Renee's Blog

Milford Sound, Fiordland I’m traveling to New Zealand over spring break, and I’m beyond excited to go. I have been saving up for this trip ever since my senior year of high school after reading a book called The Bone People by Keri Hulme, which is set in New Zealand. If you’ve never seen pictures or heard stories about New Zealand, I’ve attached a few pictures so you can see the beautiful places I’m planning to visit while there these next two weeks. I’ll say more about my trip after break, but I actually wanted to talk about The Bone People for my blog post. This is my favorite book. Ever. It’s so beautifully written, builds each character up in realistic complexity and depth, and gives readers a glimpse of the often overlooked indigenous people of New Zealand called the Maori. I’m one of those nerds who rereads books all the time, and I have recently been going through this one again in preparation for my trip. Aoroki Mount Cook National Park There are three mai...

From Stage to Screen How dance competition shows have changed the way society views dance. Written by Renee Jhu First comes hair and make up: hundreds of hairpins keeping my bun in place. Then comes costume: tights on, some sort of sparkly outfit over. And then comes last minute preparation: stretching, marking movements one more time before heading backstage. This is the world I grew up in. I danced ballet for 3 years, figure skated for 7 years, and have dabbled in contemporary, jazz, and even hula throughout my dance career. I took classes for dance, read magazines about dance, picked up a minor in dance, and most recently, have spent a lot of my free time watching competition shows about dance. I am constantly inspired by the talent, creativity, and athleticism I see in the dancers that get cast on these shows. As fun as these programs are to simply sit back and watch, the dance enthusiast in me also wants to analyze the importance of dance coming to television an...

How dance competition shows have changed the way society views dance. Since the early 2000’s, dance has taken to the screen in the form of televised competitions – Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD), and America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC), just to name a few. The premise of each of these shows is similar: a person or a group of people performs a dance number, the judges score the piece, and in the end only one winner is left standing. Think of it like a new form of sports competition – dance, which was once limited to the concert stage, has now adapted to the world of videography and reality television. Now, there are a lot of mixed feelings about this new platform for dance. Some household names in the dance world, particularly those with experience in Hollywood, argue that televised dance competitions motivate dancers to become even better than they already are – more technical, more well-rounded, more creative, and more knowledgeable. Famous ju...