As an assignment for my Jazz 1 class, I am to give some background information about myself and any goals I have that I will work on during the term.  So here we go!!!

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• What is your preferred name?  Where are you from? 
• What is one interesting/unusal fact about yourself?
• How do you define Jazz Dance?
• Why did you sign up for this course?  What dance experience (# of years and styles) do you have?
• Do you have any existing injuries that would inhibit your movement/participation?
• What specifict goals do you hope to achieve at the completion of this course?  Be specific
  • Why?  What steps do you think you will take to achieve these goals?

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My preferred name is always Emily but as there is another person in the class with the same name, Em J is just fine.  While on dance team I created the nickname for myself as there was another Emily on the team.  One of my favorite team shirts has Em J on it.  Where I am from is here, Springfield, OR.  I have lived in Orlando, Florida for a few months and spent close to two years in Portland as I was going to school at Portland State for my Bachelors.

Jazz dance, to me, is a fluid style that frees the body from strict frames and can be performed to a variety of musical tempos and embraces other forms of dance at the same time.  My first jazz class was back in 1987 when I was 5 years old and I remember most of the classes and performance but I definitely remember my costume!  (leopard jazz suit with ears and gauntlets)

The reason I am in this class is to 1) improve my skills and balance as a dancer and 2) to relieve the stress of graduate studies, by taking the class I can maintain my overall health and see this as my way of self-care.  I love to dance and knowing I have this opportunity while enrolled, I am going to take it!  If you cannot tell from the previous paragraph, I have been dancing since I was young.  Though I have not been dancing consistently in a formal setting, I have experimented with ballet, hip hop, Irish Step/Ceili (jigs and reels), and more frequently with bellydance.  My combined years of dance experience is close to 10 but spread out over the last 27 years of life.  I did dabble with blues dance, while I was in a relationship, but I learned it was not for me, as was the guy.

Injuries that you should be aware of are sprained ankles (about 3 times each side), left knee, right shoulder/neck, and lower back.  I tend to be somewhat clumsy and will roll my ankle or step wrong but the worst of my injuries was when I fractured my ulna of my left arm.  It healed fine and my inner elbow is not as flat as it had been but I am capable to modify as needed and will let you know if anything is particularly aggravated.  I keep Advil on hand and will do stretches as often as I need them.

A large goal I would like to accomplish is to improve my pirouettes on both the right and left side.  On dance team, we worked on our pirouettes regularly but I can tell that I have lost control of some of the skill or I no longer have the core strength to support myself while in motion.  Being able to do double pirouettes on the right and left side would be great!  I also want to regain as much flexibility as I can as I have been doing a lot of jogging/running for 5-10ks and have neglected the stretching aspect of my workouts.  Getting back into the habit of stretching would be wonderful and improving basic jazz moves and turns to help advance me as a bellydancer.

What I will need to do to achieve my pirouette goal is to increase core strength by thinking from my abs (stealing this from my Water Fitness instructor) and, maybe, doing good solid push-ups to help build the inner core.  (I really hate push-ups though, I prefer planking.) Improving my spotting when doing turns will also help and remembering that it is okay to fall down.