December: Kara Ko

December: A look back at 1st semester: what has changed about you as a person or dancer in your semester of college?

What a semester it has been! I survived my first semester of college and it certainly was not easy. I managed to receive all A’s, but it took a lot of hard work and commitment. Sleepless nights, long rehearsals, and assignments after assignments were pretty much a daily routine. Just in the past couple of months, I have changed as a person. Attending an out-of-state college made my perspective on life more expansive. It made me discover so much more on people and the world. To me, I am much more patient, loyal, loving, and supportive when it comes to my family, friends, and even strangers. Just in this first semester of college, I learned how to sacrifice for people and help them when they are in serious need. The friends I made this semester are truly amazing. They make me want to become a better person in which I feel that I was surrounded with the right group of people at the right time. One thing that I held very close to me this semester was staying connected with what was currently going on at school at the same time, giving love to my dance family back home. Even though, I may not see or talk to them everyday, I still stay true and connected with them because they mean a lot to me. I will always be there for them and I am so proud of all those dancers. 

With that said, I absolutely LOVE my dance community at Arizona State! My class is literally so talented that it makes me want to explode sometimes. They push me to become a better dancer and the atmosphere is very loving. There is never a “right or wrong” move and every class is without any kind of judgment. I have changed as dancer because of them and my professors. My technique classes are mostly based around postmodern, contemporary, and ballet. They focus on a dancers creativity, which many dancers will say that they didn’t get that experience if they came from a studio background like me. My professors go into a deeper level of understanding when it comes to choreography and movement. I really think more analytically and “outside the box” in every class, which I really wasn’t used to that before. To me, this changed me as a dancer because it made my dancing become fuller and more dynamic. Even in one semester, my dancing has changed. Wow, I can’t even imagine how it’s going to change in the next four years. 

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a dancer. A dancer on Broadway, on a Disney Cruise, and even a Rockette, but that has changed. I want to be a dance educator/teacher. Just in this past year, teaching dance has become a great passion of mine. Seeing how all my dance teachers in the past and even currently have impacted me greatly. They inspire me to become like them, which gets me very excited for the future because I want to inspire many children. My goal is to own a dance studio/convention named after me and also publish my own book called, “Life’s a Dance.” Even my dance aspirations have changed and it’s all because of the great school I attend. I tell people all the time that I don’t regret going to ASU at all because the dance community there is so SUPPORTIVE! People who truly LOVE to dance surround me. No one is trying to become better than one another and compete to be number one. We all show LOVE and continue to push each other. I’ve made the right decision and I cannot wait to see how I grow even more as a person and as a dancer.