Buffalo Workshop part 1

Now playing: the Cure and the Birthday Massacre (a la DJ Darkboy)
mood: dead and prepared
(tagged pic of Naima from Maharet's myspace)

I started off my 4 day weekend with my sister's college graduation on Friday. My mom and brother where in town for that. I found out they both plan on moving over here at the end of summer/early fall. Then I spent half of the evening at GX and the other half with Mom while I tried to choreograph 8 counts. It had become the bane of my existence for the past week. Normally, I would just wing it on stage, but I really wanted something written down to hand out. And you know, no matter how much prep time you have, you can never get to bed before midnight. I think I finally gave up around 1:30am. I spent the next morning typing up the last 8 counts of choer. and printing the hard copy. I also managed to loose my sunglasses briefly at the gas station before we even left town.

Ok, first I must say teaching a workshop is WAY harder than it looks. Over the past 8 plus years I've gone to at least 30 workshops (that I can actually remember where and what teacher) and know what I do and don't like from the student side. However, being on the other end now, regardless of the prep time I spent, the time goes by so fast and I was so limited on what I could and couldn't cover. I am admittedly not a good teacher and I am definitely not the greatest at explaining things, unless you know “Em-anese”. All my decisions had to be made in real time and crammed into 2hr for morning and 2hr for teaching the choreo. My mind was constantly racing over what I should or should not focus on. There were 39 students. I would have really liked to have had maybe a third of the class and been down on the floor with them. I keep thinking of things I could have done better, but that is past now. If anything, I learned more than the class. I just hope everyone had a good time even if they went away confused. I am sure that the teachers who tour and teach the same workshop a dozen times or so can really get into the grove of things, but WOW it is hard, for me anyway. Hats off to them.

I was able to sell a bunch of my old CDs and VHS as well as that palette dress that has been hanging in my closet since 2003 or so. YEA! And I was doing good until I got on stage to start class when my nerves kicked in. Not quite stage nerves but shaky. Like when you are trying to smile but your upper lip wants to quiver, or you just sucked down a dozen pixie sticks. We did a quick warm up that helped calm me down a bit but I still felt really scatter brained. Focusing was very hard without my notes in hand.

I finished off the class with an interview with Anala from Shimmy Cast. I had sweat from every pore in my body by this point and probably was talking too soft. Meanwhile they were putting up chairs and taping a stage curtain on. We had to stop and laugh at the loud farting tape noises only 5 feet from us while recording. The little recording device is pretty neat. It looks like an MP3 player with a microphone attached.

to be continued...