Dancing with the Real Stars

This evening marked the final session of my work with the Dancing with the Real Stars program. Many weeks of Thursday trips to the Southside culminated in a 1-hour performance for parents. And I was pleasantly surprised by my students.

In the past month or so, the class morale has really deteriorated. Instead of wrestling with a huge class, I just wrestled with about 10 kids who could be real punks. Very hard to keep your cool. They didn't understand why they had to review, when they looked sloppy, or why we had to go so slow. But if I didn't spend so much time trying to get them focused, I would have had more time to do fun stuff. As of last week, the demo looked weak and sloppy. But this week, they really turned it around!

It wasn't perfect, but with the prospect of an audience or at least their parents glaring at them, the kids really perked up. We didn't even have to call steps! I guess it finally sunk in, at least a little.

After a series of other disorganized presentations, our dancers looked really sharp. In addition to the 6th grade swing, the 4th graders did a merengue (which I ended up leading in), and the 3rd graders did a line dance. Sadly, the batteries in my camera died before I was able to take any pictures.

Much more energy today. Yesterday I was an absolute sloth. Hence the lack of entry. Because sloths have trouble typing with just three fingers. And what would we talk about other than the fungus that grows on us? But the URTA packet arrived. Now to do some work!