Wandering Solo: Missing Joe Aigner
posted by michelle @ 11:20 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Sunday, November 19, 2006
post 1
Hi. My name is Michelle. I am posting this blog for my English 102 project. It's about dance as a form of communication. I've got all kinds of goodies for you to peruse through, like cartoons, short stories, an interview, and all my other assignmets. It's all a part of this multi genre portfolio that is the focus of Professor Mike Will's English102 summer session. This is also my first time posting a blog, so it should be pretty fun for all involved. Hope you find this stuff as interesting as I do!
posted by michelle @ 12:18 PM
0 comments
Thursday, July 20, 2006
narrative assignment
The Topic of Dance
“Nov. ’75. Mishy now dances when music plays.” My father has a little black notebook with brief scribbles recording various family events such as when my grandfather died and my older sister had her tonsils out. According to my dad’s book, I was 11 months old when I had my first dance. That was the beginning of my love of dance and since then, dance has continued to be in my life in some fashion or another. So when my English 102 assignment was to choose a topic that I care deeply about I chose dance, not only because I always been dancing, but also because it has been an important element of my life.
Of course my formal dance training started with my parents occasionally enrolling me into the standard jazz, tap, and ballet classes that practically every little girl gets enrolled into at some point in their childhood. I didn’t spend too much time in those classes. I was too shy to fit in well socially with the other promising ballerinas who could already do the splits and were already getting into toe shoes. But I didn’t stop dancing. I was always making up routines in our large hallway at home, which sometimes included my little sister and an audience of my parents and their friends.
As I grew older the routines were still being choreographed, just more secretly in my room alone. When I reached high school, I decided to try dancing in a classroom again. I found myself in a class that had girls from every group and clique in the school. Once I realized we all had the love of dance in common, the nervous feeling of not fitting in evaporated. We taught each other a lot about making friends with different with types of people and we learned to appreciate our differences through our dancing. High school dance class gave me an outlet to creatively express myself and constructively deal with my emotions. Sometimes the emotions I needed to deal with had to do with my suicide attempts and anger at the world around me. Dancing also gave me something to get involved in besides the drugs I was doing and the people who I did them with. When I think back on that time, I believe dancing saved my life. I was apart of Saguaro High School’s dance company and as I got more involved in dance I received a scholarship to Scottsdale Community College for dance and continued on for two years in the SCC performance group and participated in learning workshops, with other colleges and professional dance companies, which took place in and outside of the state.
From age 19 to 29 I was a professional ballroom dance competitor and instructor of social and competition level dance at Fred Astaire Dance Studios of North America. My student’s ages ranged from 5 to 90years old. They came from different income levels; the spectrum included everything from a homeless man to a vice president from Motorola that oversaw the building of The Voyager space craft. I also taught different combinations of people, such as group classes, one on one instruction with a single man or woman, and gay and straight couples. My coaches were not only from all parts of the country, but also all over the world, like Lithuania, England, Australia, Bulgaria, and Russia. During all these encounters, dance was our common ground to share as fellow teachers, dancers and people experiencing life.
The career and lifestyle of a ballroom dancer has been a great life education for me and has given me tools for life. The unique environment that dance has put me in has give me a wide range of lessons. Through teaching, learning and performing dance, I have learned to overcome my shyness. I learned how to be a leader by choreographing and instructing. Teaching couples to dance taught me about communication between men and women. Getting up at six am to get to practice with my professional partner and then go to work until 11:30 pm taught me about time management and what it means to be dedicated. Competing professionally taught me about politics and patience. I also learned about patience from my dance students. I can thank my coaches and my students for teaching me that there is more than one way to get the lesson across. I learned about the power of touch and how a hug or pat on the pack can make an older person come to life and a stressed out corporate executive calm down. Even learning various dances from around the world and the music that accompanies them gave me small lessons in other cultures. Being involved in the business end of dance also gave me an opportunity to learn a bit about finances and running a business.
I hope to use my dance experiences to help me in my English 102 multi genre portfolio to explain and argue how dance is a form of communication on social, cultural, and spiritual levels. To research the social communication part of my essay I plan on interviewing some of my former coaches who were U.S. and world champions who are now on adjudication panels for competitions and other people who are experts in the ballroom business. Also for social and cultural communication I will research the connection with body language and dance. The cultural communication through dance will require research into some modern dance companies that communicate themes of cultures and social issues like Alvin Ailey, for instance, who have used dance to communicate the trials and unique history African-American culture. For the spiritual communication through dance part of my argument, I will do research into mythology and religion. Through these and other resources I hope to learn more in the academic sense about the deeper connection of dance with all people of the world, and go beyond the glitz and physical aspects of dance that are more obvious.
The film I chose to watch for analysis is “Footloose.” It’s about a man moving to another part of the country where he doesn’t fit in, but also there is a religious issue of dance being banned in the county because it’s considered sinful. The way the characters deal with their religious beliefs about dance and how dance brings different types of people together through dance will be useful to my topic.
I might need to defend that dance isn’t just something that is a means of entertainment, that is more than just a way to have fun and exercise, and that it is in someway apart of everyone’s communication- not just “artsy” people. One way to defend this and make it more interesting is to tie dance communication into ways things like courtship and showing dance in ways most people don’t realize.
The most challenging of the smaller assignments will probably be posting the blog and drawing cartoons. Both of those assignments are areas that I have little or know experience. The sole fear of mismanaging my time and failing me is the largest challenge I foresee having to overcome.
I am excited to learning more about dance. I’m also excited to share the great things about dance with others. I am nervous about the assignments and the short amount of time overwhelming me. I’m going to need to take it one step at a time, and keep it simple.During the course of the semester, I hope to successfully complete my multi genre portfolio, and learn something about my self and what I am capable of under pressure. But most of all, I hope to use this project as a way to pay homage to something that has not only saved my life more than once, but also gave me an education and a life full of unique and meaningful experiences.
“Nov. ’75. Mishy now dances when music plays.” My father has a little black notebook with brief scribbles recording various family events such as when my grandfather died and my older sister had her tonsils out. According to my dad’s book, I was 11 months old when I had my first dance. That was the beginning of my love of dance and since then, dance has continued to be in my life in some fashion or another. So when my English 102 assignment was to choose a topic that I care deeply about I chose dance, not only because I always been dancing, but also because it has been an important element of my life.
Of course my formal dance training started with my parents occasionally enrolling me into the standard jazz, tap, and ballet classes that practically every little girl gets enrolled into at some point in their childhood. I didn’t spend too much time in those classes. I was too shy to fit in well socially with the other promising ballerinas who could already do the splits and were already getting into toe shoes. But I didn’t stop dancing. I was always making up routines in our large hallway at home, which sometimes included my little sister and an audience of my parents and their friends.
As I grew older the routines were still being choreographed, just more secretly in my room alone. When I reached high school, I decided to try dancing in a classroom again. I found myself in a class that had girls from every group and clique in the school. Once I realized we all had the love of dance in common, the nervous feeling of not fitting in evaporated. We taught each other a lot about making friends with different with types of people and we learned to appreciate our differences through our dancing. High school dance class gave me an outlet to creatively express myself and constructively deal with my emotions. Sometimes the emotions I needed to deal with had to do with my suicide attempts and anger at the world around me. Dancing also gave me something to get involved in besides the drugs I was doing and the people who I did them with. When I think back on that time, I believe dancing saved my life. I was apart of Saguaro High School’s dance company and as I got more involved in dance I received a scholarship to Scottsdale Community College for dance and continued on for two years in the SCC performance group and participated in learning workshops, with other colleges and professional dance companies, which took place in and outside of the state.
From age 19 to 29 I was a professional ballroom dance competitor and instructor of social and competition level dance at Fred Astaire Dance Studios of North America. My student’s ages ranged from 5 to 90years old. They came from different income levels; the spectrum included everything from a homeless man to a vice president from Motorola that oversaw the building of The Voyager space craft. I also taught different combinations of people, such as group classes, one on one instruction with a single man or woman, and gay and straight couples. My coaches were not only from all parts of the country, but also all over the world, like Lithuania, England, Australia, Bulgaria, and Russia. During all these encounters, dance was our common ground to share as fellow teachers, dancers and people experiencing life.
The career and lifestyle of a ballroom dancer has been a great life education for me and has given me tools for life. The unique environment that dance has put me in has give me a wide range of lessons. Through teaching, learning and performing dance, I have learned to overcome my shyness. I learned how to be a leader by choreographing and instructing. Teaching couples to dance taught me about communication between men and women. Getting up at six am to get to practice with my professional partner and then go to work until 11:30 pm taught me about time management and what it means to be dedicated. Competing professionally taught me about politics and patience. I also learned about patience from my dance students. I can thank my coaches and my students for teaching me that there is more than one way to get the lesson across. I learned about the power of touch and how a hug or pat on the pack can make an older person come to life and a stressed out corporate executive calm down. Even learning various dances from around the world and the music that accompanies them gave me small lessons in other cultures. Being involved in the business end of dance also gave me an opportunity to learn a bit about finances and running a business.
I hope to use my dance experiences to help me in my English 102 multi genre portfolio to explain and argue how dance is a form of communication on social, cultural, and spiritual levels. To research the social communication part of my essay I plan on interviewing some of my former coaches who were U.S. and world champions who are now on adjudication panels for competitions and other people who are experts in the ballroom business. Also for social and cultural communication I will research the connection with body language and dance. The cultural communication through dance will require research into some modern dance companies that communicate themes of cultures and social issues like Alvin Ailey, for instance, who have used dance to communicate the trials and unique history African-American culture. For the spiritual communication through dance part of my argument, I will do research into mythology and religion. Through these and other resources I hope to learn more in the academic sense about the deeper connection of dance with all people of the world, and go beyond the glitz and physical aspects of dance that are more obvious.
The film I chose to watch for analysis is “Footloose.” It’s about a man moving to another part of the country where he doesn’t fit in, but also there is a religious issue of dance being banned in the county because it’s considered sinful. The way the characters deal with their religious beliefs about dance and how dance brings different types of people together through dance will be useful to my topic.
I might need to defend that dance isn’t just something that is a means of entertainment, that is more than just a way to have fun and exercise, and that it is in someway apart of everyone’s communication- not just “artsy” people. One way to defend this and make it more interesting is to tie dance communication into ways things like courtship and showing dance in ways most people don’t realize.
The most challenging of the smaller assignments will probably be posting the blog and drawing cartoons. Both of those assignments are areas that I have little or know experience. The sole fear of mismanaging my time and failing me is the largest challenge I foresee having to overcome.
I am excited to learning more about dance. I’m also excited to share the great things about dance with others. I am nervous about the assignments and the short amount of time overwhelming me. I’m going to need to take it one step at a time, and keep it simple.During the course of the semester, I hope to successfully complete my multi genre portfolio, and learn something about my self and what I am capable of under pressure. But most of all, I hope to use this project as a way to pay homage to something that has not only saved my life more than once, but also gave me an education and a life full of unique and meaningful experiences.
posted by michelle @ 9:56 AM
0 comments
Monday, July 17, 2006
annotated bibliography
Bibliography
Barrett, Sondra. Interview with Anna Halprin. Healing Health Care Communications.(1993).
Sondra Barrett, Ph.D., is a medical scientist who has also been on the Board of Directors of Tamalpa Institute and designs health-care programs in psychoneuroimmunology interviews Anna Halprin who created the Tamalpa Institiute. This interview about “the role of healing and how is this communicated” will give a unique example of dance being a nonverbal way of communication that deals with healing. The interview discusses how Halprin uses dance to help people with illnesses like cancer and AIDS.
Burgoon, Judee K, and Buller, David B, and Woodall, W. Gill. Nonverbal Communication: The
Unspoken Dialouge. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1996.
This book is written by three professors that have a range of expertise to draw from. Burgoon is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in communication at the U of A, Buller is an Associate Professor of communication at U of A, and Woodall is an Associate Professor of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico. All have done research and/or authored books on nonverbal communication. This book will be helpful in defining nonverbal communication and link the importance of it to cultural and social communication.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount, 1984.
This film is about a high school city boy that moves to a small farming town with his mother and all the problems that come from being an outsider. The central argument that is in this film is about trusting. One of the trust issues in the film is about dancing. Dancing is illegal in the town because the preacher and other adults are terrified that it will lead the youth down the path of sinfulness and ruin. The main character brings up the idea of having a senior dance and uses the bible to support his argument. The film will be useful to my paper because it will be an example of the different ways dance is thought of in religion and society.
Feldman, Robert S, and Rime, Bernard, ed. Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior.
Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1991.
This anthology has research from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and multiple other disciplines. The articles cover nonverbal communication topics on biological, sociodevelopmental, and cognitive approaches. There is also research on expression and gestures. The various articles will help to further define nonverbal communication and it’s importance in effective communication.
Hanna, Judith Lynne. To Dance is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.
The author, Hanna views dance as not only a physical behavior but also a cultural, social, economic, political, and communicative behavior. She defines it as “a conceptual natural language with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings.” Through this view point, the author links nonverbal communication and dance, and also explores reasons for its unique benefits.
Ishee, Jimmy, ed. “Nonverbal Peer Pressure Teaches Adolescents to Avoid Risk.”
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. 74.7 (2003): 8, 19.
This article discusses adolescents and an exploratory study the showed that, “a substancial number of youths may experience, feel pressure from, and comply with various forms of nonverbal peer pressure.” It considers the importance of educating youths on nonverbal communication. This article will support the importance and presence of nonverbal communication in society.
Kemp, Martin. “Form Becomes Feeling.” Nature. 25 May 2006: 410.
The author, a professor at the University of Oxford, comments on Siobhan Davies and her troupe of dancers who are experimenting with exposing dancers and other people to situations like an operation to create new “dance vocabulary.” The situation discussed in the shows science and dance linked in an abstract way.
Peick, Melissa. “Dance as Communication: Messages Sent and Received Through Dance.”
UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research VIII. (2005):1-11.
Peick does research to study the social setting of the dance floor at various bars and night clubs to examine the nonverbal communication the takes place on the dance floor. The author uses haptics, proxemics, and kinesics to show how people nonverbally communicate “flirting, confidence, sexuality, self-esteem, etc.” This study will help me link social aspects of dance to nonverbal communication.
Barrett, Sondra. Interview with Anna Halprin. Healing Health Care Communications.(1993).
Sondra Barrett, Ph.D., is a medical scientist who has also been on the Board of Directors of Tamalpa Institute and designs health-care programs in psychoneuroimmunology interviews Anna Halprin who created the Tamalpa Institiute. This interview about “the role of healing and how is this communicated” will give a unique example of dance being a nonverbal way of communication that deals with healing. The interview discusses how Halprin uses dance to help people with illnesses like cancer and AIDS.
Burgoon, Judee K, and Buller, David B, and Woodall, W. Gill. Nonverbal Communication: The
Unspoken Dialouge. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1996.
This book is written by three professors that have a range of expertise to draw from. Burgoon is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in communication at the U of A, Buller is an Associate Professor of communication at U of A, and Woodall is an Associate Professor of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico. All have done research and/or authored books on nonverbal communication. This book will be helpful in defining nonverbal communication and link the importance of it to cultural and social communication.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount, 1984.
This film is about a high school city boy that moves to a small farming town with his mother and all the problems that come from being an outsider. The central argument that is in this film is about trusting. One of the trust issues in the film is about dancing. Dancing is illegal in the town because the preacher and other adults are terrified that it will lead the youth down the path of sinfulness and ruin. The main character brings up the idea of having a senior dance and uses the bible to support his argument. The film will be useful to my paper because it will be an example of the different ways dance is thought of in religion and society.
Feldman, Robert S, and Rime, Bernard, ed. Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior.
Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1991.
This anthology has research from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and multiple other disciplines. The articles cover nonverbal communication topics on biological, sociodevelopmental, and cognitive approaches. There is also research on expression and gestures. The various articles will help to further define nonverbal communication and it’s importance in effective communication.
Hanna, Judith Lynne. To Dance is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.
The author, Hanna views dance as not only a physical behavior but also a cultural, social, economic, political, and communicative behavior. She defines it as “a conceptual natural language with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings.” Through this view point, the author links nonverbal communication and dance, and also explores reasons for its unique benefits.
Ishee, Jimmy, ed. “Nonverbal Peer Pressure Teaches Adolescents to Avoid Risk.”
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. 74.7 (2003): 8, 19.
This article discusses adolescents and an exploratory study the showed that, “a substancial number of youths may experience, feel pressure from, and comply with various forms of nonverbal peer pressure.” It considers the importance of educating youths on nonverbal communication. This article will support the importance and presence of nonverbal communication in society.
Kemp, Martin. “Form Becomes Feeling.” Nature. 25 May 2006: 410.
The author, a professor at the University of Oxford, comments on Siobhan Davies and her troupe of dancers who are experimenting with exposing dancers and other people to situations like an operation to create new “dance vocabulary.” The situation discussed in the shows science and dance linked in an abstract way.
Peick, Melissa. “Dance as Communication: Messages Sent and Received Through Dance.”
UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research VIII. (2005):1-11.
Peick does research to study the social setting of the dance floor at various bars and night clubs to examine the nonverbal communication the takes place on the dance floor. The author uses haptics, proxemics, and kinesics to show how people nonverbally communicate “flirting, confidence, sexuality, self-esteem, etc.” This study will help me link social aspects of dance to nonverbal communication.
posted by michelle @ 10:00 AM
0 comments
Sunday, July 16, 2006
film analysis
The Road to Hell
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” When most people hear that old saying, they probably don’t think of the classic 80’s movie, “Footloose.” On the surface, this film looks like it’s just about some high school kid from Chicago, who moves with his mom, to be with family in some small southern Bible Belt town named Bomont. Bomont is a farming town that has laws against things like rock-n-roll music, dancing, and books like Slaughter-house Five, because they all confuse people’s minds, therefore, leading to sinful thinking and loose morals. The intolerance for these things stems from a fatal car accident involving some town teenagers, one of which was the preacher’s son. the accident happened when the kids were driving home from a night out of dancing to rock-n-roll music.
The town leaders, especially the preacher, Shaw Moore, think by banning these things, they will keep everyone safe, physically and spiritually. Throughout the film Moore can be heard speaking of how he feels responsible for the spiritual and moral wellbeing of the congregation. But his good intentions to keep sin away backfire on him, and when he realizes it, he decides to advocate the school dance; he says, “If we cannot trust our children, how will they ever become trustworthy.” This film’s message is about the positive effects of trust, like healthy relationships, and the negative effects that come from over controlling people when there is lack of trust.
An example of lack of trust can be seen in the relationship between Moore and his daughter, Ariel, who is the town wild girl. Throughout the movie, the daughter is doing destructive things like sniffing spray starch, playing chicken with trains and tractor trailers, losing her virginity, dating a town bad boy, and lying to her father. The less he trusts her, the more reckless she gets. He keeps trying to control her, even as far as slapping her in the face and shaking her, to try and get her to behave the way he would like her. When Moore realizes he can’t spiritually micro-manage the whole town, let alone his own daughter, the tension between them eases, and she stops acting out and they start rebuilding their relationship by trusting and communicating again.
The relationship with Ren and his mother, Ethel, which is basically the opposite of the preacher and his daughter, shows an example of what can happen when parents trust their child. During the scenes at home, Ren’s uncle brings up the slanderous rumors that are going around town about Ren; untruths about things like doing drugs and starting fights. While the uncle is accusing Ren of causing trouble, Ethel stands by her son; she even goes as far as to defend him at work when her boss, who believes the rumors, fires her because he thinks she needs to be home more often to so she can be a better mother to Ren. Despite all the tension at home with the uncle, Ethel and Ren have moments where he speaks openly and honestly with her about why he’s so driven to have the school dance. They also talk about his father abandoning them and how it taught him that he has to do something for himself, because changing in hopes that it will make someone else happy doesn’t always work. Their relationship is an example of a parent trusting her teenage son to make good choices and she’s rewarded with a son who is honest with her and resists peer pressure.
Taking the theme a little deeper and going beyond the focus of children and parents, there is another example of the damage that comes from over controlling and lack of trust. Rodger, head of Bomont High School is very focused on keeping “evil from taking root.” Almost every scene he’s in, he is talking about firing an English teacher or fretting about a book that the children shouldn’t be reading. Eventually, there is the turning point of the film; the Preacher Moore is interrupted during a heated argument with his daughter to come running to a courtyard just outside the school library, where there is a barrel full of fire, people yelling and hollering, and Rodger—throwing books into the fire. This disturbing scene is broken up quickly by Moore, who tells them to go home and “sit in judgment” on themselves. Rodger’s fear based lack of trust in teachers, books and the children themselves led him as far as the heinous act of book burning. The act of Rodger burning books was coming from the good intention to protect students from evil taking root in their minds. Moore banning things he believed were dangerous or led to kids to becoming sexually irresponsible was coming from a good intention to take on the spiritual well being of the whole community as well as protect his daughter. Both led down a road to disaster because they were afraid to trust others to think for themselves. After Moore hears some scripture quotes about dancing from Ren at a town counsel meeting, and a conversation with his wife, Vi, about the flaws of feeling responsible for everyone and forgetting what it’s like to be a kid, things turn around and the teenagers get their dance.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” When most people hear that old saying, they probably don’t think of the classic 80’s movie, “Footloose.” On the surface, this film looks like it’s just about some high school kid from Chicago, who moves with his mom, to be with family in some small southern Bible Belt town named Bomont. Bomont is a farming town that has laws against things like rock-n-roll music, dancing, and books like Slaughter-house Five, because they all confuse people’s minds, therefore, leading to sinful thinking and loose morals. The intolerance for these things stems from a fatal car accident involving some town teenagers, one of which was the preacher’s son. the accident happened when the kids were driving home from a night out of dancing to rock-n-roll music.
The town leaders, especially the preacher, Shaw Moore, think by banning these things, they will keep everyone safe, physically and spiritually. Throughout the film Moore can be heard speaking of how he feels responsible for the spiritual and moral wellbeing of the congregation. But his good intentions to keep sin away backfire on him, and when he realizes it, he decides to advocate the school dance; he says, “If we cannot trust our children, how will they ever become trustworthy.” This film’s message is about the positive effects of trust, like healthy relationships, and the negative effects that come from over controlling people when there is lack of trust.
An example of lack of trust can be seen in the relationship between Moore and his daughter, Ariel, who is the town wild girl. Throughout the movie, the daughter is doing destructive things like sniffing spray starch, playing chicken with trains and tractor trailers, losing her virginity, dating a town bad boy, and lying to her father. The less he trusts her, the more reckless she gets. He keeps trying to control her, even as far as slapping her in the face and shaking her, to try and get her to behave the way he would like her. When Moore realizes he can’t spiritually micro-manage the whole town, let alone his own daughter, the tension between them eases, and she stops acting out and they start rebuilding their relationship by trusting and communicating again.
The relationship with Ren and his mother, Ethel, which is basically the opposite of the preacher and his daughter, shows an example of what can happen when parents trust their child. During the scenes at home, Ren’s uncle brings up the slanderous rumors that are going around town about Ren; untruths about things like doing drugs and starting fights. While the uncle is accusing Ren of causing trouble, Ethel stands by her son; she even goes as far as to defend him at work when her boss, who believes the rumors, fires her because he thinks she needs to be home more often to so she can be a better mother to Ren. Despite all the tension at home with the uncle, Ethel and Ren have moments where he speaks openly and honestly with her about why he’s so driven to have the school dance. They also talk about his father abandoning them and how it taught him that he has to do something for himself, because changing in hopes that it will make someone else happy doesn’t always work. Their relationship is an example of a parent trusting her teenage son to make good choices and she’s rewarded with a son who is honest with her and resists peer pressure.
Taking the theme a little deeper and going beyond the focus of children and parents, there is another example of the damage that comes from over controlling and lack of trust. Rodger, head of Bomont High School is very focused on keeping “evil from taking root.” Almost every scene he’s in, he is talking about firing an English teacher or fretting about a book that the children shouldn’t be reading. Eventually, there is the turning point of the film; the Preacher Moore is interrupted during a heated argument with his daughter to come running to a courtyard just outside the school library, where there is a barrel full of fire, people yelling and hollering, and Rodger—throwing books into the fire. This disturbing scene is broken up quickly by Moore, who tells them to go home and “sit in judgment” on themselves. Rodger’s fear based lack of trust in teachers, books and the children themselves led him as far as the heinous act of book burning. The act of Rodger burning books was coming from the good intention to protect students from evil taking root in their minds. Moore banning things he believed were dangerous or led to kids to becoming sexually irresponsible was coming from a good intention to take on the spiritual well being of the whole community as well as protect his daughter. Both led down a road to disaster because they were afraid to trust others to think for themselves. After Moore hears some scripture quotes about dancing from Ren at a town counsel meeting, and a conversation with his wife, Vi, about the flaws of feeling responsible for everyone and forgetting what it’s like to be a kid, things turn around and the teenagers get their dance.
posted by michelle @ 11:46 AM
0 comments
Interview w/ Dr.Ortiz
Transcribed interview with Dr. Joseph Ortiz 18 July 2006
Michelle: Okay, so, first question of the interview is...
Dr. Ortiz: Okay
Michelle: How would you define communication?
Dr. Ortiz: Uh, communication can be defined as a process by which two or more people are, um, exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.
Michelle: Okay, and do you think there’s a difference, oh, what is the difference between expression and communication?
Dr. Ortiz: I think expression can assume a lot of different forms and a lot of different medium, um, and it is, um, basically an artist’s or person’s efforts to convey some kind of idea or feeling or, um, message to, um, a receiver or audience of some sort.
Michelle: Would you say that expression is a type of communication?
Dr. Ortiz: It is, broadly speaking, yes. Yes it is a type of communication.
Michelle: And do you think that dance is a form of communication?
Dr. Ortiz: I think that dance is. It’s a form again broadly speaking of a communication in a sense that it is a choreographer or a dancer’s effort to convey some kind of meaning to an audience or observers so certainly yes.
Michelle: As far as like in social dancing when people are dancing out socially, would you say that there is non-verbal communication taking place?
Dr Ortiz: Oh absolutely there is, and you know that’s really my area is interpersonal communication and in terms of social dance the connection between the two dancers is without a doubt a form of communication in the sense that I defined it initially and most of that is through the contact they have with one another, their ability to coordinate their efforts or not coordinate their efforts, the feeling that get generated between the two individuals, um, you know, depending on their relationship the kind of talk that transpires during the dance itself so certainly I would view it as a form of even interpersonal relation, there’s different types of communication and certainly social dance would to me at least fall into the realm of interpersonal communication.
Michelle: Okay. And as far as like you know some cultures dance or even dance companies like Alvin Ailey dance company a lot of time they have dances or performances that are relating to something in history and trying, you know, to express something that comes from history to pass on…would you say that’s an effective communication?
Dr Ortiz: It is. Yes it’s a form of story telling. In the discipline of communication there is an area known as story telling. You know one of the experts that had been identified for you Linda Hicks that’s one of her areas is story telling and as you indicate, we’ve got a lot of different examples in various cultures of how dance is used to tell stories and to preserve history and to transmit culture and cultural teachings.
Michelle: Okay, is there anything else like anything that comes to your mind as far as dance as communication?
Dr Ortiz: I think what you are grappling with are the levels and types of communication from looking at dance as performance art which is a form of communication to looking at dance as a way of interpersonally bonding with another individual so you know you got on one end this sort of public act that may be culturally specific and form of story and then you’ve got at the other end this sort of one on one connection with one other person that may have absolutely no meaning whatsoever to people watching it.
Michelle: And what about communication…is there a way to define communication with yourself? Does that fall under
Dr. Ortiz: There is…in the area of communication there is what’s known as intra-personal communication so it’s the communication within yourself and the way in which we talk to our self, the way in which we think about our self, self esteem for example would fall in there and so certainly it is an area of communication.
Michelle: Okay. Well, thank you for your time. It was very valuable information.
Dr Ortiz: Your welcome. Good luck with your paper.
Michelle: Okay, so, first question of the interview is...
Dr. Ortiz: Okay
Michelle: How would you define communication?
Dr. Ortiz: Uh, communication can be defined as a process by which two or more people are, um, exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.
Michelle: Okay, and do you think there’s a difference, oh, what is the difference between expression and communication?
Dr. Ortiz: I think expression can assume a lot of different forms and a lot of different medium, um, and it is, um, basically an artist’s or person’s efforts to convey some kind of idea or feeling or, um, message to, um, a receiver or audience of some sort.
Michelle: Would you say that expression is a type of communication?
Dr. Ortiz: It is, broadly speaking, yes. Yes it is a type of communication.
Michelle: And do you think that dance is a form of communication?
Dr. Ortiz: I think that dance is. It’s a form again broadly speaking of a communication in a sense that it is a choreographer or a dancer’s effort to convey some kind of meaning to an audience or observers so certainly yes.
Michelle: As far as like in social dancing when people are dancing out socially, would you say that there is non-verbal communication taking place?
Dr Ortiz: Oh absolutely there is, and you know that’s really my area is interpersonal communication and in terms of social dance the connection between the two dancers is without a doubt a form of communication in the sense that I defined it initially and most of that is through the contact they have with one another, their ability to coordinate their efforts or not coordinate their efforts, the feeling that get generated between the two individuals, um, you know, depending on their relationship the kind of talk that transpires during the dance itself so certainly I would view it as a form of even interpersonal relation, there’s different types of communication and certainly social dance would to me at least fall into the realm of interpersonal communication.
Michelle: Okay. And as far as like you know some cultures dance or even dance companies like Alvin Ailey dance company a lot of time they have dances or performances that are relating to something in history and trying, you know, to express something that comes from history to pass on…would you say that’s an effective communication?
Dr Ortiz: It is. Yes it’s a form of story telling. In the discipline of communication there is an area known as story telling. You know one of the experts that had been identified for you Linda Hicks that’s one of her areas is story telling and as you indicate, we’ve got a lot of different examples in various cultures of how dance is used to tell stories and to preserve history and to transmit culture and cultural teachings.
Michelle: Okay, is there anything else like anything that comes to your mind as far as dance as communication?
Dr Ortiz: I think what you are grappling with are the levels and types of communication from looking at dance as performance art which is a form of communication to looking at dance as a way of interpersonally bonding with another individual so you know you got on one end this sort of public act that may be culturally specific and form of story and then you’ve got at the other end this sort of one on one connection with one other person that may have absolutely no meaning whatsoever to people watching it.
Michelle: And what about communication…is there a way to define communication with yourself? Does that fall under
Dr. Ortiz: There is…in the area of communication there is what’s known as intra-personal communication so it’s the communication within yourself and the way in which we talk to our self, the way in which we think about our self, self esteem for example would fall in there and so certainly it is an area of communication.
Michelle: Okay. Well, thank you for your time. It was very valuable information.
Dr Ortiz: Your welcome. Good luck with your paper.
posted by michelle @ 10:49 AM
0 comments
Saturday, July 15, 2006
argumentative essay
Listen to the Body Talk
Isadora Duncan, known as one of the mothers of modern dance once said, “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.” Some information needs more than just words to get the message across. Long before words, people were using dance to communicate meanings; all over the planet, dancers appeared on ceramics and caves as far back as the Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods (Garfinkel 85). In modern times, the power of communicating with words seems to be more highly prized than the power of communicating through dance. But dance is still a part of modern life even if words seem to be the popular medium of choice in communication. Dance is a significant form of communicating culture.
There are many different ways to communicate. Whether it’s drawing a picture, writing a letter, over the phone, through an email, or face-to-face, communication is the sharing of information; Dr. Ortiz, a professor of communication at Scottsdale Community College defines communication as “a process by which two or more people are exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.” Dance is a type of interpersonal communication that uses facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, kinetics and other nonverbal elements of communication, and occasionally, verbal elements such as musical accompaniment, chanting, singing, and other vocalizations.
Dance uses all of these tools, in various combinations, to communicate history. Many cultures around the world use storytelling, through the medium of dance, to preserve and communicate their history and cultural identity. For example, in Hawaiian culture, hula dancing is not just a quaint tourist attraction, but also a 2000-year-old form of storytelling that has been used to recount epic tales of their history and legends (Ho’omanawanui 86). Hula was proclaimed, “the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people,” in the nineteenth century by Ali’I Nui (king) David La’amea Kalakaua (Ho’omanawanui 86). The Hawaiians felt that the Hula was so important to preserving their culture that they continued to pass on the traditions and teachings of it in secret when it was banned in the 1830’s for being “lewd and lascivious (Ho’omanawanui 86).” The Native American tribes also perpetuated their history and culture through the storytelling medium of dance (Miller 4). Native Americans still meet at powwow dances to tell stories of their warriors, myths and legends that make up their cultures, not only to celebrate their traditions but also to remember them and to share them with the future generations (Miller 4). Dance is so fundamental to perpetuating cultural identity that the U.S. government tried to ban and suppress Native American dance in an attempt to assimilate them into the white man’s culture.
The Argentine Tango is a source of social history and Argentina’s culture. Tango’s own history begins the in bordellos and bars of Argentina in the 1880, where the alienated underclass of immigrants and creoles danced to songs about discontent and passion (Castro 290). By the early 1900s it became a part of pop culture, became more accepted by the rest of society and recognized all over the world (Castro 290). But even today, in a way that cannot be truly expressed by words alone, when there is a tango to be danced, the expression in the music and the movement still express the alienation and passion of the gauchos.
Dance can also communicate traditions because it is apart of so many historical events both personal and public. The waltz is a traditional ingredient at many celebrations throughout life. A girl’s Quinceanera in Mexico, which can be likened to a U.S. girl’s sweet sixteen or debutante coming out party, traditionally signifies a girl’s sexual maturity, that she is ready for marriage. This rite of passage usually includes a party with dancing, the most important dance being the waltz she dances with her father, her last dance as a little girl, symbolizing the passing of her childhood to womanhood. When a woman marries, she will dance a waltz at her wedding with her husband, symbolically marking a new chapter in their lives with a dance. The waltz is also a part of ringing in the New Year. New Year’s Eve balls in Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world will celebrate the holiday each year with the Viennese Waltz. Traditionally waltz is also the last dance of the evening.
Whether it happens to be a waltz or the chicken dance, dancing takes place and is the focal point of other significant moments in life that communicate culture and custom. The high school prom is important to many adolescents; and even if only their parents realize it at the time, the senior prom marks the passage of American adolescence, graduating high school and moving on to college. The homecoming dances traditionally take place at the beginning of the fall semester and, when students “come back home” from summer vacation and resume their studies. In the movie “Footloose,” the main character, Ren, is campaigning for a high school senior dance in his town. When Ren is before the town council, he quotes scriptures from the bible that are about times to dance. We also makes a speech about it being, “our time to dance,” meaning it’s time for his senior class to celebrate where they are in life. Dance punctuates these rites of passage and defining moments that humans share, thereby communicating the traditions that make up cultures.
Social skills are also communicated through dance. Senior lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yosef Garfinkel, notes that in pre-urban and pre-state societies, dancing was “an activity that organizes individuals and collectively disciplines them” (85). He also noted, “Those who participate in the dance accept the rules of the community and its rules” (85). Social skills help people interact with others successfully within a culture even now, in modern times. This can be seen in the way dance affects children’s social behaviors. In the film, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” three different fifth grade classes of New York City’s public elementary schools are taught ballroom dancing and prepare for a competition. There is a noticeable change in the students as the film progresses, they carry themselves more confidently, come to class on time with their shirts tucked in, and treat each other and the teachers with more respect as they learn their rumbas and foxtrots. One of the teachers gets emotional when she is interviewed because she is so proud of how they’ve become, “little ladies and gentlemen.” In Korea, there was a study done with three kindergarten boys who, according to their teachers, showed social isolation, and were diagnosed by a pediatric psychiatry hospital as having maladaptive behaviors such as, hitting, table banging, biting, and throwing temper tantrums (Lee et al. 42). The boys were included in a group of kindergarten children that did not show maladaptive behaviors and they were all taught a program which “focused on dancing and touching peers to the words of a song” (Lee et al. 42). After sing, touching, and dancing to the “Hokey Pokey” and “Put You Finger in the Air” over a period of thirty-five sessions, the three boys’ frequency of inappropriate behaviors when down and their appropriate response behaviors when up, both considerably (Lee et al. 42). According to an article in Early Childhood Education Journal, “When dance is integrated into the curriculum, particularly when learning about other cultures, children benefit in many ways: body awareness and control, personal confidence and esteem, and cultural understanding and respect” (Lutz and Kuhlman 40).
Unfortunately, even though dance is an integral part of transmitting culture, this capability is virtually ignored by the general public. In a random survey that was taken of people on the street in Phoenix, when asked if they thought dance was a valuable way of communicating culture, most people said, “no.” And the fact that dance is only taught as an elective class in high school, or it’s something that has to be learned as an extra curricular activity, is proof that society doesn’t realize the potential dance has in communicating culture. At best, the general public appears to view dance as entertainment.
But dance is more than just entertainment. “Dance is found in almost every society and has always been as much a form of social and religious expression as it is a creative one” (Garfinkel 84). Maybe in the 21st century, the United States, dance can be considered entertainment, but presently, in Afghanistan and Indonesia dancing is being banned in order to disestablish certain religious beliefs that don’t align with the governments’ beliefs (Talamantes 356). Maybe we’re missing out valuable meanings and insights cultures by undervaluing the messages that only dance can convey.
Works Cited
Castro, Donald s. “The Soul of the People: The Tango as a Source for Argentine Social History.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 (1990): 270-296.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount 1984.
Garfinkel, Yosef. “The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East.” Near Eastern Archaeology 66:3 (2003): 84-95.
Ho’omanawanui, Ku’ualoha. “Kanaka Maol; Empowerment Through Literature.” American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring (2004): 86-91.
Lee, Sang Bok, et al. “Encouraging Social Skills Through Dance: An Inclusion Program in Korea.” Teaching Exceptional Children 34.5 (2002): 40-44.
Lutz,Tamara, and Kuhlman, Wilma D. “Learning About Children Through Dance in Kindergarten Classrooms.” Early Childhood Education Journal 28.1 (2000): 35-40.
Mad Hot Ballroom. Dir. Marilyn Agrelo. Paramount 2003.
Miller, Heather Andrews. “Dance Reflects Tradition and History.” Windspeaker June 2006: 4.
Ortiz, Dr. Joseph. Personal interview. 18 July 2006.
Talamantes, Maria. “Performance of Identity: The Pelegonga Andir of Tista, Bali.” Asian Theatre Journal 23.2 (2006): 356-373.
Isadora Duncan, known as one of the mothers of modern dance once said, “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.” Some information needs more than just words to get the message across. Long before words, people were using dance to communicate meanings; all over the planet, dancers appeared on ceramics and caves as far back as the Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods (Garfinkel 85). In modern times, the power of communicating with words seems to be more highly prized than the power of communicating through dance. But dance is still a part of modern life even if words seem to be the popular medium of choice in communication. Dance is a significant form of communicating culture.
There are many different ways to communicate. Whether it’s drawing a picture, writing a letter, over the phone, through an email, or face-to-face, communication is the sharing of information; Dr. Ortiz, a professor of communication at Scottsdale Community College defines communication as “a process by which two or more people are exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.” Dance is a type of interpersonal communication that uses facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, kinetics and other nonverbal elements of communication, and occasionally, verbal elements such as musical accompaniment, chanting, singing, and other vocalizations.
Dance uses all of these tools, in various combinations, to communicate history. Many cultures around the world use storytelling, through the medium of dance, to preserve and communicate their history and cultural identity. For example, in Hawaiian culture, hula dancing is not just a quaint tourist attraction, but also a 2000-year-old form of storytelling that has been used to recount epic tales of their history and legends (Ho’omanawanui 86). Hula was proclaimed, “the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people,” in the nineteenth century by Ali’I Nui (king) David La’amea Kalakaua (Ho’omanawanui 86). The Hawaiians felt that the Hula was so important to preserving their culture that they continued to pass on the traditions and teachings of it in secret when it was banned in the 1830’s for being “lewd and lascivious (Ho’omanawanui 86).” The Native American tribes also perpetuated their history and culture through the storytelling medium of dance (Miller 4). Native Americans still meet at powwow dances to tell stories of their warriors, myths and legends that make up their cultures, not only to celebrate their traditions but also to remember them and to share them with the future generations (Miller 4). Dance is so fundamental to perpetuating cultural identity that the U.S. government tried to ban and suppress Native American dance in an attempt to assimilate them into the white man’s culture.
The Argentine Tango is a source of social history and Argentina’s culture. Tango’s own history begins the in bordellos and bars of Argentina in the 1880, where the alienated underclass of immigrants and creoles danced to songs about discontent and passion (Castro 290). By the early 1900s it became a part of pop culture, became more accepted by the rest of society and recognized all over the world (Castro 290). But even today, in a way that cannot be truly expressed by words alone, when there is a tango to be danced, the expression in the music and the movement still express the alienation and passion of the gauchos.
Dance can also communicate traditions because it is apart of so many historical events both personal and public. The waltz is a traditional ingredient at many celebrations throughout life. A girl’s Quinceanera in Mexico, which can be likened to a U.S. girl’s sweet sixteen or debutante coming out party, traditionally signifies a girl’s sexual maturity, that she is ready for marriage. This rite of passage usually includes a party with dancing, the most important dance being the waltz she dances with her father, her last dance as a little girl, symbolizing the passing of her childhood to womanhood. When a woman marries, she will dance a waltz at her wedding with her husband, symbolically marking a new chapter in their lives with a dance. The waltz is also a part of ringing in the New Year. New Year’s Eve balls in Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world will celebrate the holiday each year with the Viennese Waltz. Traditionally waltz is also the last dance of the evening.
Whether it happens to be a waltz or the chicken dance, dancing takes place and is the focal point of other significant moments in life that communicate culture and custom. The high school prom is important to many adolescents; and even if only their parents realize it at the time, the senior prom marks the passage of American adolescence, graduating high school and moving on to college. The homecoming dances traditionally take place at the beginning of the fall semester and, when students “come back home” from summer vacation and resume their studies. In the movie “Footloose,” the main character, Ren, is campaigning for a high school senior dance in his town. When Ren is before the town council, he quotes scriptures from the bible that are about times to dance. We also makes a speech about it being, “our time to dance,” meaning it’s time for his senior class to celebrate where they are in life. Dance punctuates these rites of passage and defining moments that humans share, thereby communicating the traditions that make up cultures.
Social skills are also communicated through dance. Senior lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yosef Garfinkel, notes that in pre-urban and pre-state societies, dancing was “an activity that organizes individuals and collectively disciplines them” (85). He also noted, “Those who participate in the dance accept the rules of the community and its rules” (85). Social skills help people interact with others successfully within a culture even now, in modern times. This can be seen in the way dance affects children’s social behaviors. In the film, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” three different fifth grade classes of New York City’s public elementary schools are taught ballroom dancing and prepare for a competition. There is a noticeable change in the students as the film progresses, they carry themselves more confidently, come to class on time with their shirts tucked in, and treat each other and the teachers with more respect as they learn their rumbas and foxtrots. One of the teachers gets emotional when she is interviewed because she is so proud of how they’ve become, “little ladies and gentlemen.” In Korea, there was a study done with three kindergarten boys who, according to their teachers, showed social isolation, and were diagnosed by a pediatric psychiatry hospital as having maladaptive behaviors such as, hitting, table banging, biting, and throwing temper tantrums (Lee et al. 42). The boys were included in a group of kindergarten children that did not show maladaptive behaviors and they were all taught a program which “focused on dancing and touching peers to the words of a song” (Lee et al. 42). After sing, touching, and dancing to the “Hokey Pokey” and “Put You Finger in the Air” over a period of thirty-five sessions, the three boys’ frequency of inappropriate behaviors when down and their appropriate response behaviors when up, both considerably (Lee et al. 42). According to an article in Early Childhood Education Journal, “When dance is integrated into the curriculum, particularly when learning about other cultures, children benefit in many ways: body awareness and control, personal confidence and esteem, and cultural understanding and respect” (Lutz and Kuhlman 40).
Unfortunately, even though dance is an integral part of transmitting culture, this capability is virtually ignored by the general public. In a random survey that was taken of people on the street in Phoenix, when asked if they thought dance was a valuable way of communicating culture, most people said, “no.” And the fact that dance is only taught as an elective class in high school, or it’s something that has to be learned as an extra curricular activity, is proof that society doesn’t realize the potential dance has in communicating culture. At best, the general public appears to view dance as entertainment.
But dance is more than just entertainment. “Dance is found in almost every society and has always been as much a form of social and religious expression as it is a creative one” (Garfinkel 84). Maybe in the 21st century, the United States, dance can be considered entertainment, but presently, in Afghanistan and Indonesia dancing is being banned in order to disestablish certain religious beliefs that don’t align with the governments’ beliefs (Talamantes 356). Maybe we’re missing out valuable meanings and insights cultures by undervaluing the messages that only dance can convey.
Works Cited
Castro, Donald s. “The Soul of the People: The Tango as a Source for Argentine Social History.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 (1990): 270-296.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount 1984.
Garfinkel, Yosef. “The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East.” Near Eastern Archaeology 66:3 (2003): 84-95.
Ho’omanawanui, Ku’ualoha. “Kanaka Maol; Empowerment Through Literature.” American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring (2004): 86-91.
Lee, Sang Bok, et al. “Encouraging Social Skills Through Dance: An Inclusion Program in Korea.” Teaching Exceptional Children 34.5 (2002): 40-44.
Lutz,Tamara, and Kuhlman, Wilma D. “Learning About Children Through Dance in Kindergarten Classrooms.” Early Childhood Education Journal 28.1 (2000): 35-40.
Mad Hot Ballroom. Dir. Marilyn Agrelo. Paramount 2003.
Miller, Heather Andrews. “Dance Reflects Tradition and History.” Windspeaker June 2006: 4.
Ortiz, Dr. Joseph. Personal interview. 18 July 2006.
Talamantes, Maria. “Performance of Identity: The Pelegonga Andir of Tista, Bali.” Asian Theatre Journal 23.2 (2006): 356-373.
posted by michelle @ 10:54 AM
0 comments
Thursday, July 13, 2006
personal writing piece
Tango Dream Sequence
The moment my partner draws me into the tango embrace I am transported into a time before I was born and a place that I have never been.
He puts his arm around my waist, we tilt our heads in repose, and as I wrap my arm around his shoulder, lean forward, and rest my hand on the back of his neck.
We touch foreheads.
Then I close my eyes and let the tango take over.
In my mind I’m at a tango salon in Buenos Aries, dancing with a gaucho. I hear the bandoneon play, and I get emotional. Astor Piazzola’s “Libertango” is playing, my favorite. Everthing is blurring now… the smell of the bordello, the sweat and smoke, the dark lighting makes all the other dancers seem like ghosts in black fishnet stockings and hats cocked forward, moving in and out of shadows. The Lufando, the lauguage of the criminals they use in the tango songs, sounds sad and passionate. Even though I don’t know what the words mean, I understand the words.
The moment my partner draws me into the tango embrace I am transported into a time before I was born and a place that I have never been.
He puts his arm around my waist, we tilt our heads in repose, and as I wrap my arm around his shoulder, lean forward, and rest my hand on the back of his neck.
We touch foreheads.
Then I close my eyes and let the tango take over.
In my mind I’m at a tango salon in Buenos Aries, dancing with a gaucho. I hear the bandoneon play, and I get emotional. Astor Piazzola’s “Libertango” is playing, my favorite. Everthing is blurring now… the smell of the bordello, the sweat and smoke, the dark lighting makes all the other dancers seem like ghosts in black fishnet stockings and hats cocked forward, moving in and out of shadows. The Lufando, the lauguage of the criminals they use in the tango songs, sounds sad and passionate. Even though I don’t know what the words mean, I understand the words.
posted by michelle @ 11:50 AM
0 comments
