AboutKT Expertise I can answer questions dealing with the "how tos" of jazz, ballet, hip hop and lyrical. I can help get over creative blocks with song ideas and inspiration to help create. I can answer choreography questions and techniques to help better your dancing and/or teaching.
Experience I have been dancing for 19 years in the styles of jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and contemporary. I studied at a studio rated one of the top 100 studios in the nation, then moved on to The Ohio State University to study dance. I have been teaching summer dance camps for five years. I've been choreographing solos and group routines at a local studio and for groups in my state for three years. I have also attended numerous conventions and workshops throughout the nation. Through the winter I judge for a dance team circuit in the styles of Pom, Jazz, Lyrical, and Hip-Hop.
Education/Credentials I will soon be graduating with a bachelors degree in early childhood development and a minor in dance education.
Awards and Honors This past year I was given one of only twelve scholarships out of four hundred students from Broadway Dance Center's the Pulse.
Expert: KT Date: 1/26/2008 Subject: I feel so untrained
Question Hi my name is Amie Bush and I'm 16 years old. I want to major in dance when I go to college which I'm looking at Skidmore and Manhattanville. I have taken dance lessons since I was in 8th grade. (not much I know) My mom did sign me up for ballet when I was three like most moms do. After my first class, I told my mom never bring me back to that place only because I didn't learn anything my first day. My teacher wanted us to prance around the room like we were ponies. Um... sorry yea I was there to learn ballet not how to be a pony. So after that incident, I never got dance training because there was nothing around where I lived. Then in 8th grade, a student from my school who has been dancing for 13 years started up a dance class in town, so I took it. Then I took lessons from another dance studio in Poughquah. I've been there for a total of 3 years. I took two yrs of tap and now i'm in the adv. class. I took one year of jazz there and now I'm in the adv. class making it a total of 4 years I've been dancing. I'm a junior in high school so I'm running out of time. I'm just began to take ballet this year. I took two classes at BDC (broadway dance center) and in march going to a dance convention. In December, I flew down to FL and performed in the Capital one bowl All American Halftime show that was on ABC! I subscribe to dance spirit and dance teacher magazine. Why am I telling you this stuff, I don't know. I guess just to lead up to me saying that i don't want to do anything else but dance. My whole life I knew I wanted to dance. If there was a problem or something I was going through, all I would do is go in my room, turn on some music and dance. Dancing made me feel safe, comfortable, calm, just happy. I knew I wanted to do it for the rest of my life after I saw 42nd street on broadway. I've choreographed dance numbers for my drama club and now I'm the main student choreographer for the shows. Even if I had these opportunities, I feel its not enough. I feel that I wasted so much time; now time is running out and that means I will never be able to have enough training going into college. I would love to go audition for a show like hairspray on broadway or anything like that, but watching video clips of the final scene from centerstage or 42nd street, I feel I can never be good enough or up to the level that I need to be. I was wondering if you could give me any advice on anything with dance. Also do you know of any summer dance camps in New york that is not expensive and is residential? Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Amie Bush
Answer Hey Amie! Wow it looks like you have a lot of passion about dance and everything involved with it. As a major in dance you will receive extensive dance training and no one expects you to be fully trained at that point. As for everything else the only thing I can tell you is to get as much exposure to dance as you can. Just do what you love and make it happen. I honestly can't tell you of any specific dance camps that are in New York that are residential and non expensive. You certainly should do some research but everything is going to be expensive in NY, especially something residential. If you need help on a more specific question regarding dance let me know! Don't lose faith in what your doing because no one can make you feel unworthy or untrained without your permission.
