Shadowing Experience Research Paper

Appendix A
For the duration of my shadowing experience, I had the pleasure of working with Connie Rea, a local dance educator and studio owner. She has been a professional in the field of dance for over thirty years and specializes in instructing and choreographing the dance genres of modern, contemporary, and tap. She is also a graduate of the same dance program that I hope to pursue next fall at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Connie was always very positive and encouraging when we met, and gave me a lot of great advice to help me along the way. During our shadowing sessions, she taught me the basic steps of choreographing a modern or contemporary piece of dance.
The process started with personally reflecting on what I might want the piece to be about. Although choreography is not required to have meaning, Connie taught me that it is important to have a feel for the ideas or style you want to portray to the audience before you
At first, it was difficult for me to keep in contact with my mentor and set up our first meeting date. But eventually, my mentor and I created a weekly schedule where I choreographed and rehearsed on Wednesdays, and then worked with her students and progressively taught them the movement on Thursdays. Between afterschool clubs, my own dance rehearsals, homework and shadowing sessions with my mentor, my schedule was packed. And although on some days I came home absolutely exhausted, I was not too terribly overwhelmed and managed to make time for everything. The students I worked with were always very attentive and seemed to be quite invested in the movement and learning process. While teaching, however, I was surprised when the dancers were challenged by some of the parts of the choreography that I could perform with ease, and I made several modifications in order to accommodate their