It’s Thursday morning and we receive a message from Scott inviting us to teach a dance demo at the next corner this weekend. We’re excited and honored… Our mind races to all different kind of corners, what to do? Who will attend? Will they like our (somewhat different than traditional designed) dance class? How will they feel about dance improvisation? You know what… let’s do this!
The evening was filled with several workshops, our dance demo was one of them. We had an amazing group of enthusiasts, male and female, ready to rock them’ bodies and express themselves neither in Chinese or English but in dance! Our main emphasis of this demo class was for the participants to experience the joy of dancing, to introduce our ‘different’ approach to art education and enjoy being together in the moment. Our approach is different than the traditional (Chinese) dance teaching methods as we don’t only ask our students to follow us but also ask them to use what’s within as inspiration to move. This can be whatever emotion or feeling, abstract or very specific and very important: there’s no wrong or right. We all have mental critics and it can be extremely difficult to step out of your comfort zone, but we are proud as a teacher and as a human with what we have achieved. Because everyone gave it shot and that’s admirable. Within 45 minutes we did several exercises from the classic warm-up to a short modern dance choreography and even some dance improvisation. The energy and openness of the group was mind blowing and Liam and myself experienced the workshop as a gift to give, and as a gift to receive.
All different levels, ages, background and experience yet all together. Touching! The positive feedback on our workshop was humbling to the bone and any doubts that I had some days ago are flushed away with a tsunami of warmth and motivates to keep doing what we do.