Literature magazine by Miriam

World of dance Literature Digital Magazine

Miriam JimĂŠnez

Content Introduction .......................................................................................................................................2 Poem ..................................................................................................................................................3 Article .................................................................................................................................................4 Essay...................................................................................................................................................7 Autobiography .................................................................................................................................10 Short Story .......................................................................................................................................12 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................18

Introduction As Scott Fitzgerald once said “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say”, I’m writting because I have several things to say. This magazine is made up by a poem, an article, an essay, a autobiography and a short story. All of those texts are related to the theme “dance”, I really want people get to know this topic; I’m keen on dancing and every since I started to dance, I always get amaze of all the things that are requier for being a dancer. As you may know, society often understimate dancers but they don’t realize everything dancing involves and all the advantages it has. First of all, the poem talks about a girl that fell in love while she was dancing. It narrates how her life and her dancing started to change since the first time she saw that special guy. The article is called More than dancing because It explains all the things and advantages that are involved while people dance. Personally, I like this texts because it will teach you many things usually people ignore about dancing. On the other hand, the essay demands respect for any kind of artist, focusing on dancers. It shows the dancers’ reality; believe me, you won’t understimate dancers once you read it. In fact, I think you will be amaze of them. For a change, the autobiography is mostly about my life. I only mention the important facts of it but, as I already said, it is also realated with dancing. Finally, the short story is similar to the poem. It narrates Alicia’s life since she entered to a dance academy; it may seems an irrelevant event but it completely changed her life. In there, she met to a boy called Antonio. As you can imagine, he was the life’s changing person that came into Alicia’s life.

Poem She is dancing.

She was dancing the first time their eyes met Making up side down her whole world She will never forget that day Even though everything seems blured

Now she remember those brown eyes… That perfect smile He makes her lose control Even when she is dancing her favourite song

They started dancing on the rhythm of love Laughing, crying, fighting Feeling below the world and sometimes above But nothing really matters while they keep on dancing

This story haven’t finished And I don’t think it ever will But everytime you want to know more about it Just remember: She is dancing with him

Article More than dancing What is dance? “To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking”-Agnes de Mille. Every movement is a beautiful language each dancer speaks in order to express their selves. Some people think dance is a hobby, other that is an excersise but the most accurate thinking is that dancing is a lifestyle. Workout Have you ever listened “dancing is easy”? or “dancing is not a sport”? Well, for being a dancer it is requiered to have an extreme workout. Any dancer will tell everyone how they workout in order to change their way of thinking about dancers. The workout’s intensity depends on the dance you choose but in all type of dance you will do physical activity. Dancing will increase your physical condition and surely, youl’ll see physical changes. (Mellardo, s.f.) Dancers are artist As Shanna LaFleur once said: “It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer” Every improvisation, choreography or movement that a dancer does, is a marvelous work of art. It is unbelievable how dancers can make you feel different emotion without touching you. They become one with the music. Every dance seems like a magical story, where each dancer is a narrator expressing themselves through corporal movements. Dancers literally paint the music. Cognitive Skills

One of the dance’s benefits is that it “makes you smarter”. It stimulates different brain activities such as kinesthetic, rational, emotional and musical at the same time. A 21 year study of a senior citizens shows how different activities offer protection againts dementia:

Stadistics 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Reading

Bicycling & Swimming

Crossword puzzle (at least 4 a week)

Golf

Dancing

Dr. Robert Katzman says that dancers have a bigger cognitive reserve and also have the ability to increase their complexity of neuronal synapses. Also, it improves the memory and the ability of thinking in a fast way. (Powers, s.f.) Be happier and less stressed Dancing is literaly an escape from reality because it makes you forget everything else. Many researches proves dancers are less stressed and happier than normal people. Swedish researches made a study with 112 teenagers (girls) that have depression, anxiety, stress or neck pain. 56 of them entered to dance classes while the others didn’t. The first 56, improved their mental health, 5

while the others stayed exactly the same. Another study made by Psychology Today proves that dancing makes you happier than doing excersise, going to the gym or running. (Bergland, s.f.) So, dancing can bring many benefits to your life, more than you thought. Can you imagine something that will improve your health, your physical activity, cognitive skills, makes you happier, less stressed and, the most important, that you enjoy it. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine it, just dance! References

Bergland, C. (s.f.). Psychology Today. Obtenido de psychologytoday.com Mellardo, A. (s.f.). Elite Daily. Obtenido de elitedaily.com Powers, R. (s.f.). Standford dance. Obtenido de socialdance.standfor.edu

Essay Artistic Respect Nowadays, any kind of artist (dancers, painters, musicians, etc…) are subestimated by the society. Have you ever listened that these professions don’t provide you the necessary money to survive? Or when someone wants to study one of these careers they tell them to study a real one? I want to focus this topic on a dancing career and dancers. The dancers’ reality is that while the society continuous to subestimate them, it will be more difficult to achive their goals. Do people really know how difficult is a dancing career? I bet that if they knew everything would change. One of the main reasons society thinks dance is not a “real” or good profession is because to achieve a good or stable job as a dancer is quite difficult but that doesn’t mean it has to be subestimated, on the contrary, people should be amaze of the dancer’s courage and dedication. Have you wonder dancers are prepared? The dancers are considered high performance athletes like american football or basket ball player. They really have an extreme workout (as a profesional athlete). Besides the workout, all dancers have to follow a technique. In a dancing career, people take dancing classes that are involve with the technique such as ballet, jazz and contemporary dance. The technique implies the body’s flexibility, the use of muscles and corporal strenght, managment of breathing, spot (the place you focus your attetion and also, during the laps the way

your eyes and head has to move or stare at), point your feet, enlogation of arms and legs, arms position,etc… Believe me, it is the most difficult thing to do it all at once. Day a day, dancers have to work hard to achieve their goals but if society doesn´t support them? When it is time for students to choose a profession, people always expect them to pick a medicine, scientific or comercial career in order to “success”. Why? Every profession is important! Have you wonder why Mexican artists always got to another country? Because in other nations society appreciates the beauty of art. Also, they have better academies and dancing schools, without mentioning that since people are little kids they give them the tools and different workshops to explore the art’s world. I strongly believe that if Mexican people appreciate art and don’t judge professions, talented Mexican people would stay in the country and foreign people would come. Mexico would become a contry with diversity in arts as England, Dutchland or USA. Another aim is the “dancing is for girls” Really? Why a football player would be more masculine than a dancer? I bet that if you put any athlete to workout as a dancer they won’t be able to do a lot of things as dancers. Do you imagine how many talented boys are afraid of trying something “is not for boys”? Dancing is for everyone, but people think the contrary… This is an issue that has been created by stereotypes that society has promoted over the years. Even though society has become more open minded, we still have a lot of stereotypes. For example, the female soccer players are less popular and win less money than the masculine players. In dance happens something similar because for girls it is easier to succeed at dancing than boys. On the other hand, boys don’t try something in arts because they know society will

take them as “girls”, “weak” or even “gays”. Being a dancer or any kind of artist is not something to be ashame of. If that is what you enjoy and makes you happy, nothing else should matter at all. From this essay we can conclude that society should start to be more open-minded and have more respect for artist. If we changed our way of thinking, all kind of artist, such as dancers, would have many different opportunities in our country. Also, many foreing people would come to Mexico and realize about all the Mexican talent. On the other hand, society must support artists and give them the tools in order to introduce people since they are little kids without any judgment. People is free of choosing whatever they want but the society thinks that they can choose people destiny. If society could only be a little more respectful and supportive without following stereotypes or any kind of discrimination, people would notice all the effort artists put on their work (no matter if they are females or males); society would learn to appreciate and promote the art’s beauty. People would start doing the things they like without fear.

Autobiography Story of my life. My name is Miriam Belén Jiménez Aguilar. I was born on 28th of August, 2000 in Puebla, Mexico. I have lived all my life here. It is a beautiful city. I’m the youngest in my familiy. I have siblings, my sister Ana Luz and my brother David Alejandro. The name of my parents are Luz María Aguilar Rosas and Delfino Jiménez Ramírez. On the other hand, I have 2 dogs, called Lami and Choco, and 1 rabbit, called Luna. My whole life I have had animlas around me. I just love them! I’m keen on dancing, music and reading. Since I was little, I was always listening to music. When I was on my 1rts year of junior high school, I started playing guitar and also I started to enjoy reading books. Two years later, I entered to dance classes with a friend. I will never regret of that. Since I met the world of dance my whole world has changed. Thanks to the dance, I have met wonderful people, gain experience and just enjoy dancing! I have been in 2 different dancing academies, one of them is recreational (Bailarte Studio) and the other formative (Sisti dance place). For certain time, I was on both on them. It has kind of hard but I didn’t care. I have spent all my academic life in the Instituto Mexicano Madero. In Kindergarden I won an academic diploma. During elementary school, I won some others but mostly they were of behaviour. When I was on my 1rst year of junior 10

high school, I reached the 3rth place of academic score in my class without even trying. Since then, I put a little more effort to reach excelent grades. At the end of junior high school, I won a scholarship for high school because I was the best academic score in my class. Nowadays, I have 10 on my first high school semester. In these days, I don’t know what I want as a profession. I have many different likes and I am a very indecisive person. The most likely is to study something realated with and engineering career. I would like to study something like renewable energy or sustainable development. I really want to help the world. It could be said that I’m a kind of ecologist. Also, I would like to continue dacing as a “hobby career”.But what I’m sure, it is that I want to have a family, travel around the world, help others, have success in any career I study, save the world and the most important, to be happy.

Short Story The Rhythm of Love Today I entered a dance academy with a friend called Diana. It has been a while since we talked everyday, it is nice to be with her again. I felt kind of nervous; I had never been keen on dancing, but I want to try something new. To my surprise, I really enjoyed the classes. Everytime, I was laughing and smiling. I already knew this academy was going to leave me lots of memories, but I didn’t imagine it would change my whole life. It has been two weeks since the first time we went to the academy. Diana and I decided to take Latin Rythms’ class. We would have liked to take hip-hop so we told to our mothers. “Can we stay to the hip-hop class? Please?” We asked like little girls. “We would like you to stay…” My mother said. “… but it is kind of expensive” Her mother finished. “For the moment we can only affort paying the class of Latin Rhythms” “Anyway, you really like your classes. Maybe in a while you can stay both” My mother told us. And we really do. My favourite rhythm is Salsa. I hope we can entered to hip-hop soon. On the other hand, Diana is going to hire the academy’s dance group for her XV birthday party. A few days ago she met one of the members. He seems nice but I have never crossed a word with him. It took us almost 3 weeks until we finally were promoted to the “major leagues”. Let me explain myself. During the class, the whole group is divided in two. In the left side are the people that already know the basic steps of the dance and have a more experience dancing, while, in the other side, are the people who have two left feet as me. Diana and I called the left side “the major leagues”. At first, I was really nervous because, as I already said, I have two left feet. The main factor that made me calm down was that I danced with him, the member of the dance group. We 12

didn’t even talk but he made me feel safe. It was a strange feeling due to the fact I didn’t even know him. After a couple of days we started talking about irrelevant things, joking and laughing. The ironic part was that, even though we had a “connection” I still didn’t know his name. The days kept passing by, and my curiosity increased as each day went by. What is his name? At that point I though I would never know it. At long last he decided to take the initiative while we were dancing “So… What’s your name?” “Uhm… Alicia. And yours?” I asked nervously “Toño” He answered smiling. Therefore I also smile “Do you use braces?” He asked while he stared at my smile. “Yes” I said wincing. “You don’t like them?” “They don’t really matter to me” We smiled one last time before we continue dancing. Day after day, our relation grew. Our messages became longer and more frequent, our talks deeper, we began to develop much more confidence; he met my mother and I met his; it seemed like we knew each other for years! We started to become best friends but with a romantic side. Diana was our little impulse to become something more than friends. She was that marvelous person in which both of us can count on. As she spent more time with him because of the rehersals for her XV birthday party, she was able to find out more information of what he thinks about me. She also helped him by asking me questions he has about us or just by talking about him with me. All along she was by our side. I will always be grateful to her for everything she did for us. After almost 2 months, we had our first fight. I don’t really know how it began but I know both of us had a hard time. During 2 or 3 days we didn’t say a word. In fact, 13

during the second day we were mad at each other he didn’t go to the classes. I felt sad, I missed him. When he returned, both of us acted ashameful of our actitudes. “So… Why did you get angry?” I asked nervously. “Sincerely I don’t know…” He seems to be thinking. “The things got out of control, we don’t have a reason to behave as we did. I’m sorry.” He said while he looked to the floor. “Yeah… I’m sorry too.” I made a pause. “I missed you.” Now I was the one looking down. “I missed you too” He said smiling. “I love to dance with you!”

And I love you, I thought.

Diana’s party was approaching. I couldn’t stop wondering how that night would be. I could see me dancing with him all night long, feeling his arms around me, the heat of his body next to mine. Everytime I though about it, I was able to feel a whole zoo in my stomatch, the butterflies can’t be compared with this. It was only three days away. Three days to have a magnificent night. The night finally came. I was shaking. On the religious ceremony I couldn’t stop talking. I sat with one of my best friends, Marisol. The whole hour we were whispering about Toño. Every minute felt like an hour! Finally we were on our way to the party. The first thing I noticed when I entered the lounge was him. He was in a table on the back part, sitting with his friends that were also on dance group. He looked so… perfect. It was the first time I saw him in a suit. Jesus, I shall never get over it. “For god’s sake Alicia just go with him!” Marisol exclaimed “Are you kidding me? I bet you that on the way I will fall or something” I said almost shouting. She just laughed 14

I could feel his eyes on me. I was afraid to watch him again but it was inevitable. Our eyes met about 50 times, it was a little awkward. After I greeted all my friends, they started to yell at me and literally forced me to go with him. “Come on!” One friend shouted “Nothing will happen to you!” Another helped her “He doesn’t bite!” “…Unless you kiss him” Someone whispered and everyone started to laugh. “Girls! Please stop! I really want to go with him but I’m afraid” “Afraid of what? Just go!” Marisol yelled at me. “Okay” I exhaled. “I will” I took one step. “Oh my god I can’t!” I stop “Alicia!” Everybody screamed. “Seriously, I can’t even feel my legs!” “Well, I think it would be better for you to feel them.” A friend told me looking behind me. “Wait… what?” I stood dead. “He is coming” Marisol said. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” I whispered. I turned around and saw him. What am I supposed to do? My legs didn’t answer my commands. Just walk! I could feel the tension of the moment. Finally my legs decided to work. We approached slowly to each other. Our eyes met while our smiles grew. “Hey!” He told me with his beautiful smile. “Hi” I answered the same way. I could hear all our friends “whispering” things about us. “You look beautiful” He said kind of shy. I started laughing. I’m really really bad with compliments. 15

“Just kiss her!” Someone scream in our backs. “Why do you laugh?” He said laughing. “Thanks” I told him while I look down. “Hey I wanted to…” The music interrumpted him. It was a salsa. “…ask you if you want to dance with me” He didn’t wait for my answer and took my hand to guided me to the dance floor. While we were dancing I felt like we were the center of the universe, everything started to turn around us. It was just the both of us. Everything else became blurry. In that excat moment the only thing I knew was that we had already started to dance to the rhythm of love. On the other hand, I couldn’t get out of my head the fact that he wanted to tell me something. It was around 1 a.m when we went out of the lounge. I was shaking, again. This time was because it was cold outside… and also because I was nervous. “Are you cold?” he asked. “No,” I answered in a very low voice. He just laughed and took out his coat. Then, he put it on my shoulders “Thank you.” I don’t know how I gathered the courage but I end up with my head leaning againts his shoulder. This was weird. The silence between us grew but it didn’t feel awkward. In fact, it was comfortable. “What did you want to ask me?” I thought out loud. “I want to ask you a lot of things” He said looking at the floor. “No. I mean…Before we started dancing you wanted to ask me something. What was it?” I stared at him. “Well…” He exhaled. “I was wondering” He looked at me. “What do you think about us?” “Uhm” My brain stopped thinking. “Uhm? Come on! You are better than that!” He said with a nervous laugh 16

“Sorry, I didn’t expect that question” I answered on the same way. We remained silent. “You have become a very important person in my life and I’m sure time won’t change that. You are like my best friends but better. And…” He interrupted me with a kiss. My whole world froze. It felt like a thousan Fireworks. I will never forget that night! On the other hand, I couldn’t stop thinking what I was about to say: “And I know it is a matter of time we become more than friends.” And I was right. Days later our real love story began.

Conclusion In conclusion, a daily life topic such as dancing can be more interesting than you though. Nowadays, society is getting use to talk and criticize about things they don’t even know. I think it is important that before criticize, people get inform about it. As you can realize, dancers are subestimated by society even though they should be recognized for their effort, dedication and courage. Before I started dancing, I didn’t think it was so difficult to dance and I didn’t imagine all the benefits it has. Then, people began to tell me that dancing was an easy thing to do or that I was wasting my time. I always end up mad and angry. Since then, I want that everybody realize everything that being a dancer involves. On the other hand, I wrote this magazine about dancing because is something that I really enjoy. I like to share this passion of mine so other people get interested on it. Sincerly, in this way was easy I could write so many pages, my inspiration never ran out. Even though it was a little bit difficult to write the article, there were always a lot of ideas on my head. The problem was that I couldn’t express myself. Anyway, I enjoy writting about somethings I like to talk about. I hope you learn more about dancing, get interested on it or at least, stop being rude with dancers, they don’t deserve it. I promise that dancing will change your life in so many ways, why don’t you try? It will help you to improve your health and your brain, also makes you happier and, who knows? You could find love while you dance, you just have to try.