Great start of a new year!
First week back in shanghai my Jazz class at YKPAO school had a performance and I was of course their to support them. They did great and it was also fun to see what other kind of activities the extenstion program at a chinese school. Public speaking for example, in my opinion, is a very interesting to put your kids into when they are 7-9y old...
Chinese kids are raised to have great careers and be excellent in everything from music, perfoming arts, maths, communication and and other academic subjects and they start really early with up to 3 activites a day. It is no wonder why they are so great at sports or dance technique because the strive for perfection according to the books are in focus. But if you put them into improvisation exercises or give them freedom to go outside the box and use own imagination it suddenly becomes very confusing and difficult. Also growing up without siblings to play with (one-child-rule) I think also affect their abilities to be spontanius and really connecting with the other dancers in partner exercises. So for the next season at this chinese privat local school I will work more with challenging them towards creative movement than them trying to copy steps to perfection.
Chinese kids are raised to have great careers and be excellent in everything from music, perfoming arts, maths, communication and and other academic subjects and they start really early with up to 3 activites a day. It is no wonder why they are so great at sports or dance technique because the strive for perfection according to the books are in focus. But if you put them into improvisation exercises or give them freedom to go outside the box and use own imagination it suddenly becomes very confusing and difficult. Also growing up without siblings to play with (one-child-rule) I think also affect their abilities to be spontanius and really connecting with the other dancers in partner exercises. So for the next season at this chinese privat local school I will work more with challenging them towards creative movement than them trying to copy steps to perfection.
The company gave me a progress meeting on how I am doing so far and I was so happy for the great feedback I got! The task afterwards was to set up personal goals for the next season and I ended up deciding on;
1. Learn to use less energy while teaching and not overwork to improve my health and be able to take on more classes.
2. Work on the chinese to understand and connect better with the non-english speaking.
3. Give myself time and energy to improve my own dancing to become a happier and more inspired dance teacher.
The first couple of weeks have been full of social activities and I really enjoy spending time with my friends and colleges here in shanghai! We have been out clubbing, having wine/cheese night, Gamenight at the pub. and me and Annelie went to Ikea to find our swedish roots haha. We are going there this weekend again to eat som swedish food and by neccesarry cheap stuff!
I also met a friends from my hometown that apparently always workes here since 1 year ago. Wow, the world is small sometimes!
I also met a friends from my hometown that apparently always workes here since 1 year ago. Wow, the world is small sometimes!
We have been taking our mandaring lessons to practical use. last week the chinese lesson group of the company visited one fake market to practice our phrases for shopping and it went better then expected I must say. Slowly, very slpwly though, I am improving verbal communication with the locals...
The last week has been very quit in the dance lessons since so many have gone away for holidays already. Yesterday a only had one child on 2,5 year for 45 min, second class 3 girls and last session 2 (picture above). The possitive thing about not having to many is that there is a lot of possibilty of them beeing seen and getting feedback. I thought maybe the motivation would lack since they do not have all of their friends present but it was the opposit actually. I have never seen them this dedicated, happy and sweaty like yesterday and amazing how much progress they can get in only 1 hour!
Back to the 2,5 y old girl. She had her first trial last week and usually I only hav toodlers in my ballet classes at kindergarten. But her mom wanted her to try and see and if she is already ready for sessions now and engagementwise she really was. She cried because she did not want to leave the room when class was finished and apperently she has been talking about ballet everyday since last week her mom told me. So when she was the only kid turning up for class I felt I could not disappoint her by saying there is no one else here so there is no class. I thought it would be to intense for one child that young for 45min but she was amazingly comitted and we got the change to catch up with some basics the other children in the group already know, like postions of arms and feet. A win win situation because now I also feel she is also more ready for second season and not needing extra attention from the rest of the group which also makes my job easier.
Because of chinese new year holiday and less classes to teach I have taken 8 dance classes and had time for more excercise on my own like morning runs (when Air quality Index was okey). Usually when I get home from a run and I feel super happy, I dance around however I want, like a little crazy, in the living room. This is mostly in the mornings when my roomates are still sleeping but i wonder what they would think if they catch me playing contemporary style... haha.
Happy Chinese new year! Here we had a worshop at the office writing Xin Nian Kuai Le in the chinese letters. It is now hanging on my door :)