"Fresh" Not So Fresh

Thursday night rolled around. We began our trek from Founders to the amphitheater on Art Street for Thursday Night Live. As we approached the intersection of Kiefaber and Lawnview, the atmosphere was inviting. The amphitheater was luminous and intriguing to its viewers. It almost gave you the feeling of an intimate concert. In addition, the weather felt amazing on my skin and there was a warm breeze that tickled my face. My friends and I found seats on the hard concrete. It was slowing approaching 9:00 pm, when all the events were supposed to start. The first performer was David Fresh. It seemed like the whole audience knew him. I definitely felt out of the loop because they had all heard him play before, so I was interested to see what all the hype about this “Fresh” guy truly was. Automatically, you could sense the intense amount of nervousness that was radiating from him like heat rays on asphalt on a scorching day. He began with a song, not sure of the name, but sounded slightly familiar. He began to sing. UH OH! Not to be mean, but to be honest his voice wasn’t satisfying what so ever. I felt kind of bad; however, he was talented at guitar. The sound resonated and was a delight to the ears. Unfortunately, the sound of his shaking, wavering voice overpowered that of the guitar in a BAD way. As a listener, it was difficult to enjoy. Near the beginning, he made it known that he had only sang in front of people for the first time a week before his performance. I feel like he should’ve been more confident and not afraid to mess up on the outside, even if he was freaking out on the inside. It might have even been more enjoyable to see someone that felt confident in his or her abilities as an artist, even know they didn’t sound great. The next two songs included “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” by John Mayer and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie. These are songs that I really enjoy listening to and have a great respect for both those artists. I frequently listen to their collections of music. However, a DISAPPOINTMENT! This word is really the only word that I can think of that embodies the way I was feeling. I was just tuned out for most of these two songs because, truthfully, they can’t be replicated. I was paying more attention to the bugs biting my ankles then him performing. As he was wrapping up the last song that he had written, I was ready for his performance to be over.

Move To Your Own Jac

Hip Hop Hipity Hop
I attended the Hip Hop Dance Workshop with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at the Rec not knowing what to expect. I walked into a group of maybe 40 people or so and sat down on the hard wooden floor. Soon enough, the instructor appeared at the front of the studio and began to talk. Her appearance wouldn’t strike me as that of a dancer from her dread locks to her cutoff t-shirt and casual sweatpants over her well-rounded body. She said that dance was like a way to express emotions and words through the movement of the body. It seemed that Hip-hop to her, was a passion. So it began. We first started off by stretching to the beat of the music, first the legs and the arms. I was thinking to myself that maybe I could do this, but slowly this thought began to change. The seconds seemed to pass like minutes and the minutes seemed to pass like hours. Being a soccer player for most of my life, I was out of the place and outside my comfort zone. Most of the people in the room had previous dance experience. Next, she began to teach us the first set of steps. It was a mixture of 3 steps forward and landing hard on your hands and pulling your body around them. The confined space of Studio B at this point is overwhelmingly crowed with people. I felt cramped and a little claustrophobic. I’m afraid I am going to kick a person in the head while attempting these moves. She said that these were the basic movements of hip-hop. To me it seemed like this was foreign and not something I would ever use to define hip-hop, but what do I know. We took a short break from the steps and were off to find our own JAC. When she threw this word out there, I just said WHAT?!?!? to myself. What does that even mean? Well apparently Jac is kind of like your own swagger to the music. It’s a way to be in sink with the beat. Ok, so basically I felt like a bobble head with this activity. As time went on, moves were slowly added, like the coffee grinder. At this point that just sounded like it would hurt. So now the dance consisted of a 3 step, a fall that killed my hands, a few jumps, and can’t forget the coffee grinder. You might ask what a coffee grinder is, this move included shifting your body weight by swinging your right leg around the front of your body by the use of your arms to hold you up. I found this so difficult and it seemed impossible. As the steps kept multiplying, I was starting to become overwhelmed by the motions and all the dance techniques that were added. After an hour, I don’t consider myself a quitter, but I couldn’t really take much more of this. My body hurt and my back was tight; this one hour took forever. So ultimately, I grabbed my things and walked out. This experience is definitely something that I’ve never done before and will never forget. Many of my friends from high school were involved with dance, so this experience kind of gave a sneak peak into maybe some of the things they had to learn throughout their years of dance. I would have to say, I probably would never attend one of these workshops again because I don’t really possess the desire to dance. I am passionate about other things, but I doubt that dance will really ever have an impact on my life. To wrap things up, Am I glad I went? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Not really. However, it was great to see the people in there that were really embracing the workshop and how much they were enjoying it.