Brazil a new experience

The theme of my group was Immigration. We were for immigration, in the group I was the one in charge of the props. One of the ideas that came to my mind was that we should use flags during the parade representing where we come for, since our theme was the one of Immigration. One of the other main ideas that I had was to have something that we could hold in our hands while we were performing in the parade. When looking for something that we could we use, I did not find anything, but then when I was at the store, I saw these Hawaiian lies, and I thought they would be perfect if I just cut them and then extend them, so we could use it to make movements with them when it came to the parade. I bought different colors of Hawaiian lies and then I started to cut pieces of the same length and then put 2 straps of different colors, a total of sixteen pieces paired with different colors. I thought that this would bring some life to the parade and also, represent the symbolism of how immigrants are full of energy and life while they are in their path to come to a new country and once they have become part of that new country. Also, as part of other props there was the idea of using a whistle, which also brought some sound to the parade, to make it lively. The theme of immigration went well with the performance that the team Brazil performed the day of the parade. Many of the movements had to do with how they are united, how immigrants come to the new country to do hard work in order to progress in life. Also, the part where we all are crossing the border, that is very symbolic when it comes to expressing how people go from one place to another going through many hardships, but once they are in the new country, they are happy to be alive and get a new chance in life to offer a better life for themselves and their loved ones.
Once I started taking the class and learning about the dancing moves, I noticed that once you start making the moves you can actually speak with your body. The interesting thing was that once we started to work in our groups I realized, that no matter what your theme was many of the movements we learned throughout the course of the class, can be apply and the meaning is not lost. Also, I learned that as time passes and new generations come, these moves will never disappear one way or another they stay alive within the human society. One of the other main things that I learned once going through the experience of making the parade is that music and body language go hand by hand, the music puts the feeling when it comes to the movements to express the body language. Also, during the class we have watched many videos in which people would be dancing in groups, but it is one thing to watch and another to actually live the experience.
When it was first announced that we were to perform a parade, which had to pertain to a major theme, I was very nervous about the assignment. In my personal experience I am a very shy person, and when it comes to doing public speaking or like in the case of performing a parade, I did not feel confident that I was going to be able to perform at my best. As the time passed by and I got together with my group to practice that shyness went away little by little. Just the thought of being in public make me feel dizzy and start to see blurry, this has always been the case when I am in situations that make me nervous. Having the assignment of the parade truly helped me to overcome some of that scariness. It was an amazing experience being part of a parade group and using some of the moves that we learned in the class, to express our views regarding our theme of immigration. Also, as I was living this experience I learned how to work better with other people, and how to use all of our minds to come up with a parade that could successfully communicate to others what we believe in. Once you start to work with a group you start to get to know the members better and to understand one another better. One of the main parts that I liked about working in groups for the parade was that even though at times we had different suggestions and opinions, we were able to work it all out, so that all the members felt satisfied with how the parade was turning out. In addition as the practices for the parade were taking place, I really like the fact that when you are in a group all the different ideas can combine to come up with even greater ideas.
Although the parade was successful as it was, any piece of work can always be improved. If we were to continue working on the parade, I would have added a section in which maybe every member of the group could have wore something that was symbolic of their country and culture. I think this would have made the parade show more of the background of the people that are immigrating all over the world. Although it would only be customs of a few of the countries the symbolism would be there as representing all those people that immigrate to other countries all over the world. One other thing that I would have added would have been more movements that would express how the immigrants feel when they arrive at a new country. One of the things that I would like to cut off would have been when we were about to get to the perform in front of the professor and the rest of the judges, we kept swimming instead at that moment we should start to make different types of movements or dance, but not just stay with the same movements.

By:Jenniffer Avalos