Duende!!!

So, today I had modern class and some recurring themes came up that I thought I share with you!! The concept that we have been talking about throughout the semester is that of duende. According to dictionary.com, duende is "the ability to attract others through personal magnetism and charm," but it's SO much more than that.

Duende is a way of life. It's what they call it when you are so passionate about something that it just explodes into every other area of your life. It is so important that you have some area in your life that you feel this way about. Otherwise, you will have nothing else to drive you and keep you moving when life seems hard.

For me and all the other dancers that I know, dance is the activity where I find and pour all of my duende into. It even comes to a point where I feel like if I don't put any of my personality into the steps, then I am not really dancing at all. Sometimes in a class the teacher throws out extremely hard steps that are so fast that they seem insurmountable. However, I have found that as long as you throw a little duende into the movement, it immediately become easier.

A dancer without duende is like a car without an engine- it won't work. Sure, technique is important, but it's not the most important thing. If the dancer does not show any sort of passion while dancing it makes it really boring for anyone who is watching. The people who get the jobs are the ones who convince the judges through their passion that they need to dance. They put so much emotion into it that the audience will think that if they didn't have the ability to do the movement, then they might just die.

So, even if you are not a dancer, you should still be using duende in some area of your life. If you do not have something that you are so passionate about that helps you get away from the world, then you need to look into some new activites. We are all human, and sometimes the best way to get through our struggles is to use a little duende and get away from the world for awhile.

ACDFA= Awesome

So, I'm sorry that i haven't written a post in a long time... but i was at ACDFA, and it was awesome. For those of you who don't know, ACDFA is a college dance festival that took place in Penn State this year. We spent the entire last part of spring break performing and taking master classes with other college students!!

Each college that went to the festival was allowed to bring two dance pieces maximum. All of the dances were then judged by three professionals and feedback was given in a session to all of the participants and choreographers. Then the judges pick ten dances or so dances that they like the most to perform in the final gala performance. This is such an honor because out of all the schools almost fifty dances were taken, so if you get chosen to be in this final concert, it was certainly one of the best.

The pieces that Eastern brought to be judicated were called "No Pictures Please!!!" and "Full Woman." The first piece was a solo, performed by Evelyn, and it was really wonderful. She thought of the choreography by herself, and it was really strong and appropriate to the idea of her piece. She is such a strong dancer that the piece really represented Eastern well. The judges also really liked it and gave great feedback, but unfortunately, it was not chosen to be in the Gala. The other piece, "Full Woman," that I was in, also did very well. All of the judges loved it and gave great feedback for the choreographer. They loved it so much that they chose it to be one of the pieces in the Gala performance!! This was the first time that this has ever happened to Eastern University, so it was such an honor to be a part of the cast. Because we were chosen to perform, we were put in the same league as Point Park and other schools with pre-professional dance programs which is such a great honor. Eastern's dance program is still just getting started so this honor will make the dance program a lot more recognizable and appreciated as a dance school.

So having our school go to ACDFA was definitely a success. An epic win even!