My Savior - Hats, Skirts and Latin Accents

Since I have become a school teacher, I now have my summers "off." Well that is somewhat of a loose term, because we all know most teachers find other jobs to do over the summer to keep themselves busy and keep up the finances. I am lucky enough to continue teaching all through the summer, but I get to teach fun subjects like dance and musical theatre. My old employer Imagination Stage has been kind enough to have me back, which is nice because it's a change from my normal activities now and I get to see all of my friends and many of my students from my old job. (The only thing that is currently sucking is that my work is in DC and the current gas prices are insane, thank you George Bush and the oil industry!)

This past week started my first week of work for the summer and I was teaching at an off-site location in DC near my alma mater (American University). I taught one week of Musical Theatre Jazz dance to 7th - 10th graders, which was really only comprised of middle school girls. The class was 3 hours a day from Monday - Friday.

For those of you who don't dance, dancing for three hours straight is a long time for anyone. When I was at my performing arts high school, we had 3 1/2 hours a day of dance class and THEN we would have rehearsals. These week long camps don't often attract the hard core professional dancer wannabes - instead they often attract the kids who dance once a week for fun or those who have never danced and just want to try it out. Consequently, three hours can quickly feel like an eternity for both the teacher and the students.

When I came into class on Monday, I had just had a cavity filled that was still aching so I admittedly was in a "blah" mood myself. The kids equally seemed to lack energy and enthusiasm. The three hours seemed to go on forever and when I taught them the combination to "One" from A CHORUS LINE they still seemed unimpressed and bored. (This is usually a hit with kids when I teach it.) The only time they seemed to show a hint of excitement was when I told them to bring in skirts the next day for the WEST SIDE STORY combination I was going to teach them. So I went home that night dreading how I was going to get through three hours the rest of the week.

Well the next day I went in and my camp manager had brought in hats from Imagination Stage that we could use for our A CHORUS LINE dance. I walked into the dance studio with hats and it was like I had brought them each a pony. Suddenly, there was energy and excitement and they could not wait to put on their hats and skirts. In fact, they wanted to wear them through all of our warm-ups and floor work (really...), which I wouldn't let them do. When we got to A CHORUS LINE, you would have thought I taught a brand new combination. All of a sudden, it was like they were all hopped up on Red Bulls and Hershey Bars.

So then we got to learning a combination to "America" from WEST SIDE STORY, and they were equally thrilled to put on their skirts. Later in the week I made them create characters for this song, seeing as it was a musical theatre dance class. They all groaned when I told them it was a written project, but as soon as they got the questions you should have seen how excited they were to create new names for themselves like "Rosalinda" and "Carmelita" and discuss how they were sisters working as seamstresses and talked with thick Latin accents. (Some of them missed the whole time period aspect, and wrote about their cell phones and their diamond studded sneakers, but hey I guess you can't win them all.)

Lucky enough, the hats and skirts seemed to maintain the excitement through the rest of the week. (I didn't even have to add any props to the HAIRSPRAY combination they learned.)

What I can gain from this...

Clearly, when I am teaching a class of middle school girls, I just need to give them hats, skirts and Latin accents and a three hour class will be a breeze.