Pain is Weakness Leaving Your Body

Right?

Well than I'm pretty freaking weak.

Yesterday was the second day I've gone to teach at a local high school. If you remember or haven't seen the first post..it's here.

I was invited back to teach hip-hop this time around. A world different from lyrical jazz.

Thursday, I spent part of the day in my office, went to a meeting, mailed some things...pretty normal day. When I got home I got ready and headed to my favorite spot to choreograph (as of right now). When I got there I was expecting it to take me maybe 2 hours to finish the choreography, because I just was so nervous.

The song I ended up using was "Rock The Beat" - LMFAO. It's actually not much of a song, it's the 1st track on their album "Sorry for Party Rocking" and it's a prelude to the album titled song. It has a pretty awesome beat to it. You should look it up.

So I started off by doing some improv..the way I choreograph best and thought into what I wanted to create. In 40-45 minutes I was done. I impressed myself to be quite honest. It's a great feeling when this happens.

My obstacle from there was sleep. After a nice night in with Josh, trying to sleep was nearly impossible. I was ridiculously nervous. Why you ask? I've taught so many times before, I should be fine. Well I've taught hip hop before, but it was to the same group of girls for 3-4 years. They liked my style. I'm dealing with all new teens who know what they like and this is a genre they probably know most about, just from modern day society.

So I tossed and I turned and then my alarm went off. I got up and hubby got up with me. After I got ready to head out the door, he had coffee ready to take with me. Loved it! And off I went.

I stretched a bit ahead of time and when the first class came in. I introduced the song we would be doing and the fact that we would only use 8-counts for part of the song. One thing I've learned in taking dance, every teacher is different and you'll run into teacher who teach by 8-counts, sounds, and/or the music. I actually do a little of each, so I wanted them to really "listen" to the music and feel there way through it.

Everything went pretty dang well. My favorite was the reaction I got when I taught up to a certain point, we did it with music, and I continued on to the next step (which was my signature move and a HUGE step up in speed). I like to "add-on" before actually teaching it so they can see what's next and the speed of which it is done. I can't explain the sound reaction too well, but their eyes got wide and some of their mouths dropped. Haha! Such a great feeling!

We continued on and unlike I expected we just about finished the routine in all of the classes. I went to the water fountain in the locker room a few times after class and my ears were pretty delighted to what I heard. Majority loved the choreography and I also heard some "it was great - just taught too fast:". Aha! That's the point. They needed a challenge and I'm pretty sure I pushed them. Which again, is another great feeling.

Hopefully, I'll be back soon. I'll update you if I do. =)

Now back to the title of this post. I didn't think through the choreography with the fact that I would be doing it  over and over and over. In almost the very beginning we did a kick out, "dropped" to the floor with legs crossed, to turn completely around and jump up with feet spread apart. Uhmm..ouch. I did the movement/routine AT LEAST 25 times per class, if not more. There were 6 classes I taught in. That's the equivelant of 150 of those turns. Try it once and you'll understand my pain. By the very last one I did I could barely get my legs to unbend to "jump" up.

So I knew I was in pain from that. I was already hurting last night and after a big dinner..Josh and I made breakfast, yum! I slept for 2 1/2 hrs. I was exhausted! I woke up and could barely move. And after sleeping tossing all night, I hurt even worse. I can feel almost every muscle in my back, neck, and shoulders not to mention my legs, arms are killing me too. Talk about a work out!

Please tell me I made up  for not hitting the gym the past few weeks. I promise I'll be better if I don't have to deal with this amount of pain again. It actually hurts me to stand up straight, and bending down to get anything..yeah, that's not happening.

"Pain is Weakness Leaving Your Body"

Signing off,
Ida Jade

Doing Something I Love

I forgot how much I love to teach.

Okay so I didn't "forget", but I haven't taught a full dance class in around 2 years.

Thanks to a friend through Real Estate, I was connected with a highschool dance teacher who is allowing me to come and teach every so often. My first time was Wednesday.

Tuesday, Josh was working and I had some things to get done, then in the evening I had my Holiday Work Party at the casino. They had a really nice buffet, music, dancing, and a 2 drink minimum. It was fun, but the majority of us ended up at a local watering hole afterward. I stayed for awhile and had another drink or two and headed home. I couldn't fall asleep because of how excited I was and when I did fall asleep I woke up an hour and half before my alarm went off. I think it was a combination of nerves and worrying I wouldn't hear my alarm.

I got up early, got changed, and headed out the door. When I arrived the teacher came to get me and we headed through the schools hallways to the gym and then down to the dance studio. The studio was so nice! It was even larger than my "upstairs" dance room at my dance studio. I can't say that I didn't get jealous of how fortunate they are. I made sure to stress this to them and let them know they should not take this for granted.

I stretched ahead of time and when the first class arrived the teacher introduced me and then let me talk about my experience. I gave the same 'ole speach each time. I joined gymnastics when I was about 8 years old because my parents thought I was a klutz; that's probably because I was. Once I started I added on dance and competed in both. I took to dance a lot more and by my senior year I was in 17 routines for my recital. I told them about auditioning for the Radio City Rockettes twice, and from there I introduced the style.

We were to learn lyrical jazz, since they had been working solely on jazz the past few weeks. I explained how lyrial (lyrics) is meant to tell a story and it's a great way to express yourself. It's personally one of my favorite styles. I asked them if they were a fan of Adele and of course they were and I then informed them we would be dancing to 'Set Fire to Rain'. They all were quite excited.

We did a quick warmup and then I had them show me the jazz routine they had been working on. Afterwards, we got right to learning the choreography I had prepared. Going in to it I was nervous about difficulty and what they could do so I choreographed 3 similar dances with a step up in complexity in each one. That seemed to work really well. All 6 classes learned and loved it. They all got about a minute into the song in the matter of a 35-45 minute class. Not bad.

They all seemed to love it and the teacher now wants to use this dance as their mid-term "exam". I'm thrilled! It's such a great feeling being back to this. I've been invited back to teach a hip hop class in January and I'm nervous all over again for that, but if I've proved anything to myself in doing this..I'm great under pressure. =)

It feels so good to be back to it...and with that I would like to show you a few pictures from my dancing/teaching days. Enjoy!

My First Nationals Competition in Wildwood, NJ

Hahah, my first Jazz Class "Funky Town"

One of the First classes I taught, my Junior Jazz Dancers =)

Rockette Intnesive Performance in Pittsburgh, PA at Point Park University

Signing off,
Ida Jade