Rule no. 1 of college: “Always read the course description.”
Think you have a good idea of what the class is all about? Read the course description. I learned this important lesson during my first semester of college.
At the University of Iowa, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences requires students to take 3 semester hours of a performance-based class. I decided to take a dance class. I was interested in ballet, but I settled on a course called Beginning Jazz. In high school, I was Hope Harcourt in “Anything Goes” and every dance number had jazz music in it. I assumed Beginning Jazz would be a similar style to what I had done in some of the dance numbers in “Anything Goes.”
On the first day of class, I rushed up the stairs in Halsey Hall and I triple checked to make sure I had the right classroom. One minute before class started a girl stuck her head in the classroom and asked, “Is this jazz?” to which my instructor responded, “Yes, this is hip-hop.”
I felt my face turn white. Hip hop? I turned to the girl standing next to me and checked with her to make sure I was in the right class. As it turns out, Beginning Jazz was a hip-hop class, which was clearly stated in the course description. I had made the mistake of not reading the course description. So there I was, in a classroom of fifty people who were excited to learn hip-hop. I was too scared to walk out of the class in front of all of those people, so I stayed for the entire first class.
Rule no. 2 of college: Embrace the spontaneity of things that happen to you.
I am the last person you would expect to be doing the Charlie Rock Step or The Party Machine, but I decided not to drop Beginning Jazz. I decided that taking hip-hop would be an interesting experience. Hip-hop was something I knew absolutely nothing about. How could I decide that I didn’t like it if I didn’t know what it was all about? If I had accidentally taken Organic Chemistry, I feel like I would have a justifiable reason to drop the class after one class period. But, this was different, I didn’t know anything about it.
I decided to ditch my fear of the unknown and continue with the course. After all, everyone should have a class in their schedule that is stimulating and new! The class has proven to be challenging, but the experience has widened my horizons. I learned about urban dance culture and the history of hip-hop dance. The creation of hip-hop dance is credited to African Africans and Lantinx youth in the Bronx in New York City in the 1970s. At this time unemployment was rampant and around 30,000 fires were set in the Bronx. In response, the youth of the Bronx gathered in the streets to dance. In my class, we talked about how hip-hop gave a voice to the youth of the Bronx at this time. The style has evolved since the 70s. Hip-hop has become commercialized due to its popularity in pop culture. I learned about the appropriation of hip-hop and how most of the hip-hop dance on TV is not an accurate representation of hip-hop culture.
Additionally, I have never been the type of person who sits down and listens to Outkast, J Lo or Macklemore. This class exposed me to a variety of hip-hop music that I wouldn’t have listened to on my own. I’ve even added a few songs that we listen to in class to my playlists. The experience has taught me about different cultures and ideas. And isn’t that what college is all about?
Image Credit: 1
Historical Context Source: “Beginning Hip Hop Dance” by E. Moncell Durden, Chapter 6