Summer School Blog

Prince Harry met Harry Styles on the red carpet yesterday at the premiere on the WW11 film "Dunkirk". Social Media went crazy over the meeting of Harry & Harry. This was not the first time that the two Harry's have met. In 2015, back when Harry Styles was still part of One Direction, the Prince and the Singer met at the Royal Variety Performance. This is, though, Harry Styles first acting role, but he said it may also be his last. OK, I don't get the whole fiasco about the two of them meeting. Yeah they have the same name, but so do thousands of others... like my grandfather. I do think its kind of cool that Harry Styles has finally stared in a movie. I mean it was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time before it did.

An Animal that can survive even up until the sun quits shinning? No... that can't be true. But it is. Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are tiny water-dwelling creatures that are famed for their resiliency. They can survive for up to 30 years without food or water and can endure extreme temperature changes. WHAT?! No, not okay. They can even survive astrophysical events, like supernovas and asteroid strikes. I'm sorry but no way is that even possible! If they can survive all that, does that mean they can survive someone stepping on them? Are they completely impossible to kill? I'm only asking because tiny, eight-legged things resemble spiders, and I hate spiders.

"#Cleanup on Aisle 101" happened to be the statement of the day in Oregon yesterday. A truck carrying 7500 pounds of slithering fish in 13 different containers over turned on US Route 101 after the 59-year-old driver was unable to stop the truck for construction work. There were no major injuries to humans but many of the creatures were lost. Initially the authorities thought that they were eels, but they are actually Hagfish, which are commonly know as slime eels. The road was closed for a few hours but reopened by 4pm. Honestly this is slightly terrifying. There are so many different things about this that just give me the creeps, a lot of them not even mentioned in the article. For instance, a truck carrying 13 containers cannot stop and spills HAGFISH all over the highway, that was traveling to Korea for consumption... 13, the most unlucky number that almost every culture has superstitions on, is the number of containers being carried. Who ever ...

Prince William, AKA the Duke of Cambridge, hosted a send off for the English women's soccer team. The whole thing mostly consisted of him playing soccer with a lot of young children and it is "Royally Adorable" says Allison Wild of BuzzFeed News. This really is quite adorable and it makes me so happy to see members of the Royal family getting out there and doing things like this with their community. In many on the pictures posted of the event, Prince William looks more like a coach than a prince and it is so amazing to see. Its on very rare occasions that you see important people doing things that put them in the position of a middle class person. It makes them so much more relatable to in the publics eye.

For the first time in 99 years will the sun undergo a full solar eclipse that can be seen from all across the continental US. NASA is in full motion preparing for this event to show the eclipse from at least 65 different cameras; each giving a different and unique vantage point of the rare celestial event. NASA also plans on airing a multi-hour broadcast called Eclipse Across America: Through the Eyes of NASA that will be showing the eclipse live and giving information and coverage on activities in parks, libraries, stadiums, festivals and museums across the nation. I'm pretty excited for this event. Mostly because it is a once in a life time thing and I get to experience it with my family. We are actually going camping in Casper WY for it then coming back the next day to go to a Trace Adkins Concert at the fair.

CASPAR (Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research), was assembled 4,850 feet underground in the Lead, South Dakota Sanford Underground Research Facility after being transferred from Notre Dome, its original home. Being so far under the earth, the Compact Accelerator System is protected from cosmic radiation that could interfere with the experiments being tested. CASPAR "is a 50-foot-long, low-energy particle accelerator that will begin data collection this fall" collecting the answers to questions like How do stars run? How do they produce energy? and, How are elements made?. I find this very exciting because I love learning about space and where things actually came form. This experiment will being finally answering some of the questions I've always had and I'm very excited to start finally getting some answers.

After 20 years of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', Colleges are taking full advantage of the popularity and major interest in the Harry Potter series. Creating courses similar to those of Hogwarts, colleges gain the interest in many young adults and use this to look deeper into the Harry Potter world and compare it to our own world. They take the ideas that J.K. Rowling came up and study deeper into them, such as determining why she used a certain social culture in the magic world compared to our own. I find this so cool and creative of these colleges. It brings something that has such a huge fan base into education to take closer looks at the ideas, morals, and cultural choices of J.K. Rowling.

The Good Earth is a novel about a poor young farmer in the rural, turn-of-the-century China. When Wang Lung reaches the age to marry, his father reaches out to the powerful Hwang family to ask if they have a slave that they are willing to let Wang marry, and they did, 20-year-old O-lan. O-lan and Wang Lung are pleased with each other but exchange little words between each other. The two of them have a bountiful and profitable harvest from their land. O-lan eventually become pregnant and Wang is ecstatic that his first child is a boy. Mean while, the Hwang family falls to hard times; the husband is obsessed with women and the wife is an opium addict. With this, Wang buys a piece of fertile rice land and enjoys another profitable harvest and is granted another son. With Wang's new found wealth, he catches the attention of his greedy uncle. Since in these times, custom dictates that Wang must show the most respect to the older generation and especially family members, he is forced to ...

This isn't really a review for a news story but more of a response to something that happened to a friend of mine that is tragic and I want to do my own response to it. On December 17, 2016, Mr. Randy Graff was strangled to death then thrown outside in -40F weather with snow on the ground... Mr. Graff was a good, kind-hearted man who was only trying to help a friend whose son had strong-armed her out of her own house, and proceeded to have friends over to party. When Randy went over there to try and get them to leave, he was attacked and strangled until he was no longer breathing then cast out the front door and left to freeze and die. Mr. Graff paid the ultimate price that night trying to help a friend. Mrs. Graff was left with the heart wrenching weight of having to tell her 16 year-old son, Dylan Kuharski, that his father was not coming home that night, and never was going to. Today, Dylan and his older brother Mike work at On the Border with me. I am good fri...

Nicolas Le Riche was a principle performer with the Paris Opera Ballet for the duration of his carrer and is now becoming the Head of the Royal Swedish Ballet and succeeding Johannes Öhman. Le Riche has had works created for him by renowned choreographers such as Mats Ek , Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe and John Neumeier. He now already has a clear vision for what he wants from the Royal Swedish Ballet: "We will work on classical pieces as well as with choreographic innovators in equal measure and design a creative, diverse program for all audiences, both national and international. This program will be performed by accomplished dancers, with whom we will work – both in the studio and on stage – to develop their potential for vibrant, dynamic dancing. Lastly, I look forward to a successful collaboration with the house musicians in order to enhance the uniqueness and the identity of the artistic strengths that comprise the Royal Swedish Opera" Being in dance classes, I le...

Starting in a small local dance school and ending up in the Corps de Ballet is huge, but most dancers don't even realize how or when they go there. "I wasn't even thinking about a career yet. It was all sort of a whirlwind, and I just went with it." says Betsy McBride, a 24 year-old dancer who started in her local dance school at the age of 3 in the suburbs of Dallas. At 14, Mc Bride went to a summer intensive to get better and learn more, at a school that's affiliated with the Texas Ballet Theater. After a few weeks, she was offered a year-round place at the school. A couple months after that, she was hired into the Texas Ballet Theater. In 2015, McBride contacted the American Ballet Theater, in search of something bigger and new to do in her career. ABT originally said that there were no open spots but offered to let her take a class with them. After the class was over, she had made a good enough impression that a spot just so happened to open up and she was of...

During the most emotional and meaningful part of a performance inspired by the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, the fire alarm sounds. With the perfect timing of the alarm, most of the audience remained seated, treating it like it was part of the performance, when in reality, the on stage smoke mixed with the humidity, setting off the fire alarm, creating a real need to evacuate until the fire department gave the all clear. What is a performer supposed to do when something like the above happens? Dr. Charlie Brown,  a retired performance psychologist who has worked with dancers from Charlotte Ballet, talks about the difference between successful and not as successful performers in tricky situations like this, "The most successful performers aren't more perfect; they know how to visualize performance success and mentally prep for when things go wrong," says Dr. Charlie Brown in a interview with Dance Magazine. Dr. Brown suggests that to be a successful performer, you ...

Yesterday, on our class trip downtown, we were asked to speak to a few business owners to find out what its like to own a business. I came across a few coffee shop owners and a few more native to our area shop owners. I learned a few things from each of these places; and surprisingly a lot of it is the same from shop to shop. One of the things many of the owners said that they learned from owning a business is that you should never think like a business owner, but you should think like a costumer. In all honesty, this makes a lot of sense. You want to think like the costumer, so you can understand what they want, what they are looking for, and if it is set at a reasonable price yet you'll still make a profit. Another thing I learned from all the owners I talked to is that the costumer isn't always right. I was slightly shocked by this. Usually you get told that the costumer is always right, but in reality you must stick to your values and only try to appease someone if it sta...

http://www.dancemagazine.com/how-to-actually-find-neutral-2440448159.html When in dance classes, all dancers are asked to keep on their neutral spine. But, what is a neutral spine, and why must we stay on our neutral spine? Your neutral spine is when your spine, from the cervical to the pelvic, is in its natural s curve. This is different for everyone because of the different structure types for each different person. Each dancer must stay in their neutral spine to stay balanced and to work all the correct muscles. This is extremely important. If a dancer is off balance or working the wrong muscles, then they could seriously injure themselves. As a dancer myself, I am asked to keep on my neutral spine all the time and I can honestly say this is difficult if you have no idea what they are talking about. This article actually helped a lot and I actually feel better about how to do it.

Capturing dance on camera is a feat all on its own, and having a dance background is a very helpful thing. Ezra Hurwitz is a former dancer, who after he injured himself in dance, decided to pursue photography and filming. "I always knew I wasn't going to dance forever," says Ezra in an interview with Dance Magazine. When he was back in New York of rehab after his injury, Ezra says, "I was bored, so I started working with Ellen Barr in the New York City Ballet video department." That's what got him into filming dance. Dance is an art form that engages the eyes and imagination of those who watch it. To catch it on film and capture the magic of it is extremely difficult. If you don't get the dance at the right angles, you are not going to be able to understand the story and connection of the piece and those are two of the  most important things of dance, the third being the emotion of the piece. If one cannot connect emotionally with the piece, then they w...

What makes people seek out the dangerous things in life? The things that give us a trill and a rush of adventure? Well, just that. The rush of adventure is the entire reason for people taking risks in life. Some people like the feeling of a rushing heart beat and a normally frightening sight in front of them. It makes then feel alive. For example, Alex Honnold, a free solo climber, just free scaled El Captain in Yosemite National Park on June 3rd. He is the first person to accomplish this, while others have died trying. As Tommy Caldwell, one of Alex's friends, explains in an article about Alex, "Alex climbs to live, not to cheat death." This reflects back  on what I mentioned earlier when I said that it makes some people feel alive. It puts people out of their comfort zone and gives them a chance to live life to the fullest.

Mira Nadon, 16, and Davide Riccardo, 17, preformed a duet by George Balanchine on June 3rd. Durning this beautiful and "romantic 1952 homage to the Highland landscape" piece, Nadon's character teases the guy and will "'call to him then say no, and he has to run after her.'" The chemistry so strong and "a happy surprise," between the two of them. They have never worked together before this but as Suki Schorer, who put together the "Scotch Symphony", said, "'They have chemistry together that is magic.'" I absolutely love this dance so much! It is so beautiful and light hearted. You can definitely see and feel the connection between the two of them. They are so beautiful to watch.  

What is "Dance Theater"? Well, according to author Annie-B Parson, Dance Theater is a "cornucopia of theatrical possibilities," everything (dance, text and narrative, clothing, singing, etc.) is equal, yet, paradoxically, "I think dance is the most important thing." Parson goes on to explain why dance is the most important thing ("it's the most fundamental element at hand") and talking about her disagreement with the separation of dance and theater. I absolutely agree with Miss. Parson. Dance is a special art form that conveys feeling and speech without speaking a single word and I do feel that it is the most fundamental element in a theater production. Dance makes any play much more fun and entertaining to watch. Dance brings in movements that otherwise cannot be conveyed through words.

Eva Igo, 14-year-old dancer from Minnesota preformed a "hypnotizing" performance on "World of Dance". "Such a star", J.Lo states. I love this dance. You can definitely feel the emotion Eva is giving off in this performance. She seemed comfortable up on stage and definitely lived up to my mothers words, "Dance like no one is watching." One of the judges, Derek Hough, commented, "You dominated that stage," and she really did. She used the entire stage, used her face, and turned her dance into a story and conveyed the story so well that, as I said earlier, you can feel the emotion of her dance.

We see symbols all around us everyday, but what do they mean? To me, symbolism is a quick and easy way of labeling something. For instance, every car has a symbol on it letting people know what kind of car it is. A Chevy has the bow tie, Honda has the slanted " H ", and Mercedes has the "pie chart". All of these symbols have their immediate meaning saying what they are, but they also have a deeper meaning that not everyone really consciously recognizes but knows its there, such as a Mercedes. The "pie chart" means Mercedes but when you see a Mercedes you most likely think, "they have money and they have arrived". During our walk yesterday through downtown Rapid City, I found many symbols. Here are six of my favorite symbols that I saw and their meaning, both immediate meaning and deeper meaning. A Camera~ A person holding a camera in a tourist city usually means that they are a tourist, not from around here and wanting to make memories. But a ...