Spinning Misconceptions
The music pounded loudly on the dance floor as people stood in a circle. Nodding my head to the beat, I stepped out and did a few dance steps before I went down to the ground. On my hands and legs, I began walking rounds to the beat, throwing in a little bit of flare to it all, as much flare as I could think of. A few moments into the step, I jumped onto my hands and twisted my legs in the air. Freeze! So far, the crowd seemed silent; they just casually watched me mess around as if I was making a fool of myself, for it looked so simple to them. After some more dance steps, I jumped onto my right forearm and split my legs in the air above my head. Freeze number two! The hard-to-please crowd gave little response. I find it very difficult to dance to a crowd who shows such little response: neither positive nor negative feedback. So I jumped into the move that they gave their attention to see. I did a windmill: I rolled around on the floor as I swung my legs around in the air. The crowd finally gave me cheers of satisfaction.
From the few years I learned about the break-dancing culture, I discovered a drastic difference between the popular view of the dance and an actual break-dancer’s view. Most misperceive the dance to be a bag of fancy aerobic tricks; however, the dance is more than that, for it includes the profound creative expression that makes it a unique portion of the hip hop culture.
The first response I notice from people when I say that I break-dance is the emphasis on spinning on the head or just plain old spinning around. Flares (a gymnastic move where the dancer swings his legs around with only arms as support), head-spins, and other flashy moves are the main thing people associate with break dancing. “What, break-dance? What, you can spin on your head?” is an extremely common response. When people watch any type of breaking, they anticipate the showy stuff. Most have a superficial view of the dance and lack the profound appreciation for the art and culture.
I find that people unconsciously categorize the dance into two parts: moves they think they can do, and moves they wished they could do.
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Mackerras, Colin. “June Fourth.” Dictionary of the Politics of the People’s Republic of China. 1st ed. 1998.
Salisbury, Harrison E., and Jean-Claude Suarès. China: 100 Years of Revolution. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1983. Print.
In the minds of Chinese people, Deng Xiaoping is considered as one of the most powerful leader of the People’s Republic of China from late 1970’s until he died in 1997. His noteworthy efforts to bring back China’s prosperity following the consequences of the Cultural Revolution resulted in the country’s economic, cultural and social expansion. The outcome of his passion and belief in the potential of China is still noticeable today.
...tures derived from their religions is astounding. The communal bond brings Christian and Roman communities together during festivals, mass and other community activities. While both Christians and Romans shared very similar core framework for their cultures, their religious practices are clearly distinct. It is these practices from multiple deity worship and separation of church and state we see that these two cultures contrasts put them on a collision course. While we know which religion ultimately usurps the other, it is still interesting to analyze these cultures differences.
Historians, political scientists, and journalists hungry for reliable information about Chinese politics have to rely on official publications, and on the semiofficial and nonofficial accounts that bubble up in Hong Kong. These are the same methods of tracking and analyzing China's political movements that outsiders have used for decades. It is in this Byzantine context that Bruce Gilley has written Tiger on the Brink, a biography of Jiang Zemin and a highly readable account of modern Chinese politics. Unfortunately, Gilley is sharply limited by the same lack of access as every other student of Zhongnanhai. A correspondent for The Far Eastern Economic Review who covered China out of Hong Kong, Gilley has done an admirable job of scouring Chinese-language publications for tidbits about Jiang's personal background. But hamstrung by lack of information, this story of Jiang's decade at the top of China's Communist Party only partly satisfies.
Ancient Rome had a distinct religion which held several different beliefs. The Latin word “religio” means “something that binds.” For Romans, religion was a binding force between families, peasants and their rulers, and people and the spirits. According to the journal “Roman Religion,” “Roman religion was animistic-- that is, it included the belief that spirits (called numina) dwelled within natural objects, such as trees or rocks, creating a sort of “force field” around them” (1). The animistic character of Roman religion helps explain why Rome, unlike Greece, did not have a mythology of its own: they worshiped inanimate objects rather than people. A second article entitled “Religion, Roman” declares that the forces within the inanimate objects “had to be reckoned with and that human beings should try to pacify the spirits” (1). However, the pacification of the numina did not call for strong moral behavior from Romans. For this reason, cult worship was very popular in Roman religion. “Religion, Roman” also proclaims that “Ancient Roman religion was a matter of … performing prescribed rituals to win the favor” of the spirits (1). These rituals typically involved sacrifice. The main purpose of the ritual was to communicate with the numina and to receive their approval, which they believed was necessary to be successful (“Religion, Roman” 1). The numina were believed to ha...
I considered myself a performer, and after years training as a classical ballerina I expanded into stunting and tumbling. While on tour, I developed friendships and bonds with dancers strengthened by a mutual love for dance, a commonality over the pain our bodies endured daily, and conversations on bruised and broken toes.
years. In this research paper, I will focus on the transition of China from a Communist
Understanding China: A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Political Culture by John Bryan Starr (Aug 31, 2010)
You know how in baseball there are strict rules, same with dance. If you make one wrong move or make a mistake and the judges see it, you get points taken off of your score. That affects the whole team. All games have a goal, have rules, and have restrictions. The goal of dancing is to get better and of course to win a trophy. There are very strict guidelines that the judges have in order to give you the highest score that you can get. Almost every sport out there requires strength, encouragement, and agility. Having good agility can get you somewhere far. Any sports team that you play for or any sport that you play, it requires to be emotionally mature. If you are angry, sad, upset, you have to control how you react to it. This can affect your team and of course you. It can affect the way that you perform. These are just a few reasons of how dance is a
The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2010]
“I think most people don 't really understand all that it takes to stand on your toes, and to be able to jump and land without any noise, or for a male dancer to be able to lift a girl. All of these things look so effortless, but there 's an attention to detail and years of training, as well as being able to transform into a character and being able to meld all of those things together.” Misty Copeland, world renowned ballet dancer, stated this to voice that there are many components in dance that most people don’t realize. People see a dance as a whole and don’t think about all of the important pieces that go into it. The fundamentals of a competitive dance include choreography, technique, dedication, and competition, which are just as important
LARUS, E. F., (2012). Politics & Society in Contemporary China. United States of America: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.