Dancing Freestyle

Heeyy everyone! [: My name's Yvonne and I am a new ZEUMmaster! This job is extremely tiring, but it's worth it! When I was waiting to be interviewed, I thought everyone was going to be strict and really mean. I thought wrong. They were SUPERR nice and I was like "Ohh, I have nothing to worry about!" Every staff member was very friendly. People say I'm a little shy, but with the ZEUM staff members, I've broken out of my shell already! [: I've only been here for about two weeks and I've already made some friends. I love watching all the families and camps come through the door. Every day I get inspired by all the creativity that I see from everyone. This isn't like those boring jobs that people would dislike having to wake up every morning to go to. I get excited when I know it's time to work at ZEUM. To me, this is like an extra curricular activity.

I'm a Polynesian dancer, lion dancer, sketcher, and now I am a ZEUMmaster.In Polynesian dance, they make you freestyle what you've learned, and at ZEUM, I see kids AND adults dance and freestyle at the MUSIC PRODUCTION LAB (MPL) I play the drums in lion dance and everyone depends on the drums or else the lions have nothing to move to. Being in that position with so much power(muahhaha), I can make them dance to anything and they have to follow. At ZEUM, I see people doing their crazy dance moves and it inspires me what I could do to the lions [; When I'm at the Clay Animation Studio, I see people make these really cool figures and then I would go home and sketch it out
ZEUM ROCKS!!!!!!! :P

Getting Down to Business with the new zms

Yesterday Debo, Derrek, Angee, and I led the New ZeumMaster Orientation. It was a lot of fun. Angee and I came up with the idea to help with training the new ZeumMasters and after several weeks of hard work and planning, it finally happened. We wanted to show the new folks what it is to be a ZeumMaster from the perspective of someone actually in that position. So who better to show them that than us? :)

We love our job here and we want them to love it too. So we started off by having each person STAND UP and introduce themselves and tell us 3 things about themselves. We introduced ourselves to them as well. Then, to break the ice and bring them out of their shells, we went outside and played a couple games the way we do it at Zeum. First we started out by playing a name game just so everyone could get to know each other. It ended up getting hilarious at certain points. The point of the game was to get everyone to let go and just CHILL around each other and to be less hesitant and more outgoing, an important trait of every ZeumMaster. We NEED to be loud and crazy to do our jobs right.

Then, we played a concentration game where they were given a category and they had to think of something that fell into that category and the first person to mess up or repeat a thing was eliminated. We had categories that got harder as more people were eliminated, such as: Colors, Things Found in Parks, Ice Cream Flavors, and Bart Lines. We got crazy answers like "Vomit" and "Birthday Cake Remix". It got crazy but we had a lot of fun and everyone got to know each other and have a good time.

After the fun was over it was time to get down to business. Our job was to give them a little taste of Zeum from a technical point of view, but at the same time in a relaxed and understanding atmosphere so that when it actually comes time to learning all the little details, it won't all be so new and overwhelming.

It was nice to see my peers actually listening to me and taking notes on what I was telling them. We were professional and informative while at the same time keeping the friendly atmosphere. I tried talking to them the way I would've liked to have been talked to when I was trained. It was fun getting to know the new ZeumMasters and I think they enjoyed it as much as, if not more than, we did. I just hope that everything we told them will be useful to them during their Zeum Career.



On another note, Mission in the Mix (a hip hop dance show) opens this weekend!! This workshop group I'm performing in it. It's gonna be an AWESOME show, so everyone should come. It's recommended that you buy tickets in advance because they WILL sell out. They'll only have a FEW at the door. *Tickets are $15 and sold at Dance Mission Theater across from 24th Street Bart Station.

'Killin it with Dance

Anybody can dance. Anybody can perform. Whether you're amazing or horrible it feels nice to just get yourself out there. Dancing can be a way of expressing yourself or just a way to let out stress after a hard day at work or school. Having a way to escape from life and just dance is good for you. You can forget about life's. Dancing is like a vacation for your mind.

I'm making a documentary about dance. In my movie I want to show that good things can come from dancing whether or not you're good at it.

Performance is a big deal at Zeum. We have our production stage in our main gallery and our stage in the Music Video production lab so it's crucial that we help kids realize that they can perform too even if they think they're really bad at it. Everyone has a performer inside them, you just have to bring it out of them. For the kids that come here it's a big deal to be up on stage. A lot of them get nervous because they think they can't do it but with a little encouragement they get into their performances and put on good shows. After doing their thing on stage a lot of times they get excited and have a little self-esteem boost.

With my video I want to show the positive effects of dancing on people's lives and that anyone can experience these things because anyone can dance. I'm gonna interview a few big name dance teachers about what get them started in dancing and what dancing has done for them in their lives. My video will show their interview with me and then will go into a video of them actually dancing. I'll do the same thing with people who are in dance companies and then take it down to people who simply take classes and then take it down to people who do it just for fun.

I've been dancing for 4 years. I mainly do hip hop dance. I started taking dance classes just to see what it was like. I had always seen people dance and though "Wow, I wish I could do that."

After a while I was motivated by the compliments I started getting. It's the best feeling to have someone ask me "How'd you do that?" or have a teacher tell me to keep the good work cuz i was "killin' it."

Dancing has helped not only to boost my self-esteem but also to get me through some tough times. When I dance i can forget about everything going on around me and just focus on the dancing I'm doing. Nothing else matters. I can go home after dancing and feel like I accomplished what I needed to that day. I'm at my best mentally after I've danced. I can think better having let out all my stress and energy in dance. I get my endorphins flowing so I feel pumped up but I'm more at ease so I can think better. And after getting all tired out I can sleep better too. So dancing can benefit you both mentally and physically.