Dance Crew Ethnography

I became a dancer at the age of three. However, as much as how I love dancing, my skill level was always perceived as "well" but never excellent among the peers. After I finished my 10th grade, I thought I would never dance again. Joining the Super Sensation Dance Crew, which is now officially a new dance studio in London became a big surprise and one of the best decisions I have made in university, because it discovered my potential and enhanced my confidence greatly.

I was obsessed with the dance shows performed by this dance crew when I was in first year college. At the end of my first semester, I went to the audition and was blessed to get accepted as a member. I have been lucky since I joined this dance crew because my team paid great

Performance is always way shorter than practice. Because dance is one of the most important things in my life, I am willing to make effort on it. Not only we practiced every night, but I spent a lot of time making my movements more precise during my spare time. As a result, I learned to make good time management in order to keep up with my grade. In four months, I was promoted to one of the 6 core dancers, responsible for choreography and attending 80% of all the performances. This position provided me leadership in dance because now I am entitled to coordinate others in a show instead of simply learning from others like before. For example, I am currently choreographing a 17 people performance for the Chinese Student Scholars Association New Year’s Gala, which means I have to learn every movement in advance and spend my Christmas break to practice. Meanwhile, I need to match different paths and motion clips with dancers of varied skill level, make sure that each person will be able to perform in the front, and comfort each dancer when they were stressed after tedious practice. I realized how important it is for a leader to coordinate a fabulous performance and at the same time satisfy every