ECDA Competition

The Liberty Danceline is attending the Eastern Cheer & Dance Association National Competition in Myrtle Beach this upcoming weekend. We'll be having a dress rehersal Wednesday, March 26 at 7 pm at Liberty High School. Please come out to support our girls and wish them luck

at their competition! THANKS!!!

Liberty Danceline at Walt Disney World

I was finally able to put these picture on here! My computer was refusing to cooperate! So enjoy!
P.S. Tyler W. was a late addition to Liberty's Danceline.

(P.S. If anyone has any pictures of the danceline on the Disney Trip and would like them added to the blog, please put them on a cd and give them to me, or you could send them to my e-mail address. Also, if anyone has any ideas of things that we could put on the blog, please let me know. Thanks, Kaitlyn

Randy Jackson to Produce Hip-hop Dance Reality Show for NBC

After Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, another dance reality program will surface on the TV loop and it will be produced by Randy Jackson. The famous American Idol Judge will be gracing yet another reality series called World Moves, which will be broadcast on NBC for its fall schedule.

World Moves, a hip-hop dance-themed program, will showcase teams with five to seven members, focusing on their dance performances, as well as the behind-the-scene drama. Like any other competitive reality show, elimination will be present and will be coming in the form of online voting, text messaging or phone voting.

Like American Idol, World Moves calls for thousands of teams to audition across the country. Teams that are selected will then go to Hollywood where competition will be fiercer and tougher by the minute. At stake on the competition is a global touring contract.

Although the new series doesn’t have an exact airing date yet, NBC is eyeing for a fall broadcast, which would in all likelihood be a replacement for an hour long cancelled show.

Aside from taking the show as a useful alternate, World Moves will actually be a challenging project for the American Idol judge given that those other reality dance series have earned great ratings and much popularity.

Prior to American Idol, Jackson has acquired numerous credits from playing with Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Blue Oyster Cult and many other renowned artists. He has worked as an executive at Columbia Records and at MCA Records, after exhausting nearly all genres of music as a musician. In addition, he has also appeared on shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dr.

Vegas, Greatest American, Kevin Hill, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Hollywood Squares, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien just to name a few.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/randy-jackson-to-produce-hiphop-dance-reality-show-for-nbc-156472.html

What Exactly is Lyrical Dance?

"That which cannot be spoken can be sung, That which cannot be sung can be danced." The words of this old French saying ring so true when referring to lyrical dance.

Recently I've been asked a number of times "What exactly is lyrical dance?" I have even asked myself "What exactly constitutes lyrical and makes it different from jazz or ballet?"

Having taken lyrical dance for a couple years and recently pondering and observing its characteristics during lyrical class feel I can finally explain it.

Though lyrical uses a combination of ballet and jazz technique it has a stronger emphasis on emotions and storytelling. The word lyrical refers to words that were sung with the lyre. This can be traced back to medieval poems written in Middle English. Lyrical dance, is therefore an interpretation of the words or music. It often tells a story that is based on emotion, but rather than real abstract ideas, like modern dance, lyrical reads like a paragraph. If a song has no words, which is not often the case with lyrical, the emotions of the music are shown in a very fluid way. Because the meaning of the song needs to get across in a lyrical dance, facial expression and other acting techniques are used. Tanya Attard, a lyrical dancer, says, "The dancer should respond to the music, and become an actor that can tell the story of the song through technique and emotion." This emotional aspect is what separates lyrical from other styles. For instance a ballet or jazz dancer can get all the steps, but not have the emotion and still look good. A lyrical dancer cannot. A lyrical dancer needs to know how to "let yourself go" and "feel the music". The more a dancer can do that and flow the more the emotion will come across and essentially move the audience.

The costume a lyrical dancer wears can also affect the emotions portrayed. Often long flowing skirts or pants are used. One of my favorite dances was called "Christmas in Sarajevo" where the dancers wore flowing, yet torn and poor looking clothes. The emotion that came across in that dance was powerful because it showed two children surviving a war. The costumes really added to the dance. The emotions and story would also not have been as obvious if it had been a strictly ballet or jazz dance.

How is lyrical is a combination of ballet and jazz technique?

It still has a strong technical base that comes from ballet, but because of the jazz influence it is not as rigid. A lyrical class entails a warm-up, center work, and combinations across the floor, like ballet or jazz.. There is a different type of artistic liberty found in lyrical that is unlike ballet and jazz. Feet can be flexed to enhance the story and legs are allowed to turn in to further creativity in choreography . The movement is more fluid than typical jazz technique. Arms can be thrown up and float down, hands may be relaxed or stretched or even in a fist. The fluidity of the arms is typically what distinguishes it from regular jazz. or even contemporary jazz. The music used in lyrical dance is often contemporary ballad-like songs that are not quite upbeat enough for jazz and not quite classical enough for ballet.

So basically, lyrical dance is a type of dance done to contemporary music with words. It combines ballet and jazz technique to get across a message, usually using lots of emotion. If you ever hear or see someone doing lyrical or talking about it you now know what it is. Maybe you have been looking for a new way to use some creative abilities. Now that you understand what lyrical is you might want to give it a try.

By Charis Snow
Originaly Published Oct 19, 2007

Music and Grades

This article is reprinted with permission from the American Music Conference.

Music and Grades

Music won't rot your mind. In fact, it's good for you. And studying music may help you to learn other subjects better and get better grades in all your courses.

We've always known that music is good for your spirits. Now, scientists are finding out it's good for your brain too. According to recent research, active music making has a direct connection to the brain's inner workings. In fact, the brain seems to operate according to patterns that closely resemble musical notes! Studies have linked active music making with better language and math ability, improved school grades, better-adjusted social behavior, and improvements in "spatial-temporal reasoning," which is the foundation of engineering and science.

In Texas, a study of average SAT scores for music students from 1994 to 2002 (www.tmea.org) showed that students enrolled in music programs such as string orchestra, mixed choir, and other musical ensembles, scored higher than the state and national average. The College Entrance Examination Board, who create and administer the SAT, reports, "Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT. In 2001, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 41 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework/experience in the arts." And, it appears that the longer you study music, the better you do in testing. The 1996 report observed, "Those who studied the arts four or more years scored 59 points higher and 41 points higher on the verbal and math portions respectively than students with no coursework or experience in the arts." So music can help you get into a better college.

In Newsweek magazine's February 19, 1996, cover story, "Your Child's Brain," it quoted from research done by Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher at University of California at Irvine showing that music education increases a child's learning ability. The big bottom line is this: Teach kids music, and they'll be better at math. Isn't this what your parents (and you) want anyway?

Similar news had gone out in 1995, although not to as wide an audience: According to the National Coalition for Music Education, when students register for the SAT test, they complete a Student Descriptive Questionnaire. In 1995, as in the two previous years in which NCME followed the results, students who participated in music appreciation and performance and other arts-related courses (such as drama and studio art) scored dramatically higher in both verbal and math portions of the testing.

You probably didn't learn the alphabet by repeating in a monotonous, bored-sounding voice. You sang the ABC's. When you learned your addition and multiplication tables, your teacher probably had you fall into a rhythm while reciting through the sequences. And just why has Sesame Street been so successful at getting kids through their numbers and rudimentary reading with snappy tunes? Apparently, the connection was more important than anyone may have realized!

Fine Arts Medical Fields

Art Therapy

Art therapy involves helping those with emotional and psychological difficulties to deal with their problems through a cooperative process of discovery. Clients are encouraged to come to their own understanding of what their art reveals, facilitated by the therapist, who helps to negotiate interpretations of the client's drawings, which are created through a therapeutically oriented art-making process. Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses art materials, such as paints, chalk and markers. Art therapy combines traditional psychotherapeutic theories and techniques with an understanding of the psychological aspects of the creative process, especially the affective properties of the different art materials.

Dance Therapy

Dance therapy is offered as a health promotion service for healthy people, and as a complementary method of reducing the stress of caregivers and people with cancer and other chronic illness. Physically, dance therapy can provide exercise, improve mobility and muscle coordination, and reduce muscle tension. Emotionally, dance therapy is reported to improve self-awareness, self-c Dance therapy is founded on the premise that the body and mind are an interrelated continuum that the state of the body may affect mental and emotional wellbeing in manifold ways. In contrast to artistic dance, which is usually concerned with the aesthetic appearance of movement, dance therapy explores the nature of all movement. Through observing and altering the kinesthetic movements of a client, dance movement therapists diagnose and help solve various psychological problems. Confidence, and interpersonal interaction, and is an outlet for communicating feelings.

Music Therapy

Music Therapy is an allied health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, psychological, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. After assessing the strengths and needs of each client, the qualified music therapist provides the indicated treatment including creating, singing, moving to, and/or listening to music. Through musical involvement in the therapeutic context, the client's abilities are strengthened and transferred to other areas of his or her life. Music Therapy is an established healthcare profession that uses music to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals of all ages. Music is a significant mood-changer and reliever of stress, working on many levels at once. Music Therapy is the unique application of music to enhance personal lives by creating positive changes in human behavior. It is an allied health profession utilizing music as a tool to encourage development in social/ emotional, cognitive/learning, and perceptual-motor areas. Music Therapy has a wide variety of functions with the exceptional child, adolescent and adult in medical, institutional and educational settings.

Drama Therapy

Drama therapy explores new approaches to old problems, integrating the methods of drama and theatre to assist clients in attaining goals which may include personal and emotional growth thus improving the quality of life Exploration of real life relationships and social situation through the mode of drama/creative arts To foster development of positive communication, cooperative sharing and social skills Drama therapy evolved from the experience and research of psychotherapists, teachers, and theater professionals who recognized that sometimes traditional verbal therapies were too rigid to permit clients to confront and work through individual disturbances. The balanced verbal and non-verbal components of drama therapy with its language of metaphor allow clients to work productively within a therapeutic alliance.

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