Monthly Archives: May 2015

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Old Friends, Old Students, Old Teachers, Old Times

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This morning I walked into the school where our foundation had been in residency to attend a meeting.  As I rounded the corner, I saw a group of students who began waving and smiling at me.  Several broke from their line and came up to hug me and say hello.  What a truly nice surprise, especially because these students and I hadn’t seen each other in a year.  They remembered me and apparently it was a positive memory!  Well, that alone was enough to make my morning.

I’ll be teaching some old and some new students in about eight weeks.  Introducing each of them to something new.  We’ve added basic tap dance to our program of instruction for our Summer Musical Theatre Workshop and I’m excited about it.  I hope they are, too.  It’s so good for the development of rhythm skills and to learn different timings.  Not to mention the sheer joy and what it does for you physically.

There was a time several years ago when I was taking about 8 dance classes per week in New York.  Man! was I in shape!  There’s no room for any extra fat when you’re working like that, especially when the studio may or may not be air conditioned in the middle of a steamy NYC summer.  If nothing else, I sweated off any extra pounds!

But that’s been a while.  And since I will be teaching others to tap this summer, I thought I’d better start getting in shape again.  So that necessitated finding a couple of old friends.  A little worn, a little dusty, but a couple of nice old friends.  My tap shoes.

It was soooooo good to see them again.  And although our reacquainting started off a little creaky at times, before long we were clicking along as if no time had passed at all.  Okay, some time.  I’m older.  That’s the way it goes.  But I remembered.  I’ve got to say that it may take new info a while to get in there but once it’s there for me, it usually is pretty much there to stay.  (Part of this must be what they call “muscle memory”, where you don’t think you just “do”.)

So this week, I’ll be in Manhattan and I’ve checked the schedules at the studios where I used to take classes.  Hey! whaddya know!  One of my old teachers is still there, still hoofing after all these years.  I wonder if he’ll remember me when I walk in, put my bag down on the floor, lace up my shoes and begin to warm up at the barre?  Like old times with a couple of good old friends.

What are some of the old joys that you’d like to rekindle in your life? 

Who — or what — are your old friends that you’d like to get reacquainted with?

What’s stopping you?

(Please share your comments and thoughts by using the “Comments” feature below.)

© William B. Watkins and “William Weighs In”, 2014-2015. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction. This blog and all its content and components, including but not limited to photographs, videos, music, and text entries, are fully protected by all copyright laws of the United States of America and by international covenants. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

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Ice Cream Faces

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I ran into a former student this morning at my community garden. She was there for a school-related program; I was just there to water and weed and hope a little as I surveyed the puny seedlings just beginning to emerge from the little patch I cultivate.

She was wandering around the garden in a state of apparent bliss, eating from a styrofoam cup.  I called her by name and said hello.  She smiled and said hello back to me.

“Do you have ice cream in that cup?” I asked her.

“Mmmm-hmmmm!” she affirmed, tilting the cup so I could see.

“Do you know how I knew that?” I asked.

She scraped her plastic spoon against the inside of her cup, getting every last bite.   “How?”

“You had on an ‘I’ve got ice cream’  face .  .  . ” I explained.

She grinned even more broadly than she had been doing.

” .  .  .  Like you were just going to bust out giggling at any second!”  I continued.

She did.   Giggle.

Whenever I wonder why I spend so much time teaching, I think of faces like that.   Beaming, blissful faces.  Faces like that of one student who, earnestly, seriously, and with the concentration of a brain surgeon, played two solo measures of “Turkey in the Straw” on the violin in one of our public performances and, looking to me for approval, brightened and beamed as I gave her the “thumbs up” and the audience applauded.

Faces like the ones I witnessed this week when I told some new students that yes, they had been accepted into our Summer Musical Theatre Workshop.   Faces of students who just plain were too timid to speak, but who screwed up their courage, delivered a line, realized that they had not died, and, in fact, that the audience was enjoying themselves. Faces of parents watching their children doing something new.

I’m going to have some ice cream now and compare my face to theirs.   And then hone our curriculum a wee bit more.

(Please share your comments and thoughts by using the “Comments” feature below.)

© William B. Watkins and “William Weighs In”, 2014-2015. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction. This blog and all its content and components, including but not limited to photographs, videos, music, and text entries, are fully protected by all copyright laws of the United States of America and by international covenants. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.