Resume

Besides dancing, I have a lot of other interests. I have been very involved with Gator Growl (University of Florida's Pep Rally) since I was a freshman. This year I served as a director. I am also very involved with the ESPN Gainesville station as I work as a producer and a reporter. There are many other things that I am involved with that can be seen on my resume. There might be some things on my resume that you might be surprised about.

Check out Lauren Bromfield's resume on wix!

Partner Dancing-Salsa

While there are a lot of dances that an individual can perform on their own, there are also many partner dances people can enjoy together. One of the many partner dances that I have tried is the Salsa. Salsa is a combination of many Latin and Afro-Caribbean dances. It is usually performed with a male and a female but two females can dance salsa together as well as two males. I like to dance Salsa because it comes from the Hispanic origins. Specifically, salsa comes from different Hispanic countries such as Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. 
Salsa is very popular and can even be seen on TV shows like when Ryan Lochte performed it with his partner on Dancing with the Stars. While dancing Salsa can get very complicated and intricate, it is also a dance for beginners and people that have no dancing experience. There are several tutorials on youtube that can show you the basic steps of Salsa.  While I have no posts on my blog referring to Salsa dancing, I still encourage you to take a look at my blog to see the different types of dance I do have. 

Martha Graham-A Dancing Pioneer

For this blog, I decided to write about a well known dancing pioneer and one of my role models, Martha Graham. Martha Graham is an American dancer, choreographer, and instructor who is considered to be one of the major figures of modern dance. Her style was said to be influenced by Picasso and other modern visual artists. Her style of dance challenged and broke the norms of dancing during the early modern era. Abstract shapes and unique choreography is what made Martha Graham stand out from the rest of the dancers during this era.
Her work was often criticized and referred to as "ugly" but despite the harsh opinions of others Martha still stuck true to her style. I love this about her because she wasn't afraid to be herself and continued to do what she loved despite what people thought about her. My favorite quote by Martha Graham is "Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion." This quote is what inspires me to dance and I hope you can see through my blog just how much I enjoy dancing.

Dancing-Health Benefits

For this blog entry, I decided to take a different route and discuss some of the health benefits dancing provides. One of the many health benefits to dancing is that it is a great workout and it keeps individuals physically fit. Flexibility, muscular endurance, body composition and muscular strength are just some of the many components dancing can improve. Flexibility is a great skill for dancers to have because it makes the moves easier on the body. Muscular endurance is important for dancers to have because it allows the performer to perform the dance full out for long periods of time. Body composition comes with dancers that dance as a form of exercise because of the work out it has on the body. Lastly muscular strength is enhanced for dancers because of the amount of work done on the muscles. 

Another benefit of dancing that many people don't think of is mental health. Studies have shown that dancing improves mental health and makes people more confident. Dancing can be social which in return helps people make friends. It also makes people "feel alive" because they are just able to let everything go through dances moves. It is a healthy way for people to express themselves and enjoy the beat of music. Check out my blog and you'll see why I love to dance. 

Hip Hop Dance Missy Elliot

This is a video of one of the dances that I learned in my Hip Hop dance class. It is a short segment but it has a little bit of everything. In this video there are hip movements, a floor segment, and popping. These three things are very typical things that can be found in a Hip Hop dance. The song the dance is to is by Hip Hop artist Missy Elliot. I'm on the right side of the screen and the three other dancers also regularly attend the dance class.

Don't Make Me Think Review

The novel "Don't Make Me Think" was designed to help people learn and think about ways to make websites more usable and appealing to the users they are trying to appeal to. I would argue, this book is very successful in explaining different concepts that demonstrate how to make websites more beneficial to the user, which in return, will make it more beneficial to the creator. 

One big concept mentioned in the book "Don't Make Me Think" that I highly agree with is the idea of a mindless choice found in chapter four. Basically, the idea argues that a choice that almost requires no thought to answer the question correctly is the preferred option by people. When relating this concept to a website, it means that people will prefer the websites that direct them to the information they are looking for with minimal effort. This is very true considering there are several websites that contain the information people seek. Therefore, people will just resort to the websites that require them to obtain the information they need with as little effort as possible.  

Often, people think it is the number of clicks that determine whether or not a website is effective or not. I personally thought this was the case at first. However, after reading "Don't Make Me Think" my mind has changed and I agree that it’s the amount of effort a person has to make that determines whether or not a website is efficient or not. How hard each click is, is far more important than the amount of clicks a person makes. For example, if a website clearly maps out to its users where they need to click to obtain the information they are looking for, this is more effective than the amount of clicks it takes to get there.  

The author uses the example of him trying to read an article on a website. Before being able to read the article, the he is presented with three options right away. The layout of the options and the way they were presented to him is extremely disorderly and not effective to the point where he does not want to read the article anymore. However, had the website chosen a different approach such as using the approach the NY Times website used, the author more than likely would have continued to pursue the article. All the information being presented to the user at once in the first article is very overwhelming and confusing. In this case, it was more effective that the NY Times website organized the information with links forcing the user to click in order to get the information they need. 

While there were many other topics regarding effective websites in this book, I would argue the point about clicking is the most important. As stated by the author, "Users don't mind a lot of clicks as long as each click is painless and they have continued confidence that they are on the right track." This is something that all people who wish to make websites keep in mind.  

Tutting

A type of dance move that is very popular in the world of Hip-Hop is called Tutting. Tutting is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the late 1960s–1970s. Arms and hands are what are mostly used when performing a Tutting dance move. The choreography for the arms and hands are derived from the positions people were drawn in the days of the Ancient Egyptians. Therefore, a Tutting dance move should be very similar to the dance positions found in the Egyptian culture. Hence, why it is called "Tutting".
During one of the Hip-Hop dance classes that I attended, I was taught a short Tutting combination. My legs remained in place, while my arms and hands did all of the moving. I started off in a "base" position with both my arms flat out in front of me and ended with both arms extended out to my side. In the photo below, the positions I performed in this combination started with the photo on the top left and ended with the photo on the bottom right.