Monday, November 16, 2015

Lessons learnt from the Spanish guitarist

One exam down, one to go!

This Spanish exam was the hardest I've worked for any of them so far (this was the fourth exam since my re-entry after 23 years...).

My kids and D are tired of hearing me practise and Kendra already knows some of the moves :)



Some background:

My partner pulled out of Spanish 6 weeks before exams. I could have been irritated but it took me about 10 minutes to get my head back in gear.

Instead I went in with two other girls who were in the same class.

That was a little bit challenging as I'm not used to dancing with teenagers. But I think we all pushed each other a little harder. These girls actually practised before each class so it made me pull up my game, and I think I bring my own style which inspired them to try different things (arms/ skirts/ etc.)

Anyway, my partner and I were to dance to a tape but because the teenagers were going to use a guitarist, I was forced to do the same.

Wow.

Freaked me the heck out because I love the predictability of knowing the exact beats and pauses.

Does anyone remember that heist scene from Hudson Hawk (Bruce Willis)? Where they sang that song and knew that was exactly how long they had to steal the jewels?

Yip, that's me. Well, I dance to the music in my own mind if I've heard it a couple of times....

Well, the guitarist follows you!

That's good because if you need him to play a bit slower for some footwork, you slow down and he goes slower. That was great yesterday because I always felt like I wanted the music a teensy bit slower so I could do my footwork beautifully (so each beat could be heard).

On the other hand, there was this one practice where I said, "can we PLEASE slow down? I can't keep up!" and the teacher said, "you're the one who sets the pace and you're playing those castanets so fast that's why he's going so fast". Oops!

Well, I played slower after that.

I can't help thinking there's a life lesson in there -

start as you mean to go on.... and you set the pace for your own life. You can speed it up or slow it down.

Do you feel like you need to slow down or speed up your life at the moment?


6 comments:

  1. Ummm, it's a combination of both. I can't wait for some things coming, but then I look at K and I wonder where my baby went 0_o.

    Yay for the guitarist working out.

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  2. Well done!! Glad to hear it went well. It's always a challenge when things don't go as planned

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  3. Oh I love this Marcia! What a great way to learn a lesson. I would on the one hand love to get the next two weeks (exams for A and MPL cricket for C) over, but then its two weeks without an au pair and the end of the year!

    I love the guitarist idea. Do you know that where in the old RAD syllabus it was always someone on the piano, the new one works with CD's and the most beautiful recordings.

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  4. Love this post. In some ways I think I need to speed up but in others I know I just need to pull back and slow down. It's a fine art knowing when to do what and this guitarist must be very good to be able to read you dancers so well.

    xxx

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  5. Yoh! Dance classes are such a long, long time ago for me!
    Glad it went well! :)

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  6. Well done my friend...all the effort paid off ♥

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