Bow Down to the Courage of The Beginner Dance Student
Awww man! Today was one of those days. You know, the ones that feel like answered prayers days. One of those days that made all the hours of driving, the hours of building, the hours of working on a computer, the hours away from home and family, the cool trips I missed, the setbacks experienced, the fear and doubt I worked through - today made it all worthwhile.
It has taken me a year to experience growth in Myrtle Beach. Believe me, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was tired. My husband was tired. I was getting worried that my son was not getting the attention from me that he deserved and I was putting so much of that energy into my other baby, Aroha Latin Dance. So I cut back. I cancelled events that had low attendance and classes that didn't meet the minimum. I shifted that energy back into my family and learned to work smarter not longer.
Then I started getting approached by more and more people who where were interested in taking classes with me. I started the Tuesday class. All brand new folks. We met every Tuesday for 3 months, during which time my husband and I bought a house and moved. I continued to have growing interest in joining the class but I started not allowing new people to join a class where people have been progressing. I didn't want to slow down their learning. So, in answer to this interest, I decided to offer a Bootcamp that would get a new group up to speed and allow them to join the Tuesday class. I seriously was expecting 12 people at the most to show up. This was exciting to me as I had not been able to break the 8-10 in attendance with my average being more like 3 in attendance if I looked at all of 2017. So imagine my surprise as people kept showing up. Most of them new people. I ended up with a class of 23 students!! (1 left before these pictures were taken.)
These folks learned with such fearlessness and diligence. So many of them were so far out of their comfort zones and I am humbled that they chose to learn with me. It is so scary to show up somewhere and you don't know the people and you are learning something new. I am always blown away by the courage of beginner students. And I say they were fearless because many of them may have come to the class afraid and uncomfortable, but they faced it down and didn't walk out the door. At no time was I unaware of the energy that such courage released into the learning space. I left class today feeling such a sense of love and gratitude and awe.
The Myrtle Beach Latin Dance community just grew in number! Beginners must always be the base of any growing community. Without focus on attracting new students and offering quality dance classes, a dance community will stagnate and sometimes develop bad habits. Beginners keep things fresh and new. These beginners will be advancing soon and I am so excited for them because they were excited for themselves.
No new students will be admitted into the Tuesday class for the foreseeable future. I will be starting a new 6 week series at Hard Rock Cafe starting in February. For more information on classes that are open for new students visit: https://www.arohaartscollective.com/danceclasses
BEGINNERS WELCOME!!!!
