Anna Pavlova – Ballerina Biography

Anna Pavlova Ballerina Biography Anna Pavlova, a famous Russian ballet dancer best known for changing the ideals for ballet dancers, was the first to make ballet popular in America and the rest of the world. Her love for classical ballet, determination to perform her love for the arts, influences and zest can still be evidently felt. Born on 31 January 1881, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Anna Pavlova was awestruck by the first ballet performance she watched and was intent on becoming a ballerina. Petite Pavlova entered the Imperial Ballet School in 1891 despite not having the preferred body type of a ballerina which was a strong, muscular and compact body. However, she gave the examiners enough confidence that she would work hard and excel. In the later years, Pavlova became one of the most astounding ballerinas. Young Pavlova was a talented and hardworking student. Training years were difficult due to her special physique. She was considered physically weak as she was small and thin coupled with highly arched feet un like the preferred body of a ballerina at that time. Pavlova was fed with cod-liver oil which tasted awful to her in the hope of getting the ideal body. Even so she remained slender. In order to improve faster, Pavlova tried imitating other ballet dancers. However her teacher, Pavel Gerdt taught her to  understand her unique dancing of daintiness and fragility and the importance to dance out those rare qualities. Her zeal for ballet was remarkable; she worked hard to strengthen her weakness and also with what she had instead of trying to be someone else. Her willingness to overcome these obstacles at such a young age is commendable. Soon, Pavlova grew in gracefulness and could stand in a way that her body formed a beautiful line where she was able to bend and twist her torso with ease and grace. Instead of mastering multiple fouettes turns and other technical steps that the muscular Italian style had induced at that time, Pavlova danced poetically and expressively. She stood out.. Finally upon graduation, Pavlova’s hard work paid off – she graduated as a first class dancer. After Pavlova’s school years, she continued training hard to improve her technique and even took extra lessons with different teachers such as Christian Johansson, Madame Sokolova and Nikolai Legat. Pavlova graduated at a time where virtuoso Italian ballerinas and a muscular ballet stylewas popular. Although Pavlova had mastered difficult steps and ballet technique, her highly arched feet were still too weak for the flamboyant pointe work. She experimented with ways to wear her pointe shoes with the hope of maximizing her potential. Through experiments, she discovered that by adding a piece of hard leather to the soles, the shoes provided better support. Many people thought this as cheating because ideally, ballerinas should be able to hold their own weight on their toes. However, her idea enabled her to perform better and allowed her to balance in her arabesque with poised and elegance inflicting less pain and  hence easier to sustain on pointe. In doing so, Pavlova created what is known as our pointe shoes today. Being able to go on pointe with ease and having a beautiful extension, flexible torso and tremendous feminine expressive dancing, Pavlova set a higher aesthetic of beauty in ballet where ballet dancers were able to perform with poise and elegance like a princess. With the recreation of the pointe shoes, there was a demand for brilliant and fancy footwork like jumps, multiple turns and balances and that of ballerinas performing on pointe.

What roles do international organisations play in global politics Essay

What roles do international organisations play in global politics - Essay Example Governments, especially of the less developed countries, are heavily dependent on large organisations as they provide job opportunities to local people. MNCs bring with them large investments which is considered important in the economic growth of a country. This makes the role of international organisations important with regards to global politics. In this paper we will attempt to highlight the role of international organisations on global politics. Evolution of international organisations will also be discussed briefly. Rapid industrialisation was witnessed in the 18th and19th century as firms started mass production of goods. International trade also increased slowly and firms began to expand into different countries. This facilitated growth of private enterprises as companies started to engage in production of goods and services. This is the time when seeds of international organisations were sown and organisations started to accumulate wealth and power. Agriculture output in Europe increased in the 17th century which facilitated a population growth. This growth in population meant facilitated industrialisation as people started to seek other professions. Also the living standards of the population started to increase greatly in the 17th century which played an important role in fuelling worldwide industrialisation (Lucas, 2002). When standards of living were higher technological progress was made which again facilitated the process of industrialisation. Firms began to use advance technology to manufacture products. Mass production became possible which again strengthened private firms and helped them to grow even more. Another important development was that road system was improved and railway system was overhauled, and this helped different firms reach a wider target market (Meier & Rauch, 2000). In the 19the century experts started to advocate capitalism which they thought was responsible for the progress of the world. The doctrine of

The Role of Multicultural Education in Citizenship Essay

The Role of Multicultural Education in Citizenship - Essay Example This is an interesting single case study, but it would be risky to extend any major conclusions to other contexts. A further weakness of this article is that the theory is largely separate from the observation. The lengthy introduction sets out the findings of previous scholars, but it is not always obvious how this relates to the particular teacher being studied in the article. The hybrid method of academic argument followed by snippets of interview leads to an implied devaluation of the teacher’s words as mere anecdote. It is as if the teacher is cited as an illustration of someone else’s theories, rather than a speaker and thinker in her own right. For this reason the article presents a strange aura of superficiality and the fact that the author is male and the subject is female creates a certain gender specific tension as well. This article shows a potential of researcher bias due to strong tone of advocacy that emerges. The choice of method leaves the male professo r in control of the way a single female teacher’s voice is edited and presented. Status and gender issues make this a potentially unfair representation, and adding gender hierarchies to the obvious racial hierarchies that are discussed in the article. In summary, then, this article is clearly knowledgeable about theory, but somewhat inadequate in explaining the connection between theory and practice. Its focus on one researcher and one teacher makes it also very limited in scope and open to the charge of bias. Article 2 (Mathews and Dilworth) This article addresses three main questions relating to the way that preservice teachers view multicultural citizenship, namely 1) the type of citizen that preservice teachers aspire to promote in their future classrooms; 2) the way that preservice... This paper approves that the innovative approach used in the Cutri article on narrative as a method of teaching and learning multicultural citizenship is applicable is a good example of new thinking being applied to a familiar context. It stands out as a new technique among many old and tired approaches, and although it may not suit everyone, and might seem suspect for researchers who prepare quantitative approaches and more triangulation from different perspectives, it can safely be recommended as an exciting tool to help trainee teachers set out their own narrative starting points and begin to engage students with the personal and the emotional aspects of the subject. This essay comes to the conclusion that the close study of the three articles highlighted at the start of this paper has led to a greater appreciation of the difference between surface knowledge and deeply held beliefs. All three studies provide useful insights into the teaching of multicultural citizenship, and especially into the methods that should be used to train teachers of this discipline. The authors all stress the need for preservice teachers and teachers and also teacher educators to engage in a process of continuous reflection and application of theories to the teaching situation. It is clear that the majority of teaching and research in the field of multicultural civilization in the United States is still being conducted by white people and that engagement with some of the issues at a deep level is not taking place in many training programs. Greater familiarity with international scholarship, and a willingness to try new methods are two recommendations which would go a lo ng way to remedying the narrow focus of these American studies.

Aspects of mental health promotion (part 1 and 2) Literature review

Aspects of mental health promotion (part 1 and 2) - Literature review Example In general, health promotion is all about being able to positively enhance health and prevent illnesses through the use of health educational intervention which can help people prevent diseases. In line with this, mental health promotion is all about health promotion that is more directed on the mental aspect of a person. Often times, mental health promotion aims to further improve the mental well-being of people and carers. Started sometime in 1975, health promotion in UK was focused on preventing the spread of diseases caused by either behavioural, environmental, physical, or lifestyle factors (i.e. alcohol consumption during pregnancy, obesity prevention, health eating and smoking cessation, etc.) (Nick, 2009, p. 78). In 2008, the European Commission together with the World Health Organization acknowledged mental health illnesses as 5 out of 10 major causes of disability all over the world. To improve mental health strategies between 2013 to 2020, a new resolution known as the WHA65.4 was developed to create comprehensive strategies and policies based on the responses coming from social and health sectors (World Health Organization, 2013). Mental health promotion is all about creating public awareness in terms of preventing mental health problems. For this reason, mental health promotion is considered important topic in public health. In general, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, alcoholism and obsessive-compulsive disorder among others can increase the risks for untimely deaths caused by accidents on top of having higher risks for more physical illnesses (Nick, 2009, p. 80). For these reasons, mental health problems are considered as one of the most serious and most important topic in public health (Katz and Pandya, 2013, p. 363). In UK, the Mental Health Foundation (2014) reported that 1 in 4 people tend to experience mental health problem each year. Specifically the prevalence rate of depression in UK is 1 in 5 older people (Mental Health

Communication Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Communication Theories - Essay Example In professional practice, communication is a sensitive tool that defines the relationship between employers, employees and the customers and the attitude that they have for one another. Consequently, the professional environment requires effective communication mechanisms to build a conducive social environment for every person and ensure an effective flow of information. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which communication theories illuminate areas of professional communication practice. Communication theories have attempted to provide an abstract explanation of the various elements that define an effective communication process as one way of modelling competence in communication. Whether an individual intends to relay information, persuade, trigger a response, or explain a phenomenon, the choice of the mechanisms of information flow and communication techniques will determine the success of the intended purpose of communication. Most scholars have arrived at a concession that the choice of word, media and the channel will be determined by the kind of communication, either social or official, and the audience that receive the information (Emory, 2006, p. 22). These dimensions of communication are all vital if an individual has to pass their information and be understood by their target audience, and this can only be measured by evaluating the response of the audience after the information has been propagated. One of the popular communication theories is the medium Theory of Communications that perceives the communication process as a message oriented process. As opposed to the information theory that perceives communication as a bidirectional linear process, the rhetorical theory provides an abstract of the communication process as a complete messaging loop. According to Sharma (2009, p. 11), the key element in any communication process is the message that is intended to be transmitted over to the audience and the feedback that the audienc e will provide. Message, may it be in speech or textual form, refers to the information that a professional intends to provide to relay to their audience. Competence in communication has been associated with the formulation of the message in such a manner that it is concrete, precise, clear, free of distortion and well-articulated. The design of a speech or a text message will depend on the choice of words, the intonation, non-verbal expressions and presentation techniques. Optimization of the properties that affect a message is vital as a failure of any of them will have a consequential impact on the entire communication process. For instance, even after the choice of the right words, the speaker may mess up the entire process by presenting in a low tone that the audience may not grasp the intended message. In a nutshell, the message is the central attention of any communication process and hence its organization and presentation is the core of effective communication. Another vita l element of the medium theory is the mechanisms of information transmission especially in the journalistic professional practice. A proponent of the medium theory, McLuhan predicted the evolution of the communication process with the proliferation of new technology where messages would need to be transmitted across the entire world. The medium refers to the channel of communication through which message is

1. Asian economic integration and production networks OR 2. Review the Essay

1. Asian economic integration and production networks OR 2. Review the following paper online - Essay Example is that back in the mind of millions or even billions of people who contribute the know-how, skills and labor towards the production of a single piece of pencil, most likely never have a pencil in mind as the final product of their contributions (Read, 2008). The only thing that binds all the numerous people together towards the production of a small piece of pencil, which they may never even use throughout their lifetime, is their personal needs. The people involved in cutting down the trees used to produce the wood pieces that are eventually turned into a pencil, do not even know what the tree will be used for, while the people who make the power saws and logging machines never take their time to think that the end product for their inventions is likely to be (Read, 2008). Similarly, the miners in the Mexico mines who produces graphite, the farmers in the Dutch East Indies who cultivates the rape-seed oil crops in their farms, the farmers who cultivate coffee in Brazil to be eventually brewed and served to the workers in the pencil manufacturing factory and offices, as well as the producers of pumice in Italy, do not know the end product of the labor. The fact of the matter is that all the small contributions that the billions of people make in their respective areas while in different countries, end-up as a piece of pencil in the shelves of book stores and shops. To this edge therefore, a single product that reaches the consumer is a factor of millions or billions of laborers, who do not actually know what they are contributing to, but only understands their desires and necessities (Read, 2008). Simply put therefore, the goods, services and innovations that have transformed the world are a product of people who neither know nor care about them. The desire to exchange the skills, know-hows and labor by different individuals for the goods and services they need is the ultimate source of a consumable product. The second main argument that has been advanced by

History Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 28

History - Assignment Example Counterculture refers to a group whose beliefs are different from those of the common majority (Misiroglu, Gina p 24). The Free Speech Movement at the University of California: A socially fortunate group of students started identifying themselves as having different interests with regard to the requirements of practices and interests of the university’s corporate sponsors. The Beatles: New cultural forms emerged to oppose the old cultures. The Beatles rock band is an example of such cultural forms that rapidly evolved to mold and reflect the youth’s cultures emphasis on experimentation and change. The hippies: the hippie counterculture’s primary tenet was that life was all about being happy, and not about what others thought they should be. They did not consider the consequences that their actions bore. They sought to replace the dominant mainstream with a Utopian society. Countercultural ideas were embraced differently by different groups. Student movements viewed these ideas as platforms for airing their concerns. They aimed for an overhaul of the current systems that ran schools. The black power appreciated the countercultural ideas. They felt that they had been oppressed for long and wished to mitigate racism. They sought for equal opportunities in the new systems. The new left (activists, educators, et al) utilized confrontational tactics to break the older ideologies. They were concerned with antiwar, feminist, and ecological issues. The anti-Vietnam war groups opposed the Vietnam War. They used countercultural ideas to expose a deep schism within the American