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Reflections on dance practice
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...
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...