I am desperate to take at least one day this week and do very little. I’m hoping it’s today. I am avoiding doing church work and practicing organ at church. I need to submit the bulletin information for a week from this Sunday (psalm, anthem, prelude, postlude, hymns). I try to keep the office informed a week ahead. But I’m going to do that tomorrow morning in the time I usually have a dance class since my 8:30 class doesn’t require my presence.
In fact I only have two afternoon classes left tomorrow and then I am completely done with ballet. It’s weird because I am craving time off, but at the same time the way I fill my time is satisfying. I enjoy improvising and playing for ballet. I like preparing singers at church and learning and performing organ music. But I’m pretty sure I’m not far from burn out right now and would like to continue these activities with a more refreshed and relaxed mind.
I continue to receive surprising comments about my performing. The way my colleagues connect with me varies wildly. This last week has shown this. Sunday one colleague after church allowed me to shake his hand (he seems to prefer a wimpy non American hand shake and I comply). We wished each other “Happy Easter” and that was that. Other colleagues were more forthcoming, complimenting me on my work at church and making a real effort to see me (invisible jupe, remember?).
Strikingly two less academic feeling colleagues reached out to me yesterday. The art teacher at the high school also plays bass. He regularly performed with the man we buried last Wednesday. Yesterday out of the blue he “messaged” me on Facebooger telling me I did a “great job” at the funeral. Wow.
The dance department staff drummer stopped me in the halls yesterday and complimented me on my playing at the funeral. Wow #2!
What struck me about this was how easily and graciously these men connected to me. Refreshing.
Since I’m kind of bragging here this morning, here’s another cool thing. Yesterday at the 8:30 class, the teacher taped the final exam combinations. The dancers have been learning these combinations since last week. I try to use the same music for these tests so that dancers know exactly what to expect.
There were three parts to the taping yesterday, a slow combination (adag) and two more quick ones (petite and grand allegro). For the adag I used the “Orientale” by Cui transcribed for piano. After four or five consecutive tapings, the teacher told me that my tempos must have been pretty consistent since she had glanced at the time and noted that I was coming in at 2 minutes, sometimes exactly, sometimes within a second.
Surprised me. I don’t think of myself as that precise especially in tempos though I do think a lot about tempos and spend time with mister metronome in my usual music prep.
