The relaxation exercises with Mr. Ondrej has slowly merged into a combination of the ones we did on the previous lessons. It was amazing that my body stretched with a larger angle as we repeated the exercise. The concept of “repetition” itself seemed to be pretty dry, but I found it meaningful since I could actually feel the improvement through the process. For today’s “touching-moving” exercise, it supposed to be “usual” for us to know how to control every part of our body, but I came into a realization that the statement of “what you thought you can do, you can do” is no longer necessary a truth. When Daniel touched a part of my body, (I assume it’s because our muscles, bone, and tendon are connected to one another), even though I tried so hard not to move that specific part, it still triggered the muscles from other parts. It was a new exploration/discovery to the movement of our bodies. Apart from those, one thing that has changed was the background music. The overall atmosphere was more upbeatting, and I started observing the excitement and joy has shown from other people’s action. I love the way how Mr. Ondrej built a transition from “slow to quick” and “calm to exhilarating” for transitioning lessons to lessons.

Reading about Hector Xtravaganza’s story today, I felt the beauty of vogue has become a whole new level for me to appreciate it. I was originally attracted due to the representation of the dancers’ “sassiness”, but the tragic stories behind these dancers has struck me greatly. As my understating went deeper on the experiences that these voguers has gone through, I can’t imagine how much obstacles and grit they had in order to pass down this culture. Move on to the costume picking. Professor Trajal offered us two choices: Medea in the morning mourning and ready to slay and Choral leader serving bad news in flower power. Depending on what costume the room has, I had ideas on both of them, but later I finally decided to do the second one after an overview on all the costumes. I viewed the elements in the descriptions singularly (Choral leader, bad news, flower, and power) and wished to make obvious to the audience that any piece on my clothing has its own meaning on these words (and of course, not to forget the “time period” of the setting and the input of “greek culture” in the play). Hopefully, the message that I want to convey will be able to deliver to others. I will definitely explain thoroughly the reason why I used each of them in tomorrow’s journal.

“Appropriation” and “research (referencing),” these two topics were revolved throughout Professor Debra’s lecture today. I personally thought not only in the case of dancing, the research for any form of art is the overall experience of the artist. The popular understanding of this word— focusing on scholarly approval articles and videos— is surely not the only source. As art is commonly known as a more abstract subject, it is understandable that some particular feeling and experience are hardly transform into words. Without personally involving in the situation, I felt it is difficult for a person truly understand what the experience is, and how it influences the person. Moreover, since people may learn or have similar experience with other, the line of plagiarism or coincidence to an art piece is unclear. Later on, though I did not really engage verbally during the discussion, I did enjoy how Professor Debra led the class from the readings to the topic of “cultural appropriation.” Being a person who “over-cares” about other people’s feeling, I constantly question about the idea of “appropriation” in my everyday life (does not necessarily have to be cultural. “Sexual” can be considered as well). For example, while describing a situation, I tend to use two pronouns— he or she— at the same time, in order to avoid the possibility of being mistaken about that person’s gender identity. In the cultural scale, it became even more complicated in an extend of human having so many different cultures. A fixed standard of people judging whether others treat a cultural practice for a reference to an art work (ex. Combing with another cultural practice or adding elements) as an appreciation, mockery, or simply ignorance does not really exist. To conclude, I believe no matter the piece have been inspired by a singular concept or object, tracing down its history, being aware of giving credits, and understanding/experiencing it completely is a “must-do” process for all the artists.