18th class

Today, we learned a fairly easy choreo today that consisted of a lot of hip hop grooves. I think this was because we had two new people in the class. It was fairly easy and fun, and I had no problems keeping up, I added my own style when grooving. I also noticed that I got better at "marking" the choreo. It is when we listen to the music, and watch the teacher do the choreo. While that is happening, we would either follow along with short movements, or just think about it. It is used to learn which parts of the song matches with the choreo. So basically, I got better at practicing while following along. The next thing I would need to do is choose and/or create choreography that I will use for my Senior Presentation.


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 19 hrs
Yesh.

-Austin Gumban

17th class

Today, I showed my mentor the choreo that was started last week. In the previous post, I failed to mention that one of the criteria she gave us for creating the choreo was to do something on the floor. So to fulfill that criteria, I just kneeled on my knees, did a simple spin, and stood up. Overall, the choreo was pretty short. It was only about 15 seconds long.
The choreo we learned today was to a rock song, to add a little variety. But just because it's to a different song genre rather than something such as hip hop or dubstep, doesn't mean that we would have to overall change the style. For example, it was somewhat just like a hip hop choreography. Another thing, was that this choreo was very fast. So I worked on trying to be sharper. But that was hard to do since I had trouble keeping up with this choreo. I just need to get better at learning "hard hitting" and fast choreos quicker.

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 18 hrs
Yesh.

-Austin Gumban

16th class

 Today, we didn't really learn any new choreography. Instead, my mentor played a song over and over again, and told the class to create choreography to it. She gave us a few tips beforehand, and sent us on way to creating choreo. It was hard for me to do something like that because I felt awkward making things up and trying them in front of other people. But my mentor noticed, and told me that everyone was doing the same thing, and I shouldn't worry about being embarrassed. It helped a little, but I still felt self conscious. In the end, I only made a few seconds of choreo due to "dancer's block." So she told us to finish the choreography at home, and show it next week. So I guess my next project would be on creating the choreography for this class.

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 17 hrs
Yesh.

-Austin Gumban

15th Class

Today I learned another piece to a dubstep song. Nothing much was different. Just practiced retaining info, motions, and body awareness. I kept up fairly easily because it was in my area of comfort. Of course I had some problems though. For instance, there was a part in the song where we do a series of quick movements. I had it down fairly easily at first, but it was sloppy. I was told that I could do it fine, but I need to do it sharper, which means that I would need to be a bit faster and more precise. Except it's hard to do that since it would be similar flailing around like a robot. So basically I need to work on being sharp and on point when at the necessary areas of the songs and choreos. I think I'm continuing to make progress as I learn more choreography. I also plan on creating a lyrical choreography, rather than to a choreo that ignores the lyrics that is just to the beats.

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 17 hrs
Yesh.

-Austin Gumban

14th Class

Today I learned another hip hop style choreo that wasn't too hard. I believe that I got even better at focusing on myself, rather than looking at other people. Although we learned a lot of choreography, I never fell behind, even though hip hop isn't exactly my forte. Since I was on par with everybody else, I was able to fix small details without worry of losing focus for upcoming new parts of choreo. I think I'm gradually getting better at retaining new info, choreography-wise. It seems like my mentor doesn't need to focus on me as much lately because I have been keeping up for the most part. But every now and then I miss some details that she corrects. For example, sometimes when in a choreo, there might be a part where we would just be standing. She would tell me that I need to have my feet together, and when I would look in the mirror, there would be some space in between my feet. So I need to work more on being aware of what I'm doing with my body.

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 16 hrs
Yesh.

-Austin Gumban

13th Class

Today I learned another choreo to dubstep song. It was fast, but more of my style, so it seemed like I learned it easier than normal. Sadly this will be my last day of going to the AOV training classes on thursdays due to badminton games. Also, tomorrow, I will have no class, because my mentor and her crew are going to a competition over the weekend. I also started on creating the choreography earlier this week, but i didn't like it. So I'm thinking about scrapping it, and creating something new. Until then, I will continue to practice the choreo I have learned, and work on creating my own.

Oh, and yaaay, i finished 15 hours!

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 15 hrs
Yeh. 15 hours come see me.

-Austin Gumban

12th Class

Today we learned a somewhat simple and chill choreography that was mostly just simple hip hop grooves. It was a nice break from the hard hitting, fast choreos that I would normally learn. The reason why it was simple, was because it would be taught to the kids auditioning for their youth team tomorrow, on Saturday. Since the choreo was simple, I could focus more on being precise and not looking at others. At the end of the class, I was able to perform the choreography without looking at others. Although it was simple, it still felt nice to be able to do the choreography and focus on other things such as expression, and adding my own style.
I still need to start on that choreography... -.- I just dont know where to start...


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 14 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

11th Class

Today, I learned a choreography that was made by my mentor, although it it was someone else teaching the class. There were a lot of other people in the class there too, some even in the Academy of Villains crew. This choreo was seemingly even faster and harder than the previous two choreos, combined. -__- All of the people had trouble learning it. Even the person instructing said that it took her about three days to learn it. I ended up being able to do about half of it somewhat okay, but the rest i did badly and messy. The main problem for me this time... was performing it. But that's normal since it was hard, so the next problem I would say that was significant... is memorization, again. I was watching other people again, but eventually I realized what I was doing. So I kept on reminding myself to focus on the mirror and see what I was doing. I think it somewhat helped, but I kept on getting lost, so I had to watch the instructor as we practiced it. At the end of class, we ended up not being able to learn all of the choreo. I need to focus on myself more when I dance.

I still haven't started on making the choreo yet...


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 13 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

10th Class

Today I went to the AOV Company Class Series workshop, where they have rotating instructors. This class would take the place of the Hip Hop Choreo class I normally go to on Fridays. The Friday class was cancelled because the youth team at the studio will have a competition on Saturday, and they have to rehearse all day on Friday. So today, the class was taught by the assistant director of the youth team. We learned a fast paced choreo that hit both the beats and lyrics. It was even faster than the choreo taught by my mentor, but I managed to pull through. I ended up being able to perform the choreo... badly. When I say that, I mean that I was very messy and not focused when doing the choreo. I noticed myself, that whenever we would dance the choreography, I would always be looking at other people to see what would be next. So since I would be looking around and not focusing, my expression most likely wouldnt be right, and I wouldnt be concentrating on what I am doing. I would be playing a game of catch-up. I still need to work on memorization. -.-

I'm thinking about using the song "Right In by Skrillex" for my choreo attempt number one...

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 12 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

9th Class

Today I went to the Hip Hop Choreography class taught by my mentor. Since the same people that attended last weeks class were there again, she asked if we wanted to review the choreo we learned last week and learn the second part, or learn something entirely new. We ended up reviewing the really hard choreo that we learned last week. Even though I knew the choreo, I still had trouble keeping up with the fast song. On top of that, she choreographed the moves to the lyrics. In the song the guy is rapping, so we had to move fast while still looking good and clean. She noticed I was having trouble, so she told me that the point of class wasn't to just learn choreography, but to improve the ability to retain and learn choreography while watching for the small details. In the end, I was able to do about half of the minute long choreography somewhat well. Although thirty seconds may not seem like a great amount of time, for a piece of choreography, it is somewhat long. Just to gain a perspective, it took a whole hour just to teach one half of the choreo (30 sec) last week. It takes long, because when teaching it, you would have to break down every move step by step, and review it over and over so the people being taught can learn the choreo. Then when actually doing it, one would have to perform the choreography while remembering all the small details, such as facial expression, angles of your arms, and positioning of other body parts. Making and learning choreography takes a long time. At the moment, I'm still looking for a song that I would want to try and choreograph to. So maybe I'll find one by next week.


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 11 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

8th Class

So today I learned a set that was performed at their crew's most recent competition at VIBE. It was to the song Everlong, by the Foo Fighters. It's a song that's mostly acoustic, yet they still made a robotic/popping choreo to the song. In the video of their performance, it fit well at the end because of the background story they set up in the beginning. Other than that, I had a fairly easy time learning the set because I'm used to robotic types of dancing. Although I think I did pretty good, I, of course, still had some problems. One of the biggest problems I believe I had was that I looked awkward in some parts. This is because some of the moves had us in awkward poses. For example, at one point in the song we would have our legs slightly bent, our arms up, and our head slightly tilted to the side. Normally, I would do fine with just that; but we didn't just stay in that pose. In one instance we had to rock our bodies back and forth by lifting one ankle while putting weight on the other, then lifting the other ankle while moving the weight to the other side. Even more, we had to keep our upper body completely stiff, like a robot. When I saw myself in the mirror doing that specific move, I looked so awkward. When I saw my instructor doing the movement, she looked so smooth doing it. I guess that's another thing I need to work on. So... I need to stop looking awkward, and work on memorizing choreo better and faster.

Also... I think I know what song I'll make my first choreography to... it'll be a popping choreo to a dubstep song... so once I confirm the song I'll use, ill post up the title in my next post. :)

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 10 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

7th Class

So today I went to the hip hop class I normally go to on Friday's, except this time my mentor was back from the competition their crew was at so i could finally learn from her. The previous instructors all said that her class was amazing, and they were right. We learned a very fast paced choreo which i could barely keep up with. Although I couldn't keep up with it, it would be good because it is even more of a push. If I practice it enough, and eventually get it, I would think it would be a great benchmark for my progress. But again, a factor which i would blame on why i couldn't keep up, was because of my memory. -.- Since my mentor was there, I was finally able to ask her some questions I've been wanting to ask. One of the things I asked, was simply, "How do I get better at memorizing the choreography?" She answered by simply saying that I should just keep dancing more. A big part of it, she said, was muscle memory. That, and the more choreography I learn, the more I would get better, because it would be a good practice to memorize choreography. An analogy I can come up with, is just like playing the piano. The more I would play something, the more i would be able to remember, and if I practice learning difficult songs, I would eventually be able to play them. So the music I would be learning on the piano is just like the dance choreography. Another important question that I asked, was, "How do you go about making choreography?" She said that she first chooses a song that she likes, because if you don't like the song you are about to choreograph to, then the choreography would probably reflect that. Then she would freestyle to the song, and remember things that she did that she liked. Then she would eventually end up to a point where she has choreo to the part of the song she wanted. After, she would put it into counts to make it easier to teach to larger groups, although most of the time she prefers using sound effects within the song, like saying "boom" and "kat" for the bass drum and snare within a song, respectively. After talking a bit more about other things dance related, I told her that I would be making a choreo, and she said she would be able to critique me on it. I would start first with a popping choreography because I'm used to popping, and eventually I would want to be able to create and perform a hip hop choreo with "swag" ...... but for now, what song should I use...

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 9 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

6th Class

So today I went to the AOV training camp again, and learned another choreo. It was the same instructor that I had in my second class. This time there were other guys there that used to be apart of the crew there... I think. But they learned faster than me, and things like those push me to do better. I kept up for the most part, except I would occasionally forget to do a move, and once that happens, I would be behind. So I would have to skip a move, or do things faster(which looks weird) to catch up. They recorded us as a group doing the choreo, and everybody was on point, except me because I forgot a certain part. I stood out a lot because I fell behind slightly, so it looked out of phase. -.- Darn. I need to work on that memory problem.


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 8 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

5th Class

So today I took the Hip Hop class again, that was supposed to be taught by my mentor, but they were at the VIBE competition. I learned another Hip Hop choreo, and this time, the choreo was to an even faster paced song than before. But I kept up. I think I actually am getting better... but I'm sure I could still improve. For example, according to the instructors, I've been told the same thing multiple times: I need to expand my body when I dance. What they mean by this, is that when we, for example, do a move where we extend our arms, I don't extend my arms out all the may. So the move looks less dynamic, possibly taking energy away from the routine. I think It's again, because I am a popper. But I'll work on that. But I also need to work on memorizing the movements to the routine better. Because If i can memorize it faster, I could work on the small details, so I could look better when I perform. The sub for the class said that my mentor will be back for sure next week. I'm looking forward to her class, because all the past instructors I was taught by said that her class was amazing.

Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 7 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

4th Class

So this class was another AOV training camp. This time the instructor was a guy, and we learned some more new style hip hop choreo. Either the choreo was easier, or I am getting better, but it seemed to me that i was following along with the lesson better compared to last weeks hip hop class. So I have my mentors Hip Hop class tomorrow. Except I think there will be a person subbing for her again, because their crew is at the VIBE dance competition in Los Angeles. But I guess I'll for sure find out tomorrow... I need to start on making choreo. -.-


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr
Time Logged In Total: 6 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

3rd Class

So today I went to my 3rd class. It was basically more of the same thing... except that it was a hip hop class, and there were other people there, in contrast to the other classes which taught a popping choreography which I took alone. Sadly it wasn't my mentor teaching the class because she had to plan for their crews upcoming show at a competition that day. Normally, my style of dancing is to be stiff because I would be considered a popper. I would freestyle doing things such as isolations, waving, tutting and robotics. But the class I took, was entirely different from my style. It was a Hip Hop choreography class. The choreo I learned had much more movement, and took me out of my comfort zone of isolations. The choreo was very hard-hitting (It hit a lot of beats, hard) and lyrical (movements to the lyrics that made sense), which meant that I had to move, alot. Furthermore, the other people in the class, learned the choreography really fast. When the instructor did a move, they imitated the move almost instantly. There was even a little girl there that learned the choreo faster than me! It kind of discouragd me... but at the same time it made me want to get better.
So next week I have classes again on Thursday and Friday again. The Thursday class has rotating instructors, and hopefully on Friday my mentor would be teaching the class on Friday. The next time I meet with my mentor I'll talk to her about the process of making choreo and how I should start.


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr 30 min
Time Logged In Total: 5 hrs
Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

2nd Class

So I went to the A.O.V training camp class again today. Since the class has rotating instructors, it was a different person teaching the class. I was the only one again, but I think thats better than a class of ten or more people. It was basically the same thing, we stretched first, then I learned a choreo after, but I learned a different choreo than last time. It was from one of their shows that they performed at World of Dance. I registered as a student at the studio, and payed for the rest of the classes for the month, so it's cheaper. Tomorrow, I'll be going to my mentor's class for the first time, to learn more choreo. Then I'll ask her about making choreo, and how she does it. Can't wait to start making choreo to different songs and then show her and others there for feedback. I'm kinda excited.


Time Logged This Time: 2 hrs
Time Logged In Total: 3 hrs 30 min

Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban

1st Class

Well I went to my first class at the House of Mayhem on Thursday. The class was the A.O.V. training camp, which has rotating instructors, so it wasn't with my mentor, and I would be able to learn a wide variety of styles. It was pretty cool, I was the only one there at the time, even though normally there are more people. So since I was the only one there, it was kind of awkward... at first. Eventually I got used to it, and I guess it was better, since the instructor primarily focused on me, with no distractions. As for the class, the first thing we did was warm up by stretching and doing drills that the Academy of Villains (AOV, the dance crew there) does. After that, he taught me a popping choreo that they performed for one of their shows. It was to a dubstep song, I never asked the song name though... but it was pretty dope. Eventually I would want to be able to make choreography like that, and maybe even better choreo. In the meantime... I think I would be going to classes on Thursday, for the AOV training camp with rotating instructors, and on Friday, for the Hip Hop Choreo class that my mentor teaches. But tomorrow I won't able to go to her class because I have plans to go to the winter guard concert at school. So... yeah. I wonder whats in store for me at the next class I attend next week....


Time Logged This Time: 1 hr 30 min
Time Logged In Total: 1 hr 30 min

Yeh. I wonder how many hours ima total up...

-Austin Gumban