So, things have been crazy for me. I have been working on my thesis like mad. It's about twelve pages long at this point so I'm just over halfway but I've got to crank it out this weekend for sure. With work and my other classes I've been having to put it off this week. But now, I'm pretty much done with everything except for my finals in acting and yoga which I'm pretty much all the way prepared for so I can focus on that and get it done.
I've had three ballet classes now. The second went much like the first but the girls were more attentive. Each week they are paying more attention and they are able to remember the games and exercises we did the previous week. We are starting to build on some basic principles (although very slowly). This last class, I brought one of my bigger stuffed animals to help them learn how to leap and they really liked it. The stuffed animal is a sea cow and I told them that his name was Seymour the Sea Cow and that he was taking a nap in the middle of the floor so they have to quietly run up to him and jump over without making noise or stepping on him. They loved it. We also played "chasse around the rosy." It's just like ring around the rosy but you chasse instead of walking/running. It sometimes works better than other times because the girls sometimes start going in opposite directions. They also LOVE freeze dance, the older girls especially. The little ones don't really grasp the concept of sitting out and having a winner so I just give them assignments for when they freeze like make a shape or balance or do an "elevator." The little ones also liked playing with different kinds of music, and expressing how it made them feel. We did happy songs, scary songs, sad songs, and so on and they tried to express the emotion of the music through movement. They were doing really well. Each week we have been working on our Spring Dance and they actually remember it so I think I might try to choreograph a simple peice so they can do a small recital for their parents on the last week. I really enjoy teaching. I think next week, we will make crowns and practice bourrees with them balancing on our heads.
I've been having a really great time with all the closing banquets and final get togethers. Last weekend was the Senior Dinner. I got to dress up and have a great dinner with friends and see lots of people I've met throughout my time at Westminster so it was awesome. We had our last AMP meeting. The closing dinner is next Saturday and I'm so excited for that. Last night was the Honors Spring Banquet and it was surreal to be a senior there but it was very fun and nostalgic. I'm going to miss the many Westminster communities of which I have been priveledged to be a part. I definitely want to be an active alumni and give back when I can. I have really grown as an intellectual and a person and have many wonderful people at the college to thank for that.
I have some photos from Red Noses and these events that I'll have to put up when I get time. But now, back to work and my thesis...
Thursday, April 22, 2010
school & ballet
Friday, April 2, 2010
The First Class
So last Tuesday was my first time teaching beginning ballet. It was crazy and fun. But mostly crazy at first.
I spoke with the girl who referred me and asked her about how she did the classes. She gave me some tips and ideas and showed me some of her class journals where she wrote her lessons and activities. That was very helpful. She mentioned that she liked to break things up sometimes by reading books and then having the students dance about things in the book.
I bought this book from Barnes and Noble that came with a CD of selections from some ballets. It's not as cute as I thought it would be. It's geared for an older audience than I thought and I don't know if the stories will hold the attention of the littler girls. It might work for the older class. But the CD is nice.
Before class, I wrote out a plan of things we could do and they definitely took a lot less time than I thought they would. The class is only 45 minutes but The attention span of those girls is TINY! A break in the middle of class to get a drink took up a ton of time, though lol. Here was my rough idea of how things would go (which worked much better for the later class and had a lot of improvisation and repeating in the first class):
- talk about the rules:
no one talks when Miss Ali is talking
raise your hand if you hav a question
one person talks at a time
no playing on the barre or with the piano
be nice and it's OK to make mistakes and not get things right away - warm ups: bluberry pie/pointing and flexing toes/touching toes and laying down/cat-table-dog/skipping around the circle
- "barre work": elevator game/try tendues/cinderella spins/positions 1 and 2
- shapes:
talk about how space and therefore shape is an element of dance, ask the students what their favorite shapes are and explore how we can make those shapes with our bodies: arms, legs, torso, hands, feet, etc. - Across the floor: skips/spring runs/chasse/leaps
- Middle of the floor:
Springtime dance -- what is exciting about Spring? What can we dance like?
flowers/bunnies/trees/the wind (it was windy today) - Dancing Game:
do your Springtime dance to music. Freeze and do elevators when I call out - cool downs:
run in a circle, skip, walk
sit down and do stretches from the beginning including bluberry pie and toes - curtsy/bow
I have some ideas to use next time. I think I will find a book to read, and maybe try some props. I'll see if I can scrounge up some scarves or headdress type things. Maybe little tutus or costume pieces. I will also try and teach some spins and leaps. The girls liked to do those during the Spring dance.
I'm trying to remember the types of things we did in my beginning class. But I was a lot older. I was eight when I started so I don't really have any idea how people handle the little three and four year olds. I wonder if my old studio would let me sit in on a class to get some ideas. Anyways, at the end of the day, I was tired and a little worn out but it was fun and I am looking forward to the the next class with hope and a renewed determination to give some good ballet basics.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Ballet Class starts tonight!
I am so excited for tonight! It will be teaching my first ballet classes. The first class is going to be a little crazy. I'll be teaching sixteen 3-4 year olds beginning ballet. The next class is smaller, about seven 5-7 year olds.
So I know there are going to be wild, hyper, socially inexperienced little kids running wild. Hopefully I will be able to keep them in control. I have had a few experiences teaching little kids in primary at my old LDS wards and they were out of control. One time, I was subbing as the chorister. It went a little south but the kids loved when I knocked over a box of markers with my overly enthused leading... I don't know if that was good or bad...
Anyways, I will hopefully maintain more control during these ballet lessons. I'm not worried about the second class. It's the first one that I'm afraid of. I feel a little like Maria in the Sound of Music when she is going to meet the VonTrapp family... "I must stop all these doubts all these worries. If I don't I just know I'll turn back..." (see, those theatre people really got to me).
I'm rambling now. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow :)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Red Noses in Review
Saturday, March 27 was the final show for Red Noses. It was amazing. The show went really well but the best part was what happened afterwards. We all changed out of our costumes and hurried back into the auditorium for the techie show -- a roast of the actors and our performances. They used a few props and costume pieces to establish their identities and made fun of the show and us. It was in a word hilarious.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Shameful admission
I burst into a song from "Oliver!" the other day during rehearsal. Unprovoked. I started it.
*hangs head* Am I becomming a drama kid? Maybe.
But then, when we were getting warmed up before dress rehearsal, we had a dance party with musical music playing. And I didn't know ANY of the songs so I think I'm safe for now. I can be drama without being loud-musical-drama-song-bursting, right? But a rare song burst is ok, isn't it?
My perception of reality is starting to get a bit blurred from spending five hours a night in rehearsal for the past two weeks. But I'm having so much fun. I will be sad when it is over. And I will miss my loud, crazy, overly dramatic castmates.
And if I haven't already told you, come see the play! C'est fantastique! Last night was opening and it was incredible to perform with an audience laughing and feeding our energy.
Get your tickets here. :) Click on 'Red Noses'
Friday, February 5, 2010
Drama Kids
They're starting to wear on me at rehearsals.
I can't stand the constant singing of musicals. Or the loudness.
Part of it might have to do with jealousy. I wish I could sing as well as they and I'll admit I am a tad jealous of their comraderie.
But mostly, I think it's just annoying.
They'd be so cool if they just didn't sing all the time! That is why I have never been into acting before.
And why I decided to not go to BYU (ha ha, you know that you know the type of kids there who bursts into random song and dance).
I must bear my burdens, the show must go on!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Journal #4 Transformation
These past few days have been another of those cool life moments where things come together from different areas of your life to focus on one idea. Last time I mentioned it, I was thinking about wellness. This time it is the idea of transformation.
I helped my AMP mentor on Saturday with the matinee of Ririe-Woodbury's Circle Cycle. For my help, I got a pair of tickets to the evening show. It was a wonderfully playful but also thoughtful performance. Like the title declares, the dances are about circles and cycles. One was about the transformation of a catipillar into a butterfly. That dance, along with the other dances got me thinking about cycles and changes in our lives.
And then, low and behold, for our yoga journal question this week, we were asked about transformation. What we thought about it, if we have gone through a transformation, what transformations we would like to attain, and how yoga might support those transformations.
You can read my journal entry below.
I missed class on Monday and felt so grateful for it. Wednesday. I could feel the affect it had on my body. Everything was just a
little bit stiffer. From this experience, I see the benefit of maintaining a regular practice several times a week. I like the half sun salutations that we worked on. The cycle is refreshing.
I am trying to incorporate more of the breathing into the movement and poses. I find myself forgetting about the ujjayi breath as we get into more involved pose work. I am trying to focus on keeping a continual and mindful breath throughout the class. It is so much easier to focus on it and keep it smooth while just sitting. I want to be able to keep that level of mindfulness
of breath throughout the movements. It will help me stay in the moment and focus internally.
I read the fifth chapter of Farhi's book this week. It was about slowing down. This is something I have been trying to do recently, even before this class. I think slowing actually helps me fit everything into the day. Or at least it lets the important things fit instead of letting the little stuff get in the way of the big stuff. Slowing down makes you value the sweetness of
interacting with other people and getting to know yourself as well. I like how yoga incorporates slowness and attentiveness to ourselves. The movements are in relation to your own body's breath and natural desires instead of being dictated by the outward models of time or imposed counts or time limits. I like the idea of making life more like that as much as possible. Of course, we still need to respect time and be punctual to classes and work and meetings but in the inbetween, we can focus more on the moment as it happens rather than the way in which we measure the passing of moments.
Transformation. I like that you asked about this. I went to a dance show performed by Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company this weekend. It was called Circle Cycle. There was a dance about transformation and life cycles of butterflies. Since then, I have been thinking about it and the idea of circles and cycles in our lives. I used to think transformation meant becomming something completely different than what you were before but now I think it is more like expanding and becomming something that we always were inside but didn't necessarily know or comprehend just yet. Like a catipillar, which is a butterfly at birth but just hasn't manifested that aspect of its DNA to us yet. The being is the same, but the physical manifestation has changed forms in response to changes that happend within itself. I don't know if that makes sense but it is something I have been thinking about.
I have transformed in my spirituallity and am still transforming. I think most recently, yoga is supporting this change but previously, the change was supported by discussion, inquiry, and the beginnings of intellectual exploration into faiths and mythical ideas and non-mythical ideologies that were previously foreign to me.
I would like to continue in my spiritual transformation which I feel is still underway. I would also like to transform so that my physical wellbeing becomes a more prominent aspect of my life. I want to continue to make physical activity important and improve my mindfulness with food. I think that yoga will help by slowing me down. A lot of the time, I feel like there is no time to excersise or I skip breakfast in the morning for lack of time. If I were able to slow down not only on the mat but in life, I might be able to refocus and allow myself to have time for those important things by cutting out less important things and focus more on what my body needs. When I take care of it, it will take care of me and I will have the energy and time to take care of the other important stuff.
