Creation and Choreography

Here at Messiah, Spring semester of their first year, students are required to take a class called "Created and Called for Community," also known as CCC (or triple C or C-cubed... whatever floats your boat). The class is split up into three sections, of which I only remember the first - Creation. Mainly because everyone in CCC has to do a Creation Project. What is the Creation Project? You ask. I'll tell you.

Maybe someday.

Not in this paragraph either.





Nor in this one.








I think I've tortured you enough.







ENOUGH!

The creation project seeks to make students dig deep within to find the creativity that God gave them to do SOMETHING related to creation. That means one can write a poem or short story or short essay, or paint or draw a picture, design a computer graphic, put together a video, a song, a dance... yes, the options are limitless. It just has to do with creation.

But in this, I am stuck.

I knew right off the bat that I wanted to choreograph a dance. I LOVE dance, so it would make sense for me to use that art form.

The trouble came in choosing a song. Should I choose a worship song? Can I find a song on creation and dance to that? Ooh, I could find a Hebrew song about creation! Oh, most of them are about love...

See my dilemma? So right now I'm torn between using choreography I came up with to a song by Gad Elbaz, an Israeli artist, or choreography for a worship song. Or even ditching the choreography I already have been working on for both of those songs for another time, and choosing a new song altogether. Aaaarrrghhhh.

And so, my dear readers (all two or three of you), what should I do? This is the description for the project:

Students will interact with the assigned texts by producing a project that demonstrates their understanding of one of the themes within the creation unit, such as the creation of the earth, the role of arts and culture, humanity as created being, or the significance of creativity. The project’s form should reflect your interests and skills...

These are the songs I have considered or already have choreography in progress for. I'll include the other part-choreography ones just to see what you think.

• Mashmauyot by Gad Elbaz
• Here in Your Presence by New Life Worship
• Beloved by Tenth Avenue North
• We Delight by Caedmon's Call (Those who know I already completed the choreography for this years ago, I am in the process of revamping it.)
• Find your Wings by Mark Harris

And songs I've already choreographed that I could record a performance of:

• Blessed Be Your Name by Tree63
• Born Again by Newsboys
• Sing Your Praise to the Lord by Amy Grant

So, what do you guys think?

The Journey

Yay! There's a new pretty background! I especially like the birds. ^_^ I'm changing the colors and format from this point on, but I'm going to leave the old posts. The light orange looks pretty with the pink (although it makes it terribly hard to read).

Anywho, I've sadly neglected this poor little blog. Not that very many people are reading, but I still feel bad about it. Let's see. I'll try to describe what's been going on in this long absence.

At my school, the seniors have to complete a senior thesis, complete with oral defense, during the course of the year, to be finished at the end of the year. We have to describe ten loci of the Christian faith, give an apologia on a topic we choose, and then integrate our faith into a chosen vocation. It's a tough project. Every one goes into this project fearing it. I wasn't as worried about it as others in my class, but I was a little nervous. This project came to an end on the 13th for me, and I did really well on the oral defense part of it! ^_^

With the end of high school, I plan on going to college to pursue a nursing degree. Those of you who know me well know that I love writing and wonder why I am not going to be a writer. My dad pointed out that I don't have to have a degree in creative writing to write novels. As long as I keep my craft up, I should still be able to write the rest of my life. So I'm going to college. During that time I'm trying to work out a study abroad in Israel for a semester which will be AMAZING if it works out. Once I have my B.S. in Nursing and have take the exam to be an R.N., I hope to work for a bit to save enough money to continue schooling to become a nurse-midwife. THAT I am really excited about. God's given me such a passion for unborn babies and expectant moms. He's really blessed me.

Of course, if God points me out to a nice young man in the midst of that, hehe, I'm going to have a talk with Him. ^_^ I really would like to focus on getting my R.N., but I do know that if God tells me the time is ripe to be married and to raise a family, I will very, very willingly do so.

Other things: I've been really involved in the drama and music departments at school. I worked crew for a production of Annie Jr. and also made a cameo in the N.Y.C. scene as a tourist. That was fun. And I've been singing this year in chorus, which has been amazing. One of my favorite songs of the year is "All Who Dwell in the Shadow of the Lord." That's a mouthful, so we often call it "All Who Dwell." It has such a beautiful melody, and the alto harmony is gorgeous. I can't describe how beautiful it is. And now, we're preparing for a pop concert, and I have a teeny solo in "I'm gonna wash that man" from a Rodgers and Hammerstein medley. I was a little less than thrilled about it, since I was hoping for the Eponine solo in "One Day More." However, I spoke with my director, and she's helping me with my projection. Maybe someday I'll get to sing Eponine.

I've also fallen in love with Les Miserables, but I believe that will have to wait for another day. :-)

I shall write again at a later date (not too late though!)

Yom Kippur

I'm so sorry! Both to myself, and to this blog and its readers (the few that are). This is not working as well as I hoped. Life is crazy (when is it not?), so when I have something good (soon...) I will share that.

On the other hand, last week I celebrated Yom Kippur. Yes, that's a Jewish holiday. Yes, Jesus died on the cross and rose again so we don't need a 'day of atonement' other than Resurrection Day. I chose to fast and celebrate/commemorate Yom Kippur for historical significance, and as a day for myself to sit down and spend all day with God.

So I fasted. Fasting is such an amazing thing. It's hard, but it's so good. The hard times were when I got hungry around noon, 3 PM, and 6 PM, but the good times were all the times in between. I spent a large amount of time in prayer, searching my heart, and reading the Bible. After 6 PM, I got to spend the rest of the evening with some really great people who were also celebrating and fasting. We had some amazing discussions, and the memories of those conversations I will treasure deeply. Not to mention that when you fast and the break the fast with someone, it builds the friendship. Nevertheless, it was a great day despite my hunger (which I didn't notice except for those three times).

More on Yom Kippur later, when I have some more information about it (due to lack of free time, it might very well be next Yom Kippur when I write more about it >_<)

Music Update: Ha! I bet you didn't even know there was a music update. Well, there is now. I've been working on learning three new pieces. One is called Bloom, it's a choral piece set for SSA, another is a composition of my own writing that I didn't really learn how to play because I have a program that plays it for me, and Cassabrie's Song.

Yes, the song I had in the last post. I've been learning how to play that, and also to sing to it, so I can make some kind of recording for a contest for it. Speaking of that... PLEASE tell me if you are going to buy and read Masters or Slayers or other books by Bryan Davis! It would be really great to get some points for that...

On to play music, and to dance! Blessings to you all!