I must have been 7 or 8 years old when I got my first skateboard. When I started, I used to kneel on it, one leg rested on the deck while the other pushed. As my parents were at work on most days and I had no brothers or sisters, skateboarding was what I did to keep myself amused. My skateboard was my favourite toy. That was until my dad came home from work one afternoon with tickets to see “The Best Skateboarders in the World”, who at the time were Ray Barbee and Tony Hawk. Let us just say that after seeing Tony Hawk skating on the 12ft Look Skate Park ramp, which I broke my arm on about two years later, I changed my mind about skateboarding completely. It was no longer about playing. Skateboarding had become serious.
I know I wasn’t the only kid who wanted to be Tony Hawk, he was an icon and twenty years later he’s still an icon and also an extremely successful entrepreneur.
Tony Hawk became a professional skateboarder in 1983 and has placed first or second in just about every major skateboarding contest he’s entered, to date he is still the only person to land a “900,” a two-and-a-half mid-air-flip which continues to elude skateboarders. In the world of business, he is the founder and co-owner of Birdhouse Projects which ranks as one of the top distributors of skateboard products worldwide. He founded Hawk Clothing Co which is owned by Quicksilver, Inc, he is the founder and co-owner of 900 Films, Inc, and he is responsible for bringing skateboarding to the video games market, selling over 2,000,000 copies of his video game Tony Hawks Pro Skateboarder.
My reason for admiring this man doesn’t really have anything to do with his success, it’s more to do with the way he’s become successful. He has managed to take a passion and turn it in to an extremely successful enterprise without burning bridges along the way. I admire the way he has stayed true to the skateboarding culture and helped in enabling it to grow into one of the most successful sporting industries around whilst giving back to the sport.
The Tony Hawk Foundation was founded in 2002 and creates skateparks that promote a healthy life style and act as an alternative to crime, drugs and gangs in challenged communities around the United States and in other parts of the world
“The Tony Hawk Foundation seeks to foster lasting improvements in society, with an emphasis on supporting and empowering youth. Through special events, grants, and technical assistance, the Foundation supports recreational programs with a focus on the creation of public skateboard parks in low-income communities. The Foundation favors programs that clearly demonstrate that funds received will produce tangible, ongoing, positive results.” (Tony Hawk Foundation – mission statement)
Although he is now known as the “Grand Father,” Tony Hawk continues to contribute to the sport of skateboarding having maintained his image and respect from those prolific in the sport today for over twenty years. I feel as far as role models go, not many people will deny that Tony Hawk is right up there with the best of them. I admired him as a skateboarder when I was a little boy and admire him as a businessperson now that I am adult.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Gravity and Levity (Blog assignment 4)
Gravity and Levity:
Artistic director Lindsey Butcher set up this Brighton based Dance Company in 2003, to develop the creative potential of aerial dance. The company presents work that redefines people’s perception of the dance floor by offering an alternative approach to traditional dance and circus.
At present the company offers, “A broad, accessible and ambitious program of participatory work.” Workshops are creative or equipment based focussed around specific dance or aerial techniques and take the form of a one off event or ongoing project
Despite their funding being slashed by the arts council, the company put on a “ Circus Boot Camp” in August giving complete beginners to aerial performance a chance to work with some of Europe’s leading circus professionals in an attempt to make the art form more accessible.
Taking into consideration the social issues affecting Brighton, I feel a possible area of development this small dance company could look into would be to work with and teach aerial performance to young children in the local communities on a more permanent basis.
In May 2010 an article was published entitled, “Brighton Kemptown candidates on tackling drug abuse” (http://newsfrombrighton.co.uk/brighton-politics/election-2010-brighton-kemptown-candidates-on-tackling-drug-abuse/). The article highlighted the Brighton and Hove communities concerns over the problem of the misuse of drugs in minors and more importantly what the then campaigning politicians planned to do about it. By structuring a teaching programme, using aerial dance and anti-drugs awareness, the company would be able to engage young people in a physical and fun activity in an attempt to alleviate boredom and create awareness about the dangers of substance abuse, at potentially a very young age.
I feel that the style of the dance that Gravity and Levity perform may be very appealing to younger people as it shares a close relation to circus performance. The company could benefit in a number of ways by engaging in this sought of project. For instance, their profile within the local community and the broader dance fraternity will be raised for addressing and dealing with the major issue of substance abuse. There is also the possibility of government subsidies to cover the costs of the programme. The company may even be able to expand by spotting talent and mentoring those individuals that show promise of one day becoming professional dancers themselves. They will also achieve their goal set out in the boot camp of making aerial performance more accessible.
The problems that Gravity and Levity may face by engaging in this issue could be that because the company is so small it may be very difficult to spread their workload between the education programmes and doing what they ultimately set out to do, create dance. This would mean that they might need to employ more people in order cope with the additional work load but since their funding from the arts council has been slashed this might not be a viable thing to do.
However, I feel that the potential future benefits that Gravity and Levity may experience by engaging in such a project may allow that expansion to occur. Benefits like improved trust and understanding, more business, increased motivation and increased attractiveness to potential clients should all pay off in the future.
Artistic director Lindsey Butcher set up this Brighton based Dance Company in 2003, to develop the creative potential of aerial dance. The company presents work that redefines people’s perception of the dance floor by offering an alternative approach to traditional dance and circus.
At present the company offers, “A broad, accessible and ambitious program of participatory work.” Workshops are creative or equipment based focussed around specific dance or aerial techniques and take the form of a one off event or ongoing project
Despite their funding being slashed by the arts council, the company put on a “ Circus Boot Camp” in August giving complete beginners to aerial performance a chance to work with some of Europe’s leading circus professionals in an attempt to make the art form more accessible.
Taking into consideration the social issues affecting Brighton, I feel a possible area of development this small dance company could look into would be to work with and teach aerial performance to young children in the local communities on a more permanent basis.
In May 2010 an article was published entitled, “Brighton Kemptown candidates on tackling drug abuse” (http://newsfrombrighton.co.uk/brighton-politics/election-2010-brighton-kemptown-candidates-on-tackling-drug-abuse/). The article highlighted the Brighton and Hove communities concerns over the problem of the misuse of drugs in minors and more importantly what the then campaigning politicians planned to do about it. By structuring a teaching programme, using aerial dance and anti-drugs awareness, the company would be able to engage young people in a physical and fun activity in an attempt to alleviate boredom and create awareness about the dangers of substance abuse, at potentially a very young age.
I feel that the style of the dance that Gravity and Levity perform may be very appealing to younger people as it shares a close relation to circus performance. The company could benefit in a number of ways by engaging in this sought of project. For instance, their profile within the local community and the broader dance fraternity will be raised for addressing and dealing with the major issue of substance abuse. There is also the possibility of government subsidies to cover the costs of the programme. The company may even be able to expand by spotting talent and mentoring those individuals that show promise of one day becoming professional dancers themselves. They will also achieve their goal set out in the boot camp of making aerial performance more accessible.
The problems that Gravity and Levity may face by engaging in this issue could be that because the company is so small it may be very difficult to spread their workload between the education programmes and doing what they ultimately set out to do, create dance. This would mean that they might need to employ more people in order cope with the additional work load but since their funding from the arts council has been slashed this might not be a viable thing to do.
However, I feel that the potential future benefits that Gravity and Levity may experience by engaging in such a project may allow that expansion to occur. Benefits like improved trust and understanding, more business, increased motivation and increased attractiveness to potential clients should all pay off in the future.
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