Grad School Week 1

Dear reader,

I have finished my first week of graduate school at a Big Ten university in the Midwestern United States of America. When I graduated from college in Wisconsin, I didn't imagine I would make a hasty return to the Midwest. And yet, I am surrounded by corn and undergraduates. I did have a fun time in college, but I thought the draw of the midwest was something I would feel only once; when I was 17 growing up in suburban California romanticizing my twenties at Oberlin (i didn't have the grades for Oberlin).

but here i am.

I will be here for the next three years pursuing a MFA in Choreography~

🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽

🌽 I am surrounded by corn and undergraduates 🌽

🌽🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽🌽玉米🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽玉米🌽

I applied for this MFA program during the lunar new year of the tiger, from my bedroom, over Zoom, in Taiwan. I was in Taiwan on a Fulbright Scholarship. I have been traveling back and forth between Taiwan and Chicago since December 2020. My first flight left O'Hare International Airport: December 31st 2020 and landed in 桃園國際機場: January 1st 2021. And for the past year and a half, I lived on the islands 金門 Kinmen, and 澎湖 Penghu. I returned to the US  in mid-July 2022 and spent my summer re-emerging myself in American dance through 2 summer intensives in Chicago and Michigan. I hope to return to Taiwan.

A video I created during my time in 金門

A video I created during my time in 澎湖

A video I created during my time in Michigan

In Taiwan, I taught English and dance to local elementary school students and represented the united states department of state as a cultural ambassador. 🤪

It was fun, it was challenging, and I think the impact that Fulbright has had on my life is something i am still understanding. I realize that it will now forever be something that will shape me, as anything in our past becomes, and right now my ability to articulate how my time there has changed me is still wrapped up in a lot of emotion and a lot of food cravings. Hopefully though, through writing on this site, I can share my thoughts and feelings with you, which will in tern help provide a better answer to the "what did you learn during Fulbright" than "omg soooo much, it was amaaziiing".

back to the MFA...

I had just finished biking around Taiwan with three of my Fulbright friends when I applied for this MFA. The audition was was held virtually via Zoom at 3 in the morning.

I started making video performances during my senior year of Undergrad when we, the world, transferred to Zoom University. The video below was my last rehearsal before the actual live audition using the Zoom software. I love the way virtual performance puts on display the unseen technical glitches of live performance. And during COVID, I was discovering people's patience and interest in watching such backstage behavior unfold. I think audiences like to see performers squirm a little bit; fail and test and experiment but then ultimately deliver something interesting or new or thought provoking or funny and so on. Personally, I love few things more than when someone does something I never thought possible with something I see or use every day.

I was determined to show the MFA committee that Zoom was not just a tool of the pandemic. That it is not just a tool of pre-recorded video and can be a technical aid for the choreographic interests and pursuits of live performance that people are already familiar with.

And so I tested and squirmed and lip-synched, and green screened, and rehearsed, and...choreographed! pls enjoy.

And thus, my journey as a grad student pursuing the intimate act of choreography begins.

Already during this first week, I have learned so much about dance, and seen so much about dance. Already, I have realized the immense gap in my knowledge about art and dance making. And! Already, have I created and performed a new solo work building off of the elements I explored in my audition!

I am ready to learn as much as I can, fail hard, succeed hard, and grow as an artist and person. And really excited to share it with whoever wants to listen!

So reader,

Thank you for reading, (and hopefully watching) and I will write again soon.

~~~

<3 Goob