Long Time no Post

I am Alive! I am now attending graduate school at the University of Utah. Since I am away from my family and for personal journaling reasons I have decided to take up writing in my blog once more.

My first post has pictures!

These are from a photo shoot done with Linda Wolfe, a very talented and wonderful person. Her work can be viewed at her website. wolfephotoart.com

Linda also does head shots. I recommend her emphatically!

Well until the next post. Take care all!

Still Alive

Hello all-
Well I have been around the world and back since I have written on my blog. I just needed a break from my brag I guess. Now that I'm back to writing lets get to business.

These two links feature an article that was written about the dance group I am directing at BYU. It is called Kinnect. The first link is the BYU alumni website. Scroll down and find the link to the article (the second link) that is featured on that website.

http://today.byu.edu/

http://cfacbeta.byu.edu/departments/dance/kinnect-teaches-byu-students-connect-through-dance

I am trying to fill the shoes of Kinnect creator Marilyn Berrett who is quoted in the article. Also quoted are some of the dancers from our group this year and the pictures are from one of our rehearsals.

Senior Project!

I'm done!!! I finally finished my senior project, which had been delayed due to weather, causing me a lot of extra stress with rescheduling and all. My project was a site specific movement exhibition. It was dance but not your average staged performance. The movement was more minimalistic and not so constant as you see on stage usually. I feel that it was pretty successful. Successful in spite of the WINDY weather(the tarp we danced on was blowing everywhere and we had to use buckets and sand bags try to keep it down) and the wet sand that would not run through the hour glass I had built because it was sticky. I definitely don't think the pictures do the event justice but it is proof that it took place.

We had two video cameras taking video footage throughout the hour performance. Hopefully one day I will be able to make a short film of the event and post it. Moving away from BYU though I won't have access to the computer labs so maybe not...

I don't really care. I going to CHINA!!!

Aaron's Brag!

I was in the Daily Universe, BYU's News Paper!

I don't recall ever having that honor.

The Article was written about our show this last weekend. And in it they wrote:

"One of the dances in the show, called "All in a Day," choreographed by Aaron Shaw, was chosen out of 40 dances shown at the American College Dance Festival to be in a Gala performance.

ACDF has many dance performances from colleges throughout the region, as well as professional dance shows and workshops.

Aaron's piece was chosen out of those 40 pieces to be the opener, actually, of the concert, which is really a prestigous place to be."


So that was fun to be in the news paper. Also here are some pictures of my piece. They are from dress rehearsal and one of the dancers was actually sitting out so he could rest his ankle which he injured (not in my dance). The dancers in my piece did such a wonderful job and I received lots of positive feedback after the show!!! People were telling me that mine was their favorite...I generally don't believe anything people say to me but in this case they could have just said that it was nice...maybe they meant it!

This was my last performance with The Dancers' Company. =(
I'm going to miss BYU and I can honestly say that I am frightened for what the future holds. I hope it is excited whatever it is!!! China, Prague, California...HERE I COME!

Resume Builder

So this last week was ACDF. I was sick most of the time, I only got to attend two classes which is a major bummer. But on a better note, my piece was adjudicated and was one of ten selected to be placed on the closing Gala performance out of 39 pieces adjudicated. This was such an honor. Of the 39 adjudicated about half were student, one fourth faculty and one fourth guest/professional choreographers. Of the pieces that were chosen for the Gala Performance half were again student choreographies.
My favorite part though was that in the adjudicator talk back session I got out a piece of paper to write down the critical feedback and ended up putting away a blank piece of paper. The adjudicators who are professionals in the field, one the director of Ballet West, did not make any negative comments. They just made a tone of observations of what they saw choreographically and one said the dancers may have needed a little more rehearsal time but other than that it was great.
The general consensus and some of the things I remember them saying were that my choreography is very organic (they all mentioned that), it reminded them of some sort of pre-industrial society, the comic relief was perfect, not too much and not forced but just enough, my movement pushed the dancers to their limit. It was awesome. I didn't hear feedback for one other piece in which they did not have some kind of critique to offer. But alas my piece was not one of the two selected to attend the National ACDF Conference in Washington DC.

All that aside the whole thing will still look outstanding on a resume!!! Who would have thought I could do all this in not quite 5 years. Traveling the world, presenting research, choreographing awesome works! It's pretty awesome. The best part is I'm gonna graduate and I have nothin! I have absolutely no plan and no direction. Maybe I'll go become a cement truck driver??? Who knows.

Love you all. Hope everything is going well!!!

Fruits of Labor!

So I think its funny and also embarrassing that I have all this stuff popping up but it is just a culmination of a lot of hard work done over the past three years.

So my good news for today is that a piece I choreographed last semester has been selected to represent our program, meaning the BYU dance program, at ACDF.

ACDF stands for the American College Dance Festival. This particular conference is the north western regional conference. The Dancers' Company will take three pieces to show during the course of the conference. One faculty adjudicated piece, one student adjudicated piece (that's mine) and one piece to be shown in an informal showing.

I am so so so honored to have had my piece chosen and excited to see what happens. From the two adjudicated concerts(judges watch and score the pieces) at this regional conference they choose one piece student and one faculty work to go on to the national ACDF conference.

Well here's to hoping!!! But I won't keep my hopes up. It's so awesome for me that I am able to have my piece shown in this prestigious venue/conference just thought I let you all know. I feel like a pompous arrogant little terd-face! But I still am telling you all.

Love you all, hope every one is having an excellent February!

And this is a link to a youtube video I created of the piece. It is just a rough draft but is still fun to watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPUzvepyHcY

TV Baby!!!

My friends keep making references to the famous Aaron Shaw and I keep telling them it just isn't so.
It really is NOT.
But I will be on BYUTV in the next couple of weeks.
The film project that Dancers' Company did a couple years ago is finally making it on air. I'm not in much but I am in a little. I've actually never seen it myself.
February 9th at 8:00pm will be one airing for sure. There will be two more airings but I guess the times aren't set yet.
If anyone wants to tune in it might be interesting but then again maybe not.
The film is about the Women Pioneers and the story is told through dance and narrating. That's why I'm not in much of it.

Check it out if you want.
Hope you are all well.
Our show just finished this weekend and that is so awesome cuz now I can breath.
Take care everyone.

Poster Boy!!!

You better believe it. That's me!!!
This is the poster for our show this year. I was quite honored have this picture chosen. I've been getting lots of compliments from people all over. One of my co-workers even tore down a poster and hung it up at work.

Radio Time!

So before Christmas I went to this radio show recording and I just recently found out that is has been broadcast already. It is now available to listen to online.

All you have to do is go to:
http://radio.lds.org
Click on "Programs"
Go to "Everything Creative"
Then click on "Group Discussion 16 - Dancers - BYU Dance Company Kinnect"

The interview was about "Kinnect" a group I was on a few years ago. I didn't listen to the whole thing so... yeah, I just don't know.

Everything else has just been busy with the start of a new semester and a show coming up at the end of the month.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Chiquita Won Out!

So Chiquita Banana Lady Won! Followed by Daphne's Economy Idea in a close second place. This is me posing with a random person at a party. We both represent fruit so I felt a special connection between the two of us.

This is us eating at 5 guys burgers and fries. They loved us there. It was awesome. We had a Pirate, a nerd, a stewardess, a lady bug, a lumber jack and of coarse Chiquita!

This is Kellie, a friend from a ward a couple years ago, she liked my costume.

And this was some lady at 5 guys that told me I was her favorite.

The costume albeit disturbing was enjoyed by many. Women laughed most, guys felt uncomfortable. Several times I turned around to find someone taking my picture on their camera phone.

Highlights of the costume- people pointed out-
The fact that I was wearing real heels
How strong and muscular my calves were
The fact that the dress was open in the back. I had to add a few loops and laced it up in the back like a shoe.
The fact that the bananas were real (they were super heavy).

All in all the costume was awesome and very uncomfortable.
Halloween was good. Its always fun to dress up and sometimes be a little inappropriate.

Keeping Up!

So here is my promised Thursday post. There really is nothing new to report. I just registered for my winter classes. That could be the last time I ever register for classes again. Most likely not though. I'm actually hoping to go to the China Study abroad this summer. We'll see. I'm a little broke. If I do go on the study abroad I will walk in April and then officially graduate in August even though I'll be done with all of my required classes.

I still don't know what to be for Halloween. I was thinking either a whoopi cushion or the Chiquita banana lady!

Back from Tour

So I'm back...from outer space! Or just tour. I'm not excited to start classes again tomorrow at 7:00am but I am excited there are only 32 days left of classes this semester. Woohoo. Well here are some awesome pictures from tour. It was a good and fun tour. Met many wonderful people and had several great experiences.


Heather and Rachel rocking out on the bus!

Aaron in his hot Lecture Demonstration outfit. (Barf!!!) Can anyone say "Morgan Pooch!" And where did that butt come from?

This is Brinly and I moving with the kids before the lec dem.

Rachel looking good. I'm sure she would appreciate this picture.

Meg, Cody, Eli, Brinly and Cambria eating dinner.

Derek and Shantal (They're married, Derek came along as part of the tech. crew) and Rachel.

This is Rachel driving the Bus, Phil was tired, he's asleep in the back.

Rachel got tired so I took over.

Derek, Rachel, Shantal, Ashley, Meg, Matt, Pat (our director), Jeremiah, Heather, Lauren and Cody at a sulfur pond in Yellowstone.

One of the pools was called "Bacteria Mat". This is Matt next to the pool.

And this is Rachel and I on the bus. Yeah!!! Tour was great, now back to school.

Heading Out!

So I leave for tour tomorrow. We have to be at the bus at 5 am. Ahh. I hope I can get up that early. We drive all morning arrive in the early afternoon and have our first performance in Wyoming!!! We have a ten day tour. I'm not sure how many shows we'll do. I'll take lots of pictures for you all but I might not post next week if I don't have internet. We'll see what happens. I also find out about the LSAT on Monday. I'm planning on a 140 so I won't be disappointed with my score. Hope everyone is doing well.

Final thing. I'd like to give a shout out to my little bro! It was his 18th b-day yesterday. Go get 'em Michael. I did call him and text him yesterday, so this is not a late shout out. (I'm not that lame)

BYE!

Just Stuff!

I have decided I am going to try blogging every Thursday. I'm sad how few posts I have from this awesome summer I had. If not Thursday then hopefully once a week any day!

I don't have anything too exciting to report but I will go on tour with The Dancers' Company next week. We leave Friday the 16th and return Sunday the 25th. We will be touring Wyoming and Montana, two more states I have not been to yet. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had in touring with The Dancers' Company to so many different states around our country. Too bad we never made it to Hawaii!

I will find out about the LSAT while on tour so that will be fun. School is busy. I always make sure of that. I'm excited to get to graduate soon. I'm starting to feel the anticipation. I don't know what to do after school. Please anyone who wants to, make a suggestion for what I should do. I'm not totally resolved to go to Law School. Hope you are all well!

LSAT!

So I took the LSAT on Saturday. It went well. I checked in at 8:30 and we were let out at 12:30. It only took four hours! The website said sometimes it can take up to 7 hours. It seemed as though BYU knew what they were doing. Thank goodness!

Well, I did what I promised myself (just to take the LSAT) and now I have no clue what I'm going to do. I'll find out how I did on Oct. 19 and then who knows?

That is all I really have to report right now but in two weeks Dancers' Company will go on tour to Montana and Wyoming. Plan to get some nice pictures from that. Hope everyone is doing swell!

School!!!

School started today- woo hoo! NOT!!! =(

I'm taking conditioning and injury prevention, not for profit finance, dancers' company, dance technique. I still have to ad 2.5 credits. Hopefully I'll figure that out in the next few days. Should be a good semester. I'm so ready to be done. Here's to a good last year!!!

Jamaica Baby!

Jamaica was amazing! It was so hot and I got so many bug bites but it was all worth it. It was amazing being around the Jamaican people. They were so friendly and they had so much culture to share, such awesome dancing. The conference was outstanding, our performance went well and then my presentation came. It went pretty well but it came under a lot of fire because of what I was encouraging. My presentation was entitled "Encouraging Masculinity in Dance". Right now it is popular for all in academia to claim open mindedness and tolerance but they pretty much condemn any one with different ideas than themselves.
My presentation prompted much thought and discussion some of the more inspiring feedback,
"Yours was the only presentation in which I didn't fall asleep."
"Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats, the whole time."
"I loved how much discussion your presentation inspired."
After the discussion began to get a little heated, someone called my train of thoughts homophobic, the presenter before me jumped up and brought the session to a close. She was a professor and I much appreciated the help.
Surprisingly afterward only those with kind things to say came to speak to me, many compliments on a job well done and people expressing agreement with my views, experience and research.
A few days after my presentation a woman asked if I was a graduate student. She was surprised to hear I was in my last year of undergrad.
I found it amazing, the response I invoked. I have never felt so in the middle of something so intense and passionate. A mother of a young boy participating in the conference expressed gratefulness and appreciation for speaking out about this issue.
I will never, never forget this experience, it was insane. If not for her expression of gratitude I would have resolved to stay away from situations like that as much as possible but because of her I have decided to take the LSAT and perhaps, not 100% sure yet, go to law school. I had kind of thought about it before going to Jamaica but this experience kindled something. I don't know what but hopefully it is a good thing.
Anyway here are my pictures, and I look forward to traveling the world as I get older!

Me and my luck $5 coin. Exchange rate for the Jamaican dollar is $80 "J" to $1 USD(US Dollar).
I found the coin on the seat on the bus and kept it for the whole trip. It is worth 4 cents. And the background of the picture is the Jamaican coast flying by, we landed in Montego Bay and drove 4 hours to the other side of the island, Kingston. Not recommended but we did get to experience to beauty of the Jamaican Countryside.

This is Trevor, Kim, Me and SaraKim at Emancipation Park before the openning ceremonies of the conference, daCi (Dance and the Child International)

This is the beautiful Jamaican Beach. I didn't even make it to the really nice beaches.

More beach!

This is our group, at the closing ceremonies, made up of students from BYU, North Texas University and Delaware University. We had a blast!

New York!!!

New York, New York, New York!!! I love New York. Here are a few pictures from my trip. I had a blast, learned a lot and met a tone of new people. It was awesome!


These are my two roommates and our friend Molly.


Sponge BOB!!!


Model Shot!


First time at a bar. I drank Coke. It was funny, odd but funny. Luckily I wasn't too out of place, Molly didn't drink either.


This is my friend Carly. She'll be in Jamaica. Fun!


The reverse bowl cut. You gel all the hair up around the bowl facing the right way up and then cut along the brim of the bowl!


The view of NY on the way out!