Dance Me to the End of Term

I taught my last dance class of the year, tonight. I got my students started on Mayas, which are almost always really difficult for beginners. But by the end of the class, everyone had the basics down, and my one intermediate student was well on her way to layering various types of shimmies on her Maya. Then, I had everyone break up into groups of two or three, run through a quick, upbeat song a few times, and then perform for the rest of the class. It may very well have been the first time any of them have done a performance, and they did great! Sure, there were lots of goof-ups, but they were happy goof-ups. No one burst into tears. No one hyperventilated. They all laughed and kept on shimmying.

There is one little girl in my class. She speaks very little English, and has a typically short attention span (she's six, I think). Mostly, she does her own thing during classes, sporadically tuning in to what I'm teaching, and working on it voraciously before running a few laps, twirling her veil. Tonight, she was my dance partner, and she performed with me for the rest of the class. She's a natural for barrel turns. I still can't do those. They make me want to barf! So I had her doing barrel turns with the veil held butterfly-style. She's so friggin' cute! I want to teach her some floorwork, too, because she's so flexible and light, that it's not very difficult for her. If she gets a start now, before she gets heavier and her muscles have to work a lot harder, she'll be awesome. She already does some nice arches to the ground from a kneeling position. I guess I'll have to get her Mom to help her out a bit at home.

Although I love teaching my students, I am feeling a nice sag of relief that I won't be teaching any more classes until next month. I need a break! My schoolwork has been burning me out, and I could use a bit more chill-out time. Hopefully, these few weeks off will do the trick....