Unveiling My Campaign

Rhetor’s Statement:

The goal of my campaign is to highlight the benefits of dance. Dancing has been a huge part of my life until I became injured. Dance has taught me confidence, determination, and how to be leader. Dancing teaches you how to apply knowledge to your body and how to understand constructive criticism. I truly would not be the person I am today without dance and my dance family, so I wanted to use this campaign to show how dance can positively impact lives.  I have centered my campaign around “#whywedance,” therefore my three pieces are case studies of how dance has impacted the lives of real people. The people I have chosen for this campaign are not well known or famous but they are my friends and also role models. I specifically chose this route with my campaign because I think it is more powerful for people to speak from their own real experiences instead of listening to celebrities say what they are paid to say. I hope you enjoy my campaign!

Visual-Textual Design:

Audio Essay:

Multimodal Video Project:

 

Video Rough Draft

My video is another case study informational video that features someone who has been impacted by dance but also advocating for parents to get their children involved in dance. My idea behind this video is to make it targeted towards adults while also having a youthful vibe. My audience would primarily be young parents and/or people who are going to start families soon. I film the portions with Jennah again so they are close up, landscape style and a better volume. I also want to have her portions be sincere but possibly shorter because the audience will get bored quickly. Thirdly, Jennah will not be talking to the screen the whole time, she will be a voice over of videos of her dancing and pictures from her life as a dancer. The only part she will be speaking to the camera is the confidence portion because I think that is the most important for the audience to see her body language and facial expression. There will be more pictures filling the space when I introduce Jennah, I just have not added those in yet. I also need to work on transitions and adjusting volumes/fading. I would like advice on the music in the background, I definitely want it at the beginning and the end, but I don’t know if I should have it throughout the whole video, or maybe during the flashes of “Confidence” “Physical and Mental Health” and “Socialization and Communication” to sort of break up the silence in the background. So far I have not had any concerns with copyright or fair use because Jennah will be providing me with all of the pictures and videos I will be using. Also the music is from the Free Music Archive Website and I will be crediting this music and all of my web resources in the end credits.

Storyboard

Digital Commonplace Book Post #3

 

• http://www.livestrong.com/article/214791-the-benefits-of-dance-for-kids/
  • This article published on August 20^th 2013 by Rebecca Lake from the Livestrong website discusses the benefits of dance for kids. The article mentions how parents may be lost when it comes to figuring out how to channel their children’s energy which is something I can mention in my video. Another point that I didn’t think about is that dance is unlike team sports because children can start lessons a lot earlier in their life. The physical health benefits are definitely a point that I can discuss, especially with childhood obesity being a topic of concern in the United States. Dance can also be a great way of socializing kids even before they start school. This article also mentions that according to “FamilyTalk Magazine” children who have background in dance tend to have higher SAT scores. Lastly the article talks about children who dance become more comfortable in their own skin and improve their self-esteem. I will be able to use these points in my advocacy video to get parents to sign their kids up for dance. Also Livestrong is a credible source that many people know of, so hopefully having these facts in my video will be believable for parents and help persuade them to consider my opinion.
• http://www.valleynewslive.com/home/headlines/Benefit-of-Dance-Class-for-Kids-Is-More-Than-Just-Exercise-335886441.html
  • This Channel 11 news video focuses on children’s development. This is something I would like to emphasize in my video. Children can develop emotionally, physically, and mentally. A parent also attests to being able to see a change in her child after being in dance class. After watching this video I am going to focus my advocacy video on how dance develops a child to convince parents to consider dance as an option for an activity. With mental and physical health both always being topics of interest I think my video will be relevant for parents today. Parents always want to do what is best for their child and I want to show them why dance is a great option. Also in my video I am going to feature a dancer who has been developed from dance and where she is now. Just for parents to hear someone who is doing so well talk about how she benefits from dance will be an effective testimonial for my advocacy video. I’m excited to see where this video goes and to see how all of my ideas come together. This news segment is called “Healthier Me” which again shows the emphasis on health in our society.

Digital Commonplace Book Post #2

• http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/23/463222589/dance-returns-the-joy-of-movement-to-people-with-parkinsons
  • “Dance Returns The ‘Joy of Movement’ to People With Parkinson’s” is a podcast about how dance is emotionally and physically beneficial to people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. People with his disease have symptoms such as tremors, stiff limbs, and balance issues. Invertigo Dance Theatre began offering classes for people with Parkinson’s in 2011 and continue to do so. These classes are meant to be both satisfying but also can be challenging. These classes are meant to be more of just physical therapy but an emotional release for people who feel trapped by their disease. The concept of these dance classes being beneficial directly relates to my focal topic. I think there are so many benefits to dance and this is a wonderful example of how dance helps people. To hear about this program expanding makes me so happy and I hope dance continues to change lives. While I used my three projects as sort of case studies of how dance impacts certain people’s lives there are so many people who have been positively impacted by dance. I hope that in my video project I can impress upon people how beneficial it is to be involved in an activity such as dance.
• http://www.dance-teachers.org/dance-styles/the-benefits-of-dance.aspx
  • The article “Why Dance?” from the website dance-teachers.org highlights a lot of the benefits of dancing that I believe are also true. I will be using some of these in my advocacy video. The first reason; “Dance keeps both the body and the brain active, vital for people of every age” will work perfectly for my video. I am trying to persuade parents to get their children involved in dance and I think the “people of every age” shows that children can benefits from this activity early on. Also “participating in dance can help increase your self esteem and confidence through mastering new skills” is an important reason to participate because every parent wants his or her child to have high self esteem and confidence. Many of the reasons mention physical aspects such as helping muscles and joints healthy or improving balance and these health benefits are vital to children at a young age. This article also mentions how skills that are developed from dance can be transferable to any career path. It is never too soon to start building a child’s skillset that they will one day use in their future career. Overall these facts will be useful in my video project because parents want their children to be successful and dance can help them get there.

Detailed Multimodal Video Project Proposal

• The aspect of my focal topic that I’m concentrating on for the multimodal video project is advocating for people to sign their kids up for extracurricular activities with an emphasis on dance. My video will contain my own voice reading some statistics and 1-2 other dancers that will be speaking about how dance has made them the person they are today. I will also include videos of dancers dancing and pictures of them from when they were little and now in dance settings. I will avoid the clichés of advocacy videos by staying away from the stock photos. My three projects have focused on #whywedance and real people that I have interacted with so I want to keep that realness in this project too.
• I will need to do some research about children who are involved in activities/dance when they are younger and facts about dance. I’m hoping to find credible research studies to quote in my video. I will also need to speak with 1 or 2 dancers. At this time I am only planning on talking to Jennah Janney, my friend who is on the dance team. Dance has been a large part of her life for a very long time and she is such a great role model that I look up to, so she is the perfect for my video project.
• Jude Research Hospital Because of You Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHS-cqgsLWM&feature=youtu.be
  • I will use the positivity aspect that this commercial uses. I want to keep my video project full of energy and life because that’s what dance does. My video will similar with some people speaking at the camera and some voice overs. However, my video will differ because I’m not asking the audience to donate, just consider a choice for their possible future children or even themselves. So I will focus less on the audience making a difference and showing more of how dance can make a difference in their life.
• One concern I have is making the editing clean and high quality. I have not used iMovie in a while so I will have to work on my editing skills. I also want to have my interviewees saying the right things, so I think this will be more scripted but in their words. I do not want this to be question and answer like the audio essay. It’s more of Jennah telling her story.

Booth Response

• The part that stuck out to me most was the quote on page seven that reads, “Rhetoric is the study of misunderstandings and their remedies” (I.A. Richards, 1936). I thought this was interesting because the chapter discussed if rhetoric is a study or an art. I never really thought of analyzing rhetoric to this extend but the analysis made me think. Rhetoric incorporates so many different aspects such as studying, practicing, and listening and I appreciate the chapter’s attempt at creating a holistic view of rhetoric.
• Reality Examples:
  • Reality One
    • An example of a permanent, unchangeable, non-contingent truth is that the sun is at the center of the universe.
  • Reality Two
    • An example of a reality that is changeable but still not created by rhetoric is the temperature outside. The degree of the temperature changes, however this is not changed by rhetoric.
  • Reality Three
    • An example of a contingent reality that is subject to further change is Martin Luther King Jr.’s rhetoric during the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. influenced people with his public speaking and preaching and helped fight for equality in the United States.
  • Booth’s one deep standard is; “the agreement that whatever the dispute, whatever the language standards, communication can be improved by listening to the other side, and then listening even harder to one’s own responses” (Booth 21). I definitely agree with this standard. I think listening is extremely important in communication. So many issues could be resolved effectively if each side took the time to actually listen to what the other person is saying instead of trying to formulate what he or she is going to say next. This standard will be key in my Multimodal Video Project when making sure my message is clear. I really have to listen to what my video is saying and meaning instead of getting stuck in my head since I know exactly what I am trying to portray.

Multimodal Video Proposal

My plans for my video project is to advocate for parents to get their kids involved and active. My main focus is dance but this could apply to any sport or club. I think it’s so important for children to be exposed to different hobbies and activities. I’m still deciding how exactly I’m going to go about putting this together in a video. But I may focus it on my life, or make it more general, or maybe even talk to my friend Erin because her two sisters are dancers and she is also a dancer. I think it could be cool to make it more of a general video and show the difference between children sitting around on their iPads vs. in the dance studio learning how to take criticism and make friends. Then show how the can grow up to be successful people because they had exposure to something other than the television screen or an iPhone. I feel like this is a topic that is frequently talked about in daily life and it needs to be addressed. While technology is good, it could be debilitating and harmful too. Staying active and having being in touch with your emotions is extremely important and dance is a way to do both of those things.

Soundcloud Audio RD

https://soundcloud.com/victoriapace/pacevr-audio-rd/s-DisGE

My rough draft features fake answers from my housemates because I have not conducted the actual interviews yet. This audio piece shows the impact that dance has had on two collegiate dancers and how it can impact lives. My purpose is to continue with my focus topic and actually get real dancers to speak about their experiences in the dance world and how that has changed their life. My audience can be anyone but I think people who would most enjoy listening to it are dancers who relate to the things that Caroline are saying. Anyone could listen to this audio piece and understand the point it is getting across and they don’t have to know anything about dance to do so. My intended place of publication would be NPR. NPR has a dance section and I think listeners would be interested to hear this audio piece. My main challenge in my rough draft was finding the piece of music that best fit the mood I was trying to create. After finally finding that, I just had small issues getting acclimated to using Audacity. Sometimes I have issues splitting the track and then deleting the specific portion I want to delete. I don’t necessarily want my final project to be question and answer but I think it works if it sounds more like a conversation in the actual interviews. Do you have an opinion on this? Should I introduce the interviewees answers or stick with the question and answer? Also do you see any place I should add sound effects? I will be adding music when Caroline talks about her choreography piece and possibly when Caroline talks about her solo. I have not had any copyright/fair-use issues since I wrote the script myself and got the music from The Free Music Archive and credited it at the end of my audio piece.

Audio Essay Rough Draft

Introduction

VICTORIA:

(SOUNDBITE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC)

Dance is perseverance. Dance is universal. Dance is life-changing.

(SOUNDBITE OF DANCE STUDIO REHEARSAL SOUND)

I am so incredibly grateful that my parents signed me up for dance when I was 4 because I truly would not be the person I am today. Dance is not always easy but the benefits outweigh the hardships. I have met women who will be in my wedding, I’ve learned time management, and I’ve developed a self- confidence that has helped me throughout life.

Today we will be hearing about how dance has impacted the lives of two collegiate dancers that I personally admire. Caroline is a junior international studies major from Barrington, Illinois. She is an active member of Dance Theatre at Miami University.

 Interviews

 #1

VICTORIA: [Greeting] When was the first moment that you knew you loved dance?

CAROLINE:

VICTORIA: Why have you continued to dance in college?

CAROLINE:

VICTORIA: I know that this is your first time choreographing in the Dance Theatre concert, can you speak on your piece?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG SHE IS CHOREOGRAPHING)

CAROLINE:

VICTORIA: What qualities do dancers need to have in your opinion?

CAROLINE:

VICTORIA: [Conclude Interview]

Kendall is a sophomore public health major at Miami University. She has been in Dance Theatre for two years.

 #2

 VICTORIA: [Greeting] Why have you continued to dance in college?

KENDALL:

VICTORIA: How has dance impacted your life?

KENDALL:

VICTORIA: Favorite style? Why?

KENDALL:

VICTORIA: What has been your favorite dance that you’ve ever been in?

(SOUNDBITE OF HER FAVORITE DANCE PIECE)

KENDALL:

VICTORIA: Is there a dance role model that you look up to? Who and why?

KENDALL:

VICTORIA: [Conclude Interview]

 Conclusion

(SOUNDBITE OF DANCE STUDIO REHEARSAL SOUND)

CAROLINE: I am a dancer and I’m _________.

KENDALL: I am a dancer and I’m __________.

(SOUNDBITE OF DIFFERENT DRAMATIC MUSIC)

VICTORIA: Dancers are ______. Dancers are _______. Dancers are _______. I’m a better person because I’m a dancer.

*I’m going to take these words from the interviews*