By Laura Hou
Dancing is a way of expressing yourself without the benefit of words. Instead, you use your entire body.
Dana Brown was born in South Korea. She started dancing when she was only two years old. From age two to six, Dana danced at a rec centre and at age seven, she started dancing at a dance company called RNB. Dana has tried almost all the dance forms you can think of. Out of tap, hip hop, musical theatre, ballet, contemporary, modern, acro, jazz as well as lyrical, her favourites are lyrical, jazz, and musical theatre. She started to do solos from age 11 to 12. Dana improves as she watches her fellow dancers; from them, she learns how to do her jumps better, and also how to use her facial expressions in order to draw in her audience. She is constantly inspired by ballet BC and other dance companies. Dana shares that her parents, teachers, and fellow dancers have changed her life for the better, standing as support and positive influence. Dancing is a way for her to express and to perform. She finds her inspiration from older dancers at the studio and when she watches ballet BC.
Others thrive in various fields of sports, but for Dana, she is an avid dancer who is completely loyal to dancing. Dance is not a sport, some may say, but Dana has to save up enough energy for an entire day of dance classes, being a teacher assistant, and solo rehearsals. On top of all that, she has her schoolwork to deal with. She admits that it is hard for her to save up enough energy at the end of the day to do anything else.
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else, I only try to dance better than myself,” says Dana. When Dana dances, she feels that nothing in the world can stop her. She is constantly fascinated by how many styles and ways that different people can create dances and the creative ideas being communicated through a piece of dance. Dancing is a way for you to tell a story: you can express sadness, despair, or joy through your entire body and that is what is fascinating about dance. You do not have the choice of using words; you use your body instead. Creating a piece of dance is hard work; you have to put effort and time into it. If you pour your emotions into it, if you let it consume you as a whole, if you let it use you, it becomes something else completely. It becomes a story.
Like any other literary works, a piece of dance has a beginning, middle and end. There is a reason for that particular piece of dance and a reason why it is being danced.
Looking ahead to the future, Dana shares that she wants to be a professional dancer, a dance teacher, or a performer in musicals. “Great dancers are not great because of their technique. They are great because of their passion”, states Dana. She believes that hard work always pays off. A good dancer is a result of practice, practice and more practice. No one is born a good dancer, but if you practice, you might just become one.
And as Dana says, you should dance because you love it, and when people tell you that you can’t do it, tell them, watch me!
Dancing is a way of expressing yourself without the benefit of words. Instead, you use your entire body.
Dana Brown was born in South Korea. She started dancing when she was only two years old. From age two to six, Dana danced at a rec centre and at age seven, she started dancing at a dance company called RNB. Dana has tried almost all the dance forms you can think of. Out of tap, hip hop, musical theatre, ballet, contemporary, modern, acro, jazz as well as lyrical, her favourites are lyrical, jazz, and musical theatre. She started to do solos from age 11 to 12. Dana improves as she watches her fellow dancers; from them, she learns how to do her jumps better, and also how to use her facial expressions in order to draw in her audience. She is constantly inspired by ballet BC and other dance companies. Dana shares that her parents, teachers, and fellow dancers have changed her life for the better, standing as support and positive influence. Dancing is a way for her to express and to perform. She finds her inspiration from older dancers at the studio and when she watches ballet BC.
Others thrive in various fields of sports, but for Dana, she is an avid dancer who is completely loyal to dancing. Dance is not a sport, some may say, but Dana has to save up enough energy for an entire day of dance classes, being a teacher assistant, and solo rehearsals. On top of all that, she has her schoolwork to deal with. She admits that it is hard for her to save up enough energy at the end of the day to do anything else.
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else, I only try to dance better than myself,” says Dana. When Dana dances, she feels that nothing in the world can stop her. She is constantly fascinated by how many styles and ways that different people can create dances and the creative ideas being communicated through a piece of dance. Dancing is a way for you to tell a story: you can express sadness, despair, or joy through your entire body and that is what is fascinating about dance. You do not have the choice of using words; you use your body instead. Creating a piece of dance is hard work; you have to put effort and time into it. If you pour your emotions into it, if you let it consume you as a whole, if you let it use you, it becomes something else completely. It becomes a story.
Like any other literary works, a piece of dance has a beginning, middle and end. There is a reason for that particular piece of dance and a reason why it is being danced.
Looking ahead to the future, Dana shares that she wants to be a professional dancer, a dance teacher, or a performer in musicals. “Great dancers are not great because of their technique. They are great because of their passion”, states Dana. She believes that hard work always pays off. A good dancer is a result of practice, practice and more practice. No one is born a good dancer, but if you practice, you might just become one.
And as Dana says, you should dance because you love it, and when people tell you that you can’t do it, tell them, watch me!
