Tuesday, November 12, 2013

At the airport, again!


I feel like I have been living in airports these past few months. That's not a complaint I hasten to add... Just an observation! This time I am on my way to China. 

I am about to teach an intensive Egyptian style Bellydance course, 4 hours per day, 6 days per week, for 4 weeks. Some of the 'beginners' in the group have seemingly been teaching for 5/6 years! I am excited and nervous in possibly equal measures. Apart from the regular weekly classes that I taught for years in Scotland before moving to Cairo 8 years ago, I have never had the privilege of teaching the same group of students over this many hours, and have never ever done something like this before. We will be covering everything, from the different styles of dance and music and rhythms, to technique and how to improvise and performance skills. We, my 20 odd students ( as in around. 20.... Not. That they will be 'odd' - I hope!!) and I will be putting on a show on the last night. That, I am really excited about! 

Of course the timing is just very unfortunate. For the past 3 months there has been a curfew on at night in Egypt. Which means that there has been very little work, given that there has been no tourists at all. So I have been waiting.... And now that the curfew is to be lifted this week... , yes this. Week! And the work queries are flooding in, now, I have to refuse them all because I will be out the country for a month. Bah humbug! Typical! Anyway... 

I am excited about meeting my students. I am looking forward to Chinese food. I am me very excited about shopping. I am hoping to be able to see at least on my way home, my school friend Alicia and her family who live in Beijing (and her new baby due tomorrow!)  I am interested to know what it will be like to work intensively with the same group of students... 4 hours a day, every day. I can see myself getting really involved in it all.... I just hope the translator can keep up with me! 

My main focus will be on trying to create 20 ( or however many there are in the class) completely different, individual styled dancers. Here's to individualism and creativity! My biggest nightmare would be 20 Lorna clones,  and considering how well the Chinese copy... I suspect this will be my biggest struggle over the next month. 

That and going without Facebook and twitter for a month!

Yes, I admit it, I am an addict! The idea of a month without social media scares the hell out of me! I am hoping to be able to at least keep the blog entries happening by emailing entires to a friend to post for me...

 So if you usually follow me on Facebook... Don't panic... I haven't fallen off the end of the world (or at least I hope I won't!) but just make sure you subscribe to this blog to find out about my experiences of teaching Bellydance to the Chinese and fingers crossed I will be able to check in at some point over the month! Please do send messages, just in case I do manage to check in! 

I have lots of books and podcasts downloaded, not to mention about 40 YouTube dance videos to watch, Study and learn from... So in between teaching, shopping, eating, sightseeing and socializing I will have plenty to do. I Suspect I will be praying for some space and peace though, despite my fear just now that I will be lonely too much of the time!!! 

Off to the gate... China.... Here I come. How exciting! 

1 comment:

sunmoonshimmy said...

Re copying,i used to teach English in Japan to schoolkids, the only way I found to get them to create individually WAV to let them work in groups first and then present. then in pairs and present and finally by themselves and let them use half of what they'd come up with in the pairs and finish off the rest of it themselves. I would imagine that since they're performers, it might be easier than trying to teach language. good luck! looking forward to hearing all about your adventures xx