My name is Crystal Wong, and I am currently a fourth year dance major with a literary journalism minor. Today, I’m going to show you what a day in the life of a dance major is like!
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 8:00 am – 3:30 pm
My morning usually begins bright and early at 8 am. My first class of the day is at 9:30 am, but I like to give myself a little over an hour to get ready and make it to class on time. After finding the willpower to leave my comfy and cozy bed, the first thing I’ll do is make my way to the bathroom and do my usual morning routine that consists of brushing my teeth, putting on simple mascara, and filling in my eyebrows to make myself look less sleep deprived and do my hair.
Since I am a dance major, most of my classes revolve around technique dance classes, such as ballet class or modern class. For today, my only technique class is ballet, which means I have to put my hair up in a tight bun. Usually I like to go with my go-to high bun, but sometimes I like to keep my bun low if I have some extra time. But for today, I kept with my usual and swept my hair up into a high bun.
After changing into a blue leotard and pulling on a sweater and leggings, I’ll make my way into my kitchen and make some breakfast. I don’t usually have time to cook myself an elaborate breakfast, so my usual is usually milk and cereal or a banana. But today, I microwaved myself a Hot Pocket (these are quick and convenient as you can eat these while walking to school).
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days as I have back to back classes four in a row. My first class of the day is ballet at 9:30 am, and I find it a nice way to start the day – energized and ready to take on the rest of the day after sweating it out for an hour and twenty minutes (dance technique classes are usually about two hours long on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).
Next is a dance core class called Laban Studies, which is a movement analysis class that is also a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting human movement.
Because I am also minoring in literary journalism, I have to run across campus to my next class: True Crime, a class dedicated to learning about true crime writing. It’s currently one of my favorite classes of the fall quarter because the topic itself is so interesting! We get to read nonfiction true crime books and discuss the homicides that take place throughout each book .
My last class of the day takes me all the way back to the Claire Trevor School of the Arts: a Dance and Video class awaits me. This class is more of a hands-on class where we get to learn how to film and choreograph dance concept videos as well as learn how to edit them with computer programs. One of the projects that I look forward to working on later on is a dance reel. I find it helpful that we get to learn how to compile a dance reel because this can help prepare and launch dance majors into their future careers.
It’s now 3:30 pm, and my classes for the day are finished. Luckily for me, rehearsals for upcoming shows and senior theses have not come up yet. However, it’s only a matter of time until I get swamped with two hour dance technique classes every day followed by rehearsals late into the night and papers to write. Until then, I’m just going to enjoy my free time!