Private class and PE/CM
It has been a fun but busy week! So now… when the schedule is more hectic I will not update the blog as often as before (just at heads up). Although I think it is only my mom checking it daily…
Right now I am teaching 20 classes a week and upcoming week another 2 is coming up.
On Thursday and Friday 10.30-11.30 I have a private class with a retired French lady going for 45 years and it’s very nice variation from all the kids I meet because she challenge me with more analytic questions, and always gives me a bottle of Evian haha. She wanted to learn how to dance both in social gatherings and on drop in classes , but found it difficult to find beginner classes for her own age. Either the level was far too difficult or she had to join teenagers. I hadn’t really thought about it, but what if you want to start dancing at more a more mature age, were would you reach out?
It is anyway very fun to teach her because of her motivation and actually talent. The understanding of music is now problem because of earlier contact with instruments so ¾, 7/8 or 5/4 are is just fun to experiment dancing to.
Since she doesn’t really know what kind of dance style she likes we try out different thing so that she can find herself in what kind of dancing she feels most comfortable in doing and having most fun with. Since I am specialized in contemporary, methods of imaginary pictures and focus on movement quality and how performing this feels like is more in focus than teaching steps based on form. I add a lot of improvisation in the exercises so that she needs to make choices for herself. If you are at a party and just spontaneously going to start to dance it is not a set choreography right? You would want to move just like you like it at that certain moment. It is like a confidence course in a way and an exciting discovering journey of finding the dancer inside I get to be part of!
My very first buisness card I get to hand out ;)
Mond, tuesd and Wednesday I am out on Kindergartens to teach PE/CM. It stands for physical eduction (that sport subject everyone has in school) and creative movement (Kreativ dans) so it is a mixture of both in either 30 or 45min depending on their age.
It was fun to prepare and execute these first classes. I get to meet so many children and (most of them) are so appreciative. If I for example met kids in the hallway I had they the before they run up to me, hugging, and saying “I love you teacher Rebecca. Look I have been practicing Banana pose!” haha.
Of course a lot of them are crying as well, of this new scary situation, like the toddlers (1-2 years old), so it is really nice to have their teachers as assistants joining the class as well. On the schools and kindergarten I don’t either have to keep track on payment, registration and the administrative stuff as I do on out on compounds and after school activities, so that is a relief since they are quiet many!
What I’ve done so far is off course different from the children that can barely stand (1 years old) to the kids soon in 1st grade (5-6 years) but the classes are based on body awareness, which I also wrote my bachelor piece on (so it is a subject close to my heart), and space awareness in terms on the room were in with directions and levels (low, middle, high).
I work with how we get to know our own body parts and also HOW we can move in space. So of course there is a focus on dynamics and shapes as well. This creative dance is based on Labans movement study, which I myself find very interesting and I feel very happy to get to teach this J
Since this is also one of their PE classes they need to move a lot and get the stamina and muscles working. But instead of for example regular intervals we make it really fun and creative like walk like an elephant on all four to a hula hope ring, where you jump like a frog 5 times, and continuing walking while you are sitting on your butt . I have a lot of coordination exercises which they think is both funny and challenging.
I tried Yoga for kids for the kids above 4 and it was very popular. I made a variation of Betsy the banana, for about 8 min and they were totally focused all the time! Working on balancing, strengthening and stretching at the same time as a tell a story (with of course very exciting voice) seemed to be the highlight of the class even though some of them don’t understand English… The found it very interesting anyway and were very committed haha.