motive throw motions.

Some parts are fixed choreographed but

except for that part, we planned to improvise based on associations. It was possible because we had a plan for when and what points we were expressing. Such as the part where we are in a diagonal line and show an image of a catching star (00:20) and from (01: 29) is mostly improvisation based on the plan. 

We also tried to not just represent the associations but bland them in to the dance (01:21)

This project was a good chance to explore a new tool of improvisation and helped a lot to understand what is structured improv and taught us that we have a diverse way to appreciate music. 

I had no background knowledge in the Singapore dance scene and it was a very good chance to get information and realized that I need to do more research myself and keep my eyes on there. Through this class, I got interested in Sigma Contemporary Dance and planned to join their 'Open Jam' which is an improved collaboration with music and dance. I felt they support artists to express themselves. 

I was also informed that we do have associations and theaters where they support dancers by lending spaces such as NICA. 

You construct and plan improvisation by associations before you start and based on the graph, you explore the associations through your body.  

We tried to combine ballet to make it easier to friends who are new to this genre. 

It was a good exploration by breaking the boundary of "cultural dance" and a chance to be more creative. 

We planned nothing and went wherever our feet took us and did whatever our mind wanted to do to interact with the places.  At the end, we ended up somewhere we didn't expect to be.  A journey like this, without purpose to reach somewhere was relaxing and freed my mind and widened the possibility to be more creative in this project.  

The last theme was isolated, being alone and in a circumstance where nobody understand me. I remember that after this class, our mood was quite depressed, drowsy and we shared each other's feeling and talked about our future in dance. It was so mentally stimulated and a interesting expression moment. I was reminded of the fact how strong these artistic activities actually influences our mind and body. 

+drawings I did 

It's not the final version but we are planning to finish based on the feedback and our thoughts. There are quite a lot to consider but by our motto, we draft and organize thoughts based on the themes.  

The Body image issue is so strong and problematic in the dance community. Dancers are easily distracted by their body image in a negative way.

Our group was talking about this study, In Korea, based on three major dance genres which are Ballet, Modern and Korean traditional dance, the researchers did a survey on Korean students in dance major, and in all majors, they said they want slimmer bodies than currant their bodies. It shows why eating disorders are quite common in the dance community. 

I never had a class to talk about this issue in schools and I and Bella were sharing experiences and could relate each other's feelings and struggles. Ms. Leia was questioning deeper and deeper to think more why this situation happened but I couldn't answer at the end because I thought it's just natural before this class. I think for now what I can do is I just focus on dance itself rather than the look through my body portions. It takes a lot of effort to change inwards and outwards mind sets but we need to still fight with the judgmental estimation for all our mental and body health.

Freelancers are more open to get any chances to get jobs or shows.

Independent artists are more focused on branding themselves and make their own artworks.

If I'm not getting into a company, these can be choices to continue my dance life. It sounds a bit tiring and unstable but exciting to be an independent artist because I like to make my own arts but I'm open to getting any chances to work to grow and be responsible for my financial issues.