September 19, 2013 Assignment One: Reflection

Cruz

At some point during the day everyone analyzes a small circumstance and interprets it the way they see fit and form an opinion on that matter. This happens subconsciously. However, when we do it in a structured manner and to a large community, only then do we realize how much we can assume things and how complex a community might be. My figured world is Cultural Dance on campus at UNC Charlotte, at which point I observed three different discourse communities underneath this umbrella that differed in style of dance. Subjectively, there are always preconceptions when going into a world youve never been in before. Personally, I have plenty of experience with Latin Dances due to my love for dance and Hispanic culture; however, the Ballroom and Bollywood aspect of my observations came very new. Although delving into these discourses was extremely exciting, it quickly became apparent that it is neither easier nor harder to pick apart a community whether you have previous experience or not. Prior knowledge of a group can actually throw a wrench on critically analyzing it because you are not aware of unique patterns of behavior and norms since you do it all the time. I would definitely say picking apart the discourse communities within the Latin dance community was difficult, as well as the literacy practices for dance in general. My past background with dancing made it difficult for me to think of it on more of a micro scale. In contrast, I do feel confident in my descriptions and explanations of the difference between the three styles of dance I mention, mostly due to the peer feedback I received: Rather than going into specific steps, you explain the general rules of each group. Its a positive, because the audience will be focused on the culture of the dances, rather than learning the dance. The comments from the peer feedback workshop definitely helped turn my paper around. I used all the comments towards my revisions because they were good points and I agreed them. Im appreciative for them as well because they put light on things I didnt think were important, such as: Each title, distinguish between each title, put Latin Leader or Captain and Define more in detail, possibly the why artifacts are important. Without artifacts, what would the dance community loose? How important are artifacts? A little more detail in the definition and Note who did the interview?. It was brought to my attention that I forgot to add my literacy practices and discourse communities, at which point I consulted my professor to get a third party point of view and it really helped define those points to complete my paper. Given all the revisions I still feel like there is more room for deeply analyzing each style of dance more and finding the artifacts and actors that are unique to each group. My observations were good, though based on those observations my actors could use some strengthening.