parasitegirl | Entries tagged with teaching

I'm starting this on the train to my last day at the teaching compound.A reminder that I'm talkign about a substitute teahcing gig and NOT lil' Ninjas.

Typing this helps me think about what I'm going to do...and it helps me kill an hour on the train.

One of the things that makes me happy is that they've decided to pay me, directly, on the last day instead of transferring it to my bank next month. So after the gig is over tonight I will celebrate by plunking 90% of that pay-check straight into paying my taxes. I mean straight. I'll walk 2 minutes to a 7-11, they'll scan my taxes and Ill pay in cash.

A tax payment, an insurance payment (house) and my health insurance all came at once this month but this horrible job will keep me from dipping into the money I've set aside for emergencies.

My second day and third days of teaching went slightly better and I have hopes that day four will be ok.

(Class 1)

For the 3 kids who have to be learning place prepositions I taped off four squares on the floor and made up a chant/movement routine for up-down-out-in-in front of-behind-yaaaay!(Jump-squat-feet out of the square like you're doing a jumping jack, back in the square, jump in front of the suqare, behind the suqare and back into the square waving your arms). And got them moving slow and fast and then used "Kathryn says" for checking retention. Students who had barely spoken above a whisper were using their full voices again. It's great when you see the light come back behind the eyes of children in learning environments.

( A very long tale of teaching )

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.

How exciting was my Christmas Eve?

H and I rehearsed. We’ve been rehearsing for over a month now with the last few weeks the rehearsals being twice or three times a week.

With the amount of time we spend together and all the selfies we’ve taken, it’s a wonder that there has yet to be a rumor about us being lesbians. I guess the idea of girl on girl action doesn’t have the same scandalous ring when you’re dealing with a community that often promotes the idea of the dance of by women, for women, (with men explicitly excluded on occasion) …if the rumor ever starts I bet we’ll be cast a Sharon Stone-like ETHICALLY CORRUPT BIs! It’s a pity: both that our private life is the source of speculation and that if I have to be cast as a Sharon Stone type, white washes me out.

Hiromi and I are doing a duet (which I will write about later and a group number at the end of this year run by M. The group number involves M’s students and acrylic balls used for contact juggling. Integrating contact juggling and poi with belly dance vocabulary is one of M’s specialties. M’s students will perform artful isolations in seated positions while H and I are behind them dancing with our balls. H and I are starting to realize that we can dance…and we can do some very basic ball isolations...but that combining the two is rough. Contact juggling involves so much practice to get the muscle memory starting to set and to understand the range and limitations of your hand. You can’t fake it. Dancing while holding anything takes so much practice so that your focus doesn’t clump up in one part of your body…forgetting the other moving parts.

Improvisational dance is also a factor and it’s gone to show Hiromi and me that we have very different improvisational vocabulary and interpretation defaults.

And there is only one solution: Rehearse.

REHEARSE!!!

Find time and rehearse. Make videos and send them to each other when we can’t work together. MAKE TIME. We agreed to this. This performance is not a duet, it is a group, so we just have to plug away in our own time…and carve time to practice…so we can be a fluid part of Megu’s image. We can ask for help, if we have well thought-out questions and specific needs…and we have on the late-night Wednesday rehearsals… but other than that it is on us to excel.

It can be frustrating because it is out of our normal range of skills. When we hit a point where our brains start to grind to a halt, and we fixate on the difficulties without seeing a way through, that’s when we need to get silly for a while. We sing silly songs narrating what we’re doing with the ball (Whooooo will take my ball? Sooomeone one? It’s such a lovely ball…someone?” I pretend to seamlessly pull balls from my cleavage, my mouth, and more. My level of physical ball comedy is why >MY< balls have scars.

We rehearse something unconnected to the balls (like rompi rompi) forcing ourselves to integrate the balls into the movement to show our body and brains that there are movements beyond what we are limiting ourselves to. We laugh…and then we get back to the real rehearsal,

We could never do this in full group, because full group rehearsals are not in our own studio on our own time. We’d be selfish if we took their time to goof it out and get back on track. There is simply part of your autonomy and ego that needs to be set aside when it is time to work with others. You can’t indulge in all your rehearsal quirks. Twice as much needs to be set aside when you are the newest addition and an unknown factor. M knows us both as soloists who have a friendship and dance-related working relationship with each other but she’s never directed us before so we have to take direction. Her students know us as pros…so we have to be professional. That’s all there is to it.

Blowing off steam brings us back to what matters. We trust in M’s vision and her ability to visualize how the final shapes, props, and concepts will look on stage. She trusts my ability to create costumes that will work with but be separate from her students. We would not have agreed to this is we didn’t have faith in her. We wouldn’t have agreed to it if we didn’t have faith in ourselves to do whatever it takes to realize her idea.

So, we rehearse.

I'm officially resting and relaxing on my day off (national holiday!) as my too-busy-for-even-me two weeks have come to and end. I'm still busy, true, but not to the point where I feel like I'm going to burst.

It was worth it but in the spirit of resting I will soon be back in bed reading a book as it rains outside.

It felt like a weekend where hard work paid off and has probably opened new doors.
( Picture pages! )

I continue to work affirmations into the end of my dance lessons.

Lest this surprise you, I'm a bit bootcamp about it. I do do it in English and it's not very Stuart Smally. It's half "your craziest foreign language teacher" and half "drill sargent".

The one I bust out most nowadays is at the end of cool down, starting in my calm yoga/NPR voice.

"Last...step wide...hands on your hips....chin up...repeat....I!"
"I!"
"AM!"
"AM"
"POWERFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUL!!!"
"Powerful"
"LOUDER! I AM POWERFUL!"
"I AM POWERFUL!!!!!!"

"Thank you."

It really does seem to cheer people up. I know it's easier to do it because it's in a second language but it still brings me AMAZING joy to see, on some of the pictures being posted "We are powerful ladies!" and such added in English.

(Other afirmations are "I am beautiful/I am awesome/I worked very very very very hard!" sometimes with arm pumping and Kermit arms)

It's Friday night.

I think I've budgeted my time as well as I could have. Tomorrow, Saturday, I teach three classes and I think I am ready for all of them, including the one I am substituting for (because I had to review a choreo for that one). I actually will have next Saturday off from classes (sort of) because I'll be dancing in an event one of my students hired me to be a guest for.

Saturday after the three classes I may opt to get a massage or I'll scurry home to freak out a bit more re: Sunday's 2.5 hour workshop in Yokohama. This will be the first of two workshops: This Sunday is the "basic" workshop on Turkish Roma 9/8 with zills and next Sunday is the choreography. I still need to pick which sections of the choreography I will be using for that class's practice combinations but the good news is that I think I've finished the choreography, mostly, yeah. I'll admit, there's a 40 second improvisation section but it's a taksim over a 9/8 base and needs to be improvised...and if I choreograph it we'll never finish.

The Basics workshop is either sold out or one away from being sold out. The choreography workshop is over half full so far. We think many students are worried about it being too hard and will make up their minds after the Basics.

I HOPE that it's not all too hard. I plan to spend little to no time sitting and playing any of the zills without movement...because I want those students who get frustrated with the zill layer to be able to sometimes remove the zill layer and focus on the movement they are learning and then return to the zills when that frustration passes. I think I've made a choreography that benefits from the zills but can also be performed, or studied from, without zills if need be.

Next week will be about as crazy as can be...but I've planned a few times where I can opt out of this or that and nap or destress if needed.

Now I shall enjoy some sparkling sake, watch something brainless, and clean enough of my apartment that it won't stress me during the busy times (or distract me from other things I need to focus on when I get stressed)

Welcome to the latest installment of I Realize I Am Busy.

Surprise… I’m BUSY! is not unlike how I feel about the polka-dot bandana I am wearing today. I chose it this morning. I pinned my hair up, tied it on, and pinned it again for safe-keeping. And, yet, every time I catch a reflection of myself I am surprised. OMG I am wearing a something CUTE!

My schedule, my hair-wear, I did this to myself. It seems unfamiliar and alien. Who did this to me?! I like it but…why wasn’t I consulted? I not only got the memo but I wrote it? Hmmm.

Like a goldfish, I will forget again. I will remember many times today.

What is surprising me today? My Tuesday night classes start earlier now. I knew this two weeks ago…and yet I thought October was further away. Last week I was explaining how next week we would do such and such but the format would change in October. Not realizing that next week WAS October.

What else?

I start a new class. Of COURSE I do…because I have so much time. It’s at a culture center. Unfamiliar surroundings. Replacing a leaving teacher. They’re getting the “Bellydance” choreo without zills. I was thinking Raqs Mimi but I think I need to nail the fun early.

I have ordered new Melodia capris. None of the Japanese off-brands are in stock or else they come in XS.

I’m going to work a bit more into the 9/8 choreography today before I teach. Soon I’ll get back to those of you who’ve offered to help.

Current Location: Japan, Chiba-ken, Nagareyama

The Tokiwadaira Cherry Blossom Festival did what it does every year. it lures a group of us from the studio and as soon as we're all under a tent, about ready to finish changing and dance, it rains on us.

Last year the wind cut sideways and there was lightening so we had to reschedule. This year there was no other day to reschedule to but there was also no violent wind or lightening…so we danced.

I was performing with my Turkish Roma-style students. I prefer doing Turkish Roma when in an outdoor gig space because I feel that the costuming looks a little less out of place than Full-Bling-Lycra. We can toss hippy tops over our outfits and look mildly eccentric on the train…our bling-sisters with parkas over beledi dresses with hipscarves and sequins…people know that something is up.

I am insanely proud of my students. Just bursting. They each performed solos within the performance…solos of their own creation or improvisation. They each danced like who they are as individuals. They danced in their own worlds (it's not a song that requires a great deal of audience interaction…it's more of letting the audience be a witness to a moment) but not in their own heads.

We had class before the general rehearsal time…but general rehearsal time meant I could only teach one of my two Saturday classes and then have 15 minutes to rehearse. My Saturday Zill & Choreography and my Roma-style classes contain the same students. I asked if they wanted no zills and all Roma today or a full zill class and 15 minutes of practice. They voted for 30 minutes of zills, 30 of Roma practice and then time to get food instead of 15 more minutes of extra practice so they wouldn't crash right before performance time.

Smart.

At the end of all 4 - 5 groups rehearsing and getting ready, we had an in-studio show for the other students and guests…this was so that we could film everything and take photos and have friends come in case we got rained out of an outdoor performance.

We nailed it.

Then we hugged.

Then we touched up our make-up due to tear leakage.

We then all covered up as needed and hit the train station to go to Tokiwadaira, 15 minutes away.

I am proud of them and of my choreography. The choreography makes sense, there is balance, there are four individual solos, there are some minor level changes and tiny tricks, and it takes its own sweet time, thank you.

And…it's rather perfect for performing in the rain.

We nailed it again.( Yay us! )

I am looking forward to seeing both videos, indoor and outdoor, and I will be sharing them.

I have done my 20 items for today.
I've also done a bit of cleaning so that on Sunday of my 3 day weekend I can be slothful. I'll need to be awake for Dean Mommy's birthday Skype tomorrow, but that's about it. I'm in full runny nose mode and it may be the very start of cedar pollen season OR it's just the end of the ick I had.

Monday I'll also lounge around a bit, but then it's into Tokyo for a drum solo WS with Asmahan.

In dance geek news…I spent a lot of time with Pages on my iPad coming up with good ways to write down, share, teach in my new zill choreography class.

I think you can view my geekery here. It's in Japanese but you get the point. It's a work in progress.

I've had a pretty good break…and a few nummy drinks.

I'm down to my last free weekend to OMG GET IT DONE. I think I've done enough socializing over the last few days that my weekend is actually mine ALL MINE.

The thing I need to get done? A lot of dance lesson planning. 2013 kicks off my 3rd year of teaching dance and, judging from my last half a year, it's time to start getting as organized as I was for the first half of 2012.

I currently teach five dance classes a week:

Beginners, Turkish, and Zills & Drills on Thursday evening and Roma and Zills & Drills on Saturday afternoons.

That three classes in a row thing is going to CHANGE. When I went from teaching three classes on Saturday to two, I was in a much better head and body space. I can maintain the energy I need, even when sick, for two classes in a row but when the number bumps to three…it gets daunting. Friday mornings have been sucking. Teaching three classes in a row locally is about as time/energy draining as it was to teach two classes in a row with the Tokyo commute.

Starting February I will actually be increasing my classes and days, but not teaching 3-in-a-row.

Tuesday evening: Beginners, Zills & Drills. (there may be a drum class starting after my zills class, which would give me the option to stay and take drum if I have the energy)

Thursday Evening: Turkish Style, Zills (now with choreographies!)

Saturday: Roma, Zills & Drills.

I now have almost two years worth of zill-drill combinations and drills from Z&D. I figure I can organize that and create at least a rough outline to use for my Tuesday classes. I can organize my combinations (without drills) in a way that they can be used for basic movement and so they build on each other AND I can use the zill combinations and classes my longer term Thursday Zills & Drills students have already mastered to help teach a new batch of zillers who need to start at the beginning.

Thursday night still involves choreographies and performance skills, so it's time to pick the next two songs for each. I think I know what I'll work on.

Saturday will involve picking the next song for Roma and looking over past zill-drills to figure out what movements/patterns/techniques I have overlooked and figuring out what new content is needed.

Tonight is for relaxing. I caught up for lunch and drinks with my big-brother Kazu, so I'm knackered.

I have a quilt idea to sketch out as well….Scrap busting…now with tentacles!

I gotta say, Hiromi knows how to cheer me on.

I got the following texts all at once today..with the pictures.
( Matsudo Star )

Now I am teaching "Intro to Bellydance" "Oriental style bellydance" and "Zills and Drills" on Thursday night in the Matsudo studio (along with 3 classes on Saturday).

Zills & Drills has become one of my bigger classes (which means 5-6 students) with a range of student levels On Thursday night we have the ever-loyal E who was my one constant student last year in Tokyo (who also lives near me, so she was commuting the hour-long trains as well) alongside students who have JUST bought their first set of zills ever.

Last night, after stretches, I did a short improvisational performance with zills, because some students have never seen me dance and other students need to be reminded of what is beyond stepping and combinations...and how far someone who once feared zills can come.

E broke into tears as I danced. She and her husband reserved a table to see me perform at Ala Turca in Aoyama tomorrow night AND she sent me a thank-you email.

It was a good night.

Hi Internet. I'm Ozma...here's a zill combination!

I'm home early from work. The weekend was too much for me and by the time of the halfa I was back to being a coughing mess. It's slowed down this morning but I'm home to rest, having done all my classroom prep. If anything I cough up takes on a color or it gets work...back to the hospital.

Last night's halfa (minus my health) was lovely. Hannah (who Monica knows) traveled 2HOURS to see a student recital for a studio she doesn't attend. THAT is kindness and a healthy curiousity about other scenes.

It was a a dance/karaokee "hall", not general public at all (except Hannah and she counts as friend because she knows me and Hiromi and one of my students)...all friends and family and other dancers.

There was a wide range of very studen-y costumes and very student-y performances of class choreographies and it was wonderful for just how studenty and supportive it was. No super-fancy outfits folks couldn't afford, no diva attitudes, a few handmades (But...IRONED VEILS THANK YOU!) hoodies used as cover-ups, a decent range of body types (for Japan)...all in a very safe place.

Before I arrived and before the doors were opened, HIromi translated the studio-blog message I'd posted that day and read it to everyone:

I know you are all preparing for the hafla…and many of you are worried. Here's a small list of things to remember:

1. This is a safe place to dance. You are dancing for friends, family, and other dancers . Everyone wants you to do well. Everyone will be happy for you … even if you make mistakes. Everyone wants you to have fun today.

2. Mistakes are part of learning and performing. Don't worry about them too much.

3. JUST GETTING ON STAGE is a huge accomplishment. HUGE!

4. Before you do on stage, stand tall and confident.

5. Before you go on stage: Tell yourself you are going to do great. You are going to be AWESOME. You don't have to believe it…but you do need to say it to yourself.

6. Have fun. We dance for the joy it brings ourselves and others.

Ozma!

My students did a kick-ass job, from what I could see. Before we took the stage I kept telling them "You're gonna be AWESOME!", and we struck strong poses. They also did a smashing job in the non-choreographed section. The person I am most aware of flubbing our choreography was...me.

Here is a shot Hannah took of all of us teachers after our solo-demonstrations of our skill sets. I regret missing the performance of the new teacher on the far right...but I was changing costumes. My hair is pretty flat from sweating. I think it looked better in person.

Before...and this doesn't even show how horrible those curtains are:

( Step by step I make more pretty! )

Before...and this doesn't even show how horrible those curtains are:

( Step by step I make more pretty! )

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Buggirl's Increasingly Strange Tokyo Tales...

...the all powerful Ozma has spoken.

Entries tagged with teaching

ENGLISH WARRIOR!

Mini Workshop

Our balls.

Good weekend of dance

I. AM....

WS update

Polka dot busy

Tokiwadaira, you got us again.

100 Days of Goodbye, Day 28: GEEEEEK!

ZILL ALL THE DRILLS!

Thank you, Hiromi

Thank you, Hiromi

Worth it.