Q: What is BEAUTIFUL? A:Rockin' Choreography!

Day 4 of  our series "Beautiful is Creativity". Today CREATIVITY is ROCKIN' CHOREOGRAPHY! I think of dancers alot like teachers, totally vital to the growth of the exploration of the world and deserving of a whole lot more cha-ching $$$. I mean dancers bring vibrant messages of peace, equality, pain, struggle, triumph and joy to life by quite literally giving it tangible arms, feet and heart.

Of course those messages would never come to life had a choreographer not scripted and pounded away the hours to get the arm's sharp and the plies right! Choreographers have the BEAUTIFUL job of not only giving a voice to the message behind the dancing, but they give the dancers an opportunity to use their creative BEAUTY in a collaborative and fulfilling ways.

Shawn is BEAUTIFUL!

One of my favorite choreographers is the BEAUTIFUL, Shawn Vitale.  Shawn and I were cheerleaders together in high school. While she went back and forth with our coach  busting out some seriously edgy dance moves, I preferred to hang out in "Gallery Irvina".... AKA, " in my head" sketching artsy and way too elaborate posters for football games.... meaning Shawn ended up with the job of re-teaching me all the dance moves I got in trouble for not paying attention to or memorizing. Low and behold, today I'm an Art Teacher and Shawn is a Professional Dancer and Choreographer. Shawn is actually in Detroit right now filming Harold and Kumar 3. She is a dancer in the movie. When she's not filming movies, Shawn is still helping teenage girls learn some killer moves and see themselves as BEAUTIFUL by discovering how BEAUTIFUL  the traits of HARD WORK, PERSERVERANCE and COMMITMENT are.  

Here is one of Shawn's BEAUTIFUL and AWESOME pieces of choreography called Freak Show that she taught to a group of her teenage students for a dance competition. I absolutely just LOVE this amazingly rockin' and BEAUTIFUL choreography! *Now I have to tell all you "Parental Units" out there that the word "Sexy" is in this video below (cue GASP!) Yes Sexy, Sexy, Sexy, Sexy! If you have a problem with seeing teenage girls dance to music with the word "Sexy" in it, I totally understand. I'm a Teacher and I'm way protective of my students and want to make sure they are learning things at an age appropriate time where they can process it. However, as a teacher I also know that today we live in a society where 12 year old girls want to be "Sexy". So instead of pointing blame at whose fault that is I ask that you take ownership of that fact and CHANGE how your daughter sees the word "Sexy". Is "Sexy" about wearing provocative clothes and flirting with boys? Or is "Sexy" about having confidence, sticking up for yourself and your friends, finding your own dress code and deciding what makes you BEAUTIFUL without asking for anyone's permission? Pretty deep thoughts for the opening of a dance performance eh? Think about it.. TALK about it and enjoy the show...