Episode 12 - Dance & Criticism

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today I'm joined by a friend and fellow dancer, Cindy Ye. Cindy is a graduate student and extremely talented dancer. Our paths crossed when we were in the same university club, and we had a very fun conversation about our experiences returning to a dance studio/club as well as our thoughts on covers vs. reinterpretations of dances. Please mind my use of the non-word "reinterpretated", clearly I just wasn't really thinking before I spoke, haha!

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! We've all had good and bad teachers/coaches--let that be in school or our chosen extra-curricular. Today I'm talking about two of the most memorable "bad" dance teachers (one technically wasn't bad, she was just a little quirky) and some of the memories I have of them.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance podcast! Today we change up the formula a little bit and we're talking specifically about the big new that has impacted my dance life in 2024. This episode had been in the works since January and the real life events that inspired these episodes kept on getting "sequel" moments until the episode evolved into what it became.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today I'm joined by old friend and fellow dancer, Angelina Tram. Angelina is also a dancer who has their roots in Chinese dance, and she was able to find time to sit down and chat with me about our mutual love for Chinese dance, some of our moments together doing martial arts, as well as our proposed business plan for 2035.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today, we're talking about Chinese dance again, specifically about my journey to bring Chinese dance (the art form) to my university campus, the ups and the downs. I'm trying something new by incorporating some of the dance music as segue music but also as a more quantifiable way to talk about dance, a visual medium, using an auditory medium. Message our Instagram (@freestylethoughts_podofficial) if you hate it, love it. The dances references are all here: Zui Chun Feng (audio mishap, awkward speech excluded), Zui Chun Feng (campus LNY event, awkward speech INCLUDED), Tian Yu (Cypher, good speech)

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today, we continue our conversation with Justin from last week. Last week, we talked about various thoughts on dance ranging from the payoff of a performance versus the hard work of practice to our shared experience through our university dance club. This week we conclude our conversation by talking more about directing, and specifically a dance that Justin directed a couple of years ago.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today, I'm joined by a good friend and fellow dancer, Justin Lee. Justin Lee is hard working, recreational dancer who graciously gave up some of his time to have a discussion with me. We chatted about our various thoughts on the payoff of performance versus their practices, on auditions, and more.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Inspired by overhearing a conversation a while back, I wanted to take the time to talk about criticism in dance: what is and isn't good critical feedback, when it is productive to critique, and how we should approach it. It can be a difficult conversation and meta-conversation to have so I thought that it would be good to share my opinions on criticism in the dance space and some of my experience with it, the good and the bad.

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today I'm recounting some of my memories from when I was directing dances in my final year of university and reflecting on how dance is truly a team effort.Video Links:Trust Fund Baby: Performance, Filmed Vers.Sorry Not Sorry: Performance

Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! I've done a lot of Chinese dances over the years, but the one that I'm proudest of having done is called 八女投江 (bānǔ tóujiāng), which depicts the story of 8 Chinese female soldiers during WWII. It's a very different dance from a lot of the other Chinese dances we've talked about on this podcast, but in today's episode, I reflect on some of the challenges I faced while I was practicing and learning this dance, as well as some of the fun little anecdotes that came out of hard practice. Video Links: Pro version: 八女投江Practice version: 八女投江