Reflections on dance practice

[jducoeur]

Last night was the last "official" dance practice of the season -- a fun, rather breakneck-pace by-request session. Jon's organizing a few over the summer on a more ad hoc basis (taught by various people, including one by me), but it won't be the usual every-week deal.

I need the break -- I'm kind of toasty-fried. But it's worth remembering that the actual running and teaching of dance practice isn't the toasty-making part. I actually enjoy that a lot, at least on nights when we have a decent crowd. We've had a number of really good weeks lately, especially when we've had a few people who weren't regulars present to shake things up. Sometimes it's newbies, sometimes it's dancers who don't frequent our practice (last night it was Darius and company from up in Ealdormere, who were passing through town). But I seem to thrive on a bit of variety, and having some people to teach who don't already know everything I'm going to say.

The tiring bits are actually mostly the management and organization: having to come up with a reasonable teaching plan and keeping track of it. The constant feeling that I *should* be introducing more new dances, but don't really have time to do so properly, is rather frustrating. Above all, it seems to be the *responsibility* that wears after a while. I love dancing, and really love teaching dance nearly as much. But *having* to teach, week in and week out, gets tiring after a while -- the knowledge that I can't casually take a week off and decide to stay home, that I can't come in half an hour late because I really need to finish a bit of code, and so on. That's what blurs the line between fun and work for me.

This is why the summer plan suits me well. Teaching a session during that is different: it'll be a special occasion instead of a weekly grind, and Jon's dealing with the organizational overhead. And hopefully having a few months off from it will leave me properly fired up for the beginning of the school year, where we might get a few more novices involved. (I dearly hope the new folks from Ivory Keep stick around -- I like them.)

In general, though, I'm going to have to reflect on how to keep my energy levels up. I suspect I'm going to remain dancemaster for the time being (nobody else is really in a position to take over right now), so I need to ponder how to keep enjoying myself and not let myself get too crispy around the edges...

Comments

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

the inflexibility of the responsibility is what burns people out. Maybe there is a way to do something like the summer mode thru out the year on a lesser scale -- like, have one week a month that is "guest dance master" night, where some one else gets to run one, or have an "all request night" or similar.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

the inflexibility of the responsibility is what burns people out

Yep - that's exactly what happened to me with leading the Quire. I think the once a month break will help you, though my once a month break for Council was not actually enough towards the end.

[jducoeur]

All possible. Part of the problem, of course, is that organizing the exceptions is typically at least as stressful as just running a bog-standard practice...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Most of this is just burnout, and and indication that it's time for a break. But one sentence jumped out at me:

"The constant feeling that I *should* be introducing more new dances"

A) In the immortal words of Mom, "Don't *should* me!"

B) How many different dances do you teach compared to an actual, period dancemaster? And in how many different styles? And note that the period dancemaster would have been a full-time, paid professional. I suspect you are undervaluing how much you actually do accomplish.

[jducoeur]

Oh, I'm actually pretty proud of how I do -- in relative terms, I think Carolingia continues to run an exceptionally good dance practice.

That said, in absolute terms new dances are very useful, in that they keep things new and interesting for the more experienced members. Variety is a powerful force, and I do think continuing to introduce more into the repertoire would be a benefit for helping keep people engaged.

How many different dances do you teach compared to an actual, period dancemaster? And in how many different styles?

Number of styles, obviously more. Number of dances -- less clear. The Italian dancemasters had pretty big repertoires. More importantly, though, they were teaching a different audience for different purposes. They probably tended to teach their dances in more depth, with more hammering on style, because dancing really *well* was very important socially. So their priorities were different: less about socializing and entertaining, more about instructing people about how to survive in an environment where dance was quite important to one's standing...

[bess.livejournal.com]

I definitely understand exactly what you are saying -- about the burnout coming more from the constant responsibility than the teaching itself. I also can relate to the feeling that more new dances should be taught. I remember feeling very much like that, but not having the time to learn or reconstruct anything new.

If you're looking for people to take on the occasional practice so that you can get a break, please don't hesitate to ask.

[jducoeur]

Thanks -- I expect I'll give you a call from time to time...