My name is on the poster and everything.
Coming up in a bit over a month, I’m heading back into workshop mania. I’m taking the first half of Audra’s Dark Harvest 2014 at the end of September – it’s a really cool intensive where the group gets together for four days and then presents a performance. I would stay for the second half too, except that I have to head back to Portland for the second installment of 8 Elements – Cultivation – with Rachel Brice.
I probably don’t need to explain how excited I am about both of these. Getting to immerse myself in dance for days on end, while learning from two of my most admired dancers, for the SECOND time this year is profoundly incredible. I’m also, of course, a bit nervous. I’ll perform at Dark Harvest and (hopefully) test to complete Cultivation, so a bit of nervousness isn’t unexpected either.
What is new for me is the stress I’ve been feeling this summer over being prepared for these workshops. That’s because they both have homework to complete before hand. My homework includes:
- keeping practice journals which must be submitted
- ensuring I am comfortable with specified technique and movements
- becoming familiar with assigned music
- writing choreographic combinations to said music (to be demonstrated and perhaps taught to other students)
- reading a book and submitting summaries of key concepts (it’s a freakin’ book report, people!)
- developing a solo choreography*
*Note: choreography was entirely optional – I’m not required to perform a solo in Audra’s show, nor am I required to write a new choreography for it, I’m just a keener.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I really love that there is preparatory work. It means that these teachers really thought about their workshop content and have given us students tools to get the most out of them. It also really help me to develop focused goals for my own practice – and the pressure of shows and tests really motivates me to stay on top of them!
Can we every really practice enough?
At the start of the summer I very responsibly wrote up a detailed calendar of everything I wanted to learn/practice/complete/create before the workshops. I had extremely good intentions. Then summer got in the way – people came to visit, trips out of town happened, and evening of fresh food and wine was too good to pass up, etc. etc. I haven’t completely fallen off the preparation wagon (definitely progress has been made), but as I mentioned in my last post I haven’t been as hard core about it all as I initially thought I would be.
The book is only a quarter read, there’s some movements I’m still kinda sketchy on (hello side undulation? plz start making sense), and I haven’t written any choreography yet. Sigh.
Of course, I still have nearly 6 weeks so not all is lost. As soon as I finish writing this, in fact, I’m going to go do some choreographizing. I can still definitely meet my goals, I just need to kick it up a notch for the next few weeks. Watch me go!
