Episodes
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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!
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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.
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Episodes manquant?
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today I'm joined by a good friend and fellow dancer, Audrey Luu. Audrey Luu is a mostly self-taught dancer and was able to chat with me about self-learning as well as some of our takeaways from being immersed in a peer-taught environment.
Check out Sorry Not Sorry! It's a dance that Audrey and I talk about a little during our conversation, and it holds special significance because this was the dance that we both directed.
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Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! We start today's episode with some anecdotes from when I transitioned from Chinese Dance to a less technical style of dance and we end our episode with a discussion about ego and my thoughts on it. It's was a fun episode to record! If you want to look at first year Anna try really hard at the kpop style, checkout this performance video: BASYK RCSSA 2018
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Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today I'm joined by an old friend and fellow dancer, Serene Puri. Serene has been a Kathak dancer since a young age, and we had a wonderful conversation about Kathak, classical dance, and our experiences from our respective spheres.
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Happy Year of the Dragon and welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today we're discussing the lunar new year and some lunar new year memories that always make me laugh.
Videos Links:
Acrobats: Umbrella, Strolling in the Clouds, HoopsBASYK AnySong ChallengeBASYK 2020 LNY -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today, we're discussing some more specific dances we didn't have time for (or were forgotten) from the previous three Chinese Dance deep dive episodes. You could consider this an epilogue to our Chinese Dance deep dive episodes and a taste of where this podcast will go next.
As is consistent with the previous episodes, we're discussing specific dances, which I have linked below. Please note that the discussion of these dances is in less depth than the previous three episodes, and an understanding of the dances can be gained without watching these linked videos.
Video Links:
Green Snake & White Snake Dances: 雨后 (yǔ hòu), 青蛇白蛇 (qīngshé báishé), China Dance Competition Green Snake White Snake, 青蛇与白蛇 (qīngshé yǔ báishé)桃夭 (táoyāo) - Peach Fairies踏歌 (tàgē)花腰花 (huā yāo huā) My Version -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance podcast! Today we're completing our deep dive into Chinese Dance and taxonomy. This is the final part of a three-part mini-series. This part completes our discussion of traditional dances by covering the Mongolian, Tibetan, and Dai styles. As with the last couple of episodes, linked are articles and dances that we're discussing in specifics. Please feel free to take a look at some of these videos to better understand some of this episode's content.
Video & Article Links:
General Articles: What is Traditional Chinese Dance, Traditional Chinese DanceMongolian Dance: The Mongol Minority (article), Chopsticks Dance (article), 草原姑娘 (cǎoyuán gūniang - Girls of the Grassland), Grassland Melody, 远方的思念 (yuǎnfāng de sīniàn), 心中的祝福 (xīnzhōng dì zhùfú), Mongolian BirdTibetan Dance: 天浴 (tiānyù - Day Bath), 天地间 (tiāndì jiàn - Between Heaven and Earth), 天路 (tiānlù - Heavenly Road), 康定情歌 (kāngdìng qínggē)Dai Dance: The Dai Minority of China (article), Peacock Dance, the Essence of Dai Ethnic Culture (article), 喜水 (xishuǐ - Happy Water), 傣家的女兒傣家的雨 (dǎjiā de nǔní dǎjiā de yǔ - Dai Girls in Rain), 花腰花 (huā yāo huā), 雀之恋 (què zhī liàn - peacock duet), 碧波孔雀 (bìbō kǒngquè - Jade Peacock), 雀之灵 (què zhīlíng - Spirit of the Peacock) -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance podcast! Today we're taking a deep dive into Chinese Dance and taxonomy into Chinese dances. This is the second part of a three-part mini-series. This part discusses traditional dances. Traditional Chinese dances also include Chinese ethnic dances, so linked are articles about some of the ethnic groups we're discussing today. Again, we're talking about specific dances that are linked in the description, so please feel free to take a look at some of these videos to get a better understanding of some of the episode's content.
Video & Article Links:
General Articles: What is Traditional Chinese Dance, Traditional Chinese DanceLion Dance: Parts of a Lion (article), Lion Dance Competition, Rice VSA 2020 LNY PerformanceDragon Dance: Dragon Dance (article), Dragon Dance CompetitionWa Dance: Chinese Dance: Dancing Hair (article), 佤山印象 （wǎshān yìnxiàng), 太阳人 (tàiyáng rén)Yi Dance: The Chinese Yi Ethnic Minority (article), Rainbow Clouds, 索玛花开 (suomǎ huākāi - Suoma Flowers)Uyghur Dance: Who are the Uyghurs and Why is China Being Accused of Genocide (article), 花儿为什么这样红 (huāer wèishénme zhèyàng hóng - Why are the Flowers so Red?), Huaer, 铃铛少女(língdāng shaonǔ - Bell Girl) -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance podcast! Today we're taking a deep dive into Chinese Dance and taxonomy into Chinese dances. This is the first part of a three-part mini series. This part discusses Classical Chinese dances. We're talking about specific dances that are linked in the description, so please feel free to take a look at some of these videos to get a better understanding of some of the episode's content.
Video & Article Links:
General Articles: What is Traditional Chinese Dance, Traditional Chinese DanceDunhuang: 飞天 (fēi tiān) 1, 飞天 (fēi tiān) 2Peking Opera-inspired: A Brief History of Peking Opera (article), 百花争艳 (bǎi huā zhēng yán), 春闺梦 (chūn guī mèng)Wushu-influenced: Wushu straight sword form, Swords dance, 象王行 (xiàng wángxíng)Dynasty-based dances: Tang - 清平调 (qīngpíng diào), Qing - 小薇小薇 (xiǎowēi xiǎ0wēi), Qin - 清风徐来 (qīngfēng xúlái), 一梦惊鸿 (yímèng jīnghóng)Han: 盘 (pàn), Joy, 红灯笼 (hóng dēng long), 英台初妆 (yīngtái chūzhuāng), 且吟春语 (qiě yínchūnyǔ)Classical: Classical dance exampleModern: 芒种 (máng zhǒng), 三拜紅塵涼 (sān bàigōng chénliáng), 人间烟火 (rénjiān yānhuohuǒ) -
Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, A Dance Podcast! Today we're talking about a special solo and the origin story of an aspect of this podcast.
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Welcome to Freestyle Thoughts, a Dance Podcast! Today, I'm giving you an introduction to me, your host, as well as a taste of what's to come!
