Returning to Relevé

Sorry for the radio silence, y'all!  I've been pretty busy and haven't had a proper chance to sit down and blog, which of course means that I have a backlog of things to say (this is a little long). (Also, apologies for my liberal use of gifs.) Teaching Update Because of the whims of fate, I have suddenly found myself teaching three days a week! The teacher of the tiny pre-ballerinas got injured, so the AD took over and had me assist her teaching the class. After only 1-2 classes AD decided I was fine on my own and let me take over--eep! On top of teaching them three days a week (there are 3 different classes--so many precious tiny ballerinas!), I have also had to come up with new dances for each class to do for the spring recital. I have no experience choreographing whatsoever, so that has been a bit of a learning curve. Luckily, this is the 3-5 year olds, so the steps are very simple, and they're cute no matter what they do. Class/Rehearsals As for us "b...

My first teaching experience went pretty well, though I could tell near the end (before we played a ballet version of charades) that the girls were getting a little bored. They were very well behaved (likely because they're not sure what to make of us yet, heh), but I still want them to have fun, so we'll have to see what we can come up with to make things a little more exciting. I also somehow ended up teaching the beginning/intermediate adult class when the teacher had to cancel last minute. I only had three students (all of whom I've taken class with), so it was relaxed and quite fun. They were good sports, and I have a suspicion that I might like teaching adults over munchkins. I said something about it to the AD later, and she kind of smiled and nodded and said, "Everyone is different." It's obviously very early in my teaching experience though, so time will tell.

The AD of the dance school I attend has been hinting that she thinks I should try to teach. I was hesitant, because I've never taught anyone anything before, and ballet can be kind of complicated. I've found myself with much more free time than usual, and when she asked again, I decided why not? So another student teacher and I have been assigned a class together (ages 7-10ish). I'm both super excited and nervous. We went over with the AD all the things we'll work on, things we'll introduce later, things to watch out for. It's a lot, but I'm looking forward to making up combinations and digging up fun music. There are way more results on iTunes than I expected... I'm also finding myself wondering what kind of resources there are for a beginning dance teacher? Are there manuals/books for this kind of thing? Will I be able to break down steps in a way that is easy for a 7 year old to understand? Will I be able to make the class both fun and disc...