parasitegirl | Mini Workshop

Today was my second of two mini-workshops at the NHK Kashiwa culture center.

There's a reason why we did mini-workshops there. That's one of the culture centers one of our three former teachers taught at. The numbers there dove when she left. My numbers, when I took over the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month class, were sad and then too low to justify the center continuing the class.

The class is really taught as a 2-3month seminar. I had two students the first slot and then they apologized and dropped because they'd be busy with family/graduation stuff in the Jan-March slot. The center dropped my class, understandably, but the time slot still remained open for the session because all the classes the community/culture center offers are on a similar 3-month time slot schedule.

Hiromi asked NHK if we could try drumming some business up by using two of my empty slots for mini workshops this month...and we'd see if that would help. It was a no-lose situation for the center. No incoming revenue in an empty slot or some possible revenue for two days.

My 80 minute zill workshop earlier this month (March 1st):

And my 80 minute workshop today: Turkish Roma footwork.

My assistant, Chiyo, and I were both pretty surprised. I'd heard that 8 people booked and THAT was already feeling like a lot...and then we got there and the number was 13 (although one got sick that morning and dropped).

Chiyo and I were giggling afterwards to each other "Woooow! Where are all these people when I have new classes at the studio?!"

And...the NHK Culture center in Kashiwa...that room is HUGE!

Both mini-workshops went very quickly. I took the same approach for both:
-Chiyo helped me translate a bunch of things I wanted to say about both topics and we made a hand-out for each workshop so I wouldn't talk too much. We'll be able to recycle much of those translations and original English for the studio web-site and future WS.
-I spent very little time addressing >why< dancers think zills or 9/8s are hard. I simply told everyone they could do it...and they could.
-Each WS culminated in us doing a combination using a variety of the new steps (or patterns and steps) and the student were allowed to record me doing the combination at the end for home-study.
-Pictures!

Hiromi will be talking to NHK Kashiwa to see if it makes sense to tweak my class descriptions and try again. Even if my class doesn't return, it's helped show us that I am becoming a teacher that students will come in from Tokyo for workshops with...and my workshop chops are getting better.