#dubstep madness

Anyone who's my friend on facebook knows the ordeal of trying to get to the airport despite being stuck in traffic. Basically, the whole experience had me in a panic, and it takes a lot for me to panic. 

One of the important aspects of being a teacher is trust. The students are trusting that the teacher knows what she is doing, that she has the mastery of her technique and she can explain it well. The teacher must trust that the students will be in attendance every week ready for whatever she'll teach.

Tonight was my last class of 2012, and it was admittedly all over the place (at least by my standards). I usually have an idea of what I want to teach when I'm in the shower. It goes out of the window by the time the music starts. At the very least, I try to think of one thing to focus on for a song or two. I did my usual stuff, but decided to do pelvic locks on the down with chest lift/drop on the half beat while traveling. It's up to me to be able to offer and break down a challenging layer. On occasion, I'll flub up something. However, I will never teach something I don't know how to do. I always want to make sure that I can do it before I offer it to my students. After all, they are trusting me with their safety, and I am going to make sure that their bodies are safe and sound. I'll push and I'll challenge but it is always with the intention that we can be the best dancer possible.

My students are awesome. The highlight of my week.

The beginning stages of teaching choreography are so much fun. There's this feeling of "You're asking me to do what?" that happens when teachers present the first movements. It's the beginning of putting jigsaw pieces together. I'm looking at everything, and it's super overwhelming in the beginning. All it takes is the first few pieces here and there. Each teacher has his or her own specific method to the madness. I used to be a pretty linear choreographer, but now I like to jump around. I'm jumping around with Airbreaker as there are sections that I can see clearly, and others that are still foggy.

Last, but not least we have Fire. Initially, I was worried because I really had no idea what I was going to do with Fire. How do I explain Fire within the context of belly dance? When I think of Fire, I think of intensity, passion, desire, creativity. That's not something that another person can teach, in my opinion. It's like when I played the piano. I was quite good at it, but I didn't love it. I stopped taking lessons at the first opportunity I could. My fire for belly dance is there. After all, I've been at this for a long time with no signs of stopping.

Today was a rather fun class. Well, I think all my classes are fun, but this one especially so. In accordance to the theme of Air, we worked with negative space. That meant that the students would pair up and create these continuously moving shapes according to a pose. It was pretty cool to see. My favorite part is the laughter. It was one of the times when we shouldn't take the dance so seriously, but rather allow it to be a way to explore. Plus, it's a great way for my students to get to know each other. It's an awesome conversation-starter.

Teaching AIR was quite fun today. If anything, there's so much that I want to provide in class that an hour doesn't seem like enough time. Heck, I don't think two hours would be enough time. I have to say, I think it's harder when you have too many ideas to work with than not enough because I don't want to pull focus. It's better to work on one or two things and develop rather than a million and one things without cohesion. This week was drills and traveling steps. Next week is drills and space.