Let the weekend rejuventation commence!
Aaron and I have been working on this project with some kids from the Lowell HS marching band for a few weeks now, and it really came into full swing this week. The band is doing this fairly elaborate tango medley for their main competition piece this year, and they enlisted Arthur Murray's help in teaching the kids some tango choreography. They've established this storyline to be told over the three tango numbers that the band is playing:
1. Evil guy comes onto pretty girl and is rejected
2. Nice guy approaches pretty girl and the two fall in love (insert lovers' tango here)
3. Evil guy gets totally jealous
4. Evil guy attacks pretty girl in a fit of jealousy (insert violent attack tango here, complete with throws, chokeholds, and hair pulls)
5. Nice guy finds out about attack on his lady and goes after evil guy
6. Nice guy and evil guy have a big knife fight (insert knife fight tango here)
7. Pretty girl jumps into the middle of the fight in an attempt to stop it and ends up accidentally stabbed and killed by nice guy
8. Evil guy flees the seen, and the lovers' short relationship ends in total tragedy
Pretty sweet, isn't it? There are three marching band kids playing the three characters in the story that have been coming for two-hour dance sessions a couple times a week for the last month, but this week band camp started, so we've been spending our mornings out at Lowell HS doing some work with the whole band instead of the main trio. Beth also got involved for the first time this week working with the color guard while Aaron and started teaching some basic tango-inspired march patterns to the brass and woodwinds, as well as continuing with our trio. I kind of stumbled into this project, but I'm really glad I did. Aaron had the trio for the first time on his own while I was at the studio early doing my own thing, and he kept asking to use me to demonstrate or act as a second partner, as there are two guys and just the one girl (also named Danielle, strangely). And after a while, it just made sense for me to stick with it and co-teach the sessions. While Aaron was away in Vegas, I taught two sessions on my own, which was soooooo good for me as a teacher. I had no new choreography or patterns to fall back on; it was just four hours of the fundamentals of tango movement. I didn't know if I could do it, but I did, and I learned a ton from making myself plan those lessons. Now we're expanding hugely by working with all these other kids, but I'm having a blast. Unfotunately, band camp starts bright and early at 8 AM, which is like 4 AM in ballroom dancer time, but I managed to survive our Wednesday and Friday morning gigs, as well as the Monday morning from 10 AM-noon with just the three dancers at the studio. But those band camp mornings made for really long days, so that by the time I was leaving the studio at night I'd been working for 14 or 15 hours straight. We've got two more of these on Monday and Tuesday, but after that we're back to just having the trio at 10 AM a couple days a week again, which will feel like sleeping til noon after these band camp hours we've been keeping.
It also means I want to enjoy the crap out of my weekend, just because I feel like I've earned it. Despite how tired I was yesterday and how raw my nerves were, I have to say it was a very good work week. Along with successfully surviving the corporate audit, an upfront conversation with Tony in which he officially committed to hiring a new receptionist and having me teach full time, and a could of totally rocking dance sessions with Tony on our cha cha and then Aaron on foxtrot, I also managed a couple of really good enrollments. My favorite back department couple that I inherited from Stephanie, the Plants, had a phenomenal showing when they did their very first routine at Nouveau Duo last Friday. I'd been hoping that they would be my solid entry at the Chicago Showcase in September, but they had other travel plans for that weekend. But this week I had my first lesson with them since they performed, and I really wanted to see them use their success at Nouveau Duo to propel themselves from their Bronze I program into Bronze II. I prepped really hard for the lesson to get them on board with the idea, and at the end of that lesson they ended up enrolling in another 60 lessons, a $7300 enrollment, half of which they payed for up front. A big sale for the studio, and a really proud moment for me as a teacher. Everything about that lesson and the Bronze II program try went exactly like it was supposed to. Just a textbook success with my prize students, and so I couldn't have been happier.
I also enrolled my Saturdays-only cruise couple in their Bronze I program on Friday, which I was totally stressing out about, just because I've grown to really enjoy them and have seen over the course of our lessons how much they've already benefited from learning how to dance. She has always wanted to dance, but grew up in a very strictly religious household where dancing was actually forbidden, and so to see her smile and laugh and pick up the patterns I give her is just so rewarding as a teacher. But when you spread out the beginner program lessons like we had to, it makes it really hard to strongly establish the benefits that come with dancing, and since he is a truck driver, his work schedule highly narrows the windows of time available for dance lessons. Not to mention that asking a truck driver and dental hygienist to invest over $5000 in dancing is a significant request if they're not really feeling the good it's doing them. But not only did they enroll after their progress check on Friday, but the close itself was very smooth. They put $1100 down, a solid downpayment, and then did monthly payments for 12 months afterwards, which is a good payment plan given their 2-3 lessons per month plan. And they didn't have to get talked into enrolling, we just had to adjust the payments, nor did they seem too taken aback by the tuition itself, which means I did my job in establishing the financial investment we'd be asking them to make. All of this could be summed up quickly by saying that having Jeremy and Susan start their Bronze I program was extremely gratifying because it meant that A) I'm doing a good job with my front department responsibilities and B) it feels really good to be a conduit for happiness through dancing. It makes it possible to look past the "give us your money" aspect of this job and understand the positive effects I can have on people's lives.
So I feel I have the right to live it up this weekend and enjoy my days off. I'm planning on a trip to Unique this afternoon, and then either with company or alone I will be heading into the city to do the Latin night at Chicago Summerdance, which I think will be a blast regardless of whom I go with, if anyone. I know I'll be spending Sunday night at Beth and Aaron's, just because it makes the 7:30 AM carpool to Lowell less complicated, but maybe Sunday I'll get to see Killeen for a spell. He and I need to go over some choreography stuff at some point as well, but we'll figure that out as we go. Mostly I just want to fill today and tomorrow with stuff that involves very little stress and a whole lot of good, happy feeling.
1. Evil guy comes onto pretty girl and is rejected
2. Nice guy approaches pretty girl and the two fall in love (insert lovers' tango here)
3. Evil guy gets totally jealous
4. Evil guy attacks pretty girl in a fit of jealousy (insert violent attack tango here, complete with throws, chokeholds, and hair pulls)
5. Nice guy finds out about attack on his lady and goes after evil guy
6. Nice guy and evil guy have a big knife fight (insert knife fight tango here)
7. Pretty girl jumps into the middle of the fight in an attempt to stop it and ends up accidentally stabbed and killed by nice guy
8. Evil guy flees the seen, and the lovers' short relationship ends in total tragedy
Pretty sweet, isn't it? There are three marching band kids playing the three characters in the story that have been coming for two-hour dance sessions a couple times a week for the last month, but this week band camp started, so we've been spending our mornings out at Lowell HS doing some work with the whole band instead of the main trio. Beth also got involved for the first time this week working with the color guard while Aaron and started teaching some basic tango-inspired march patterns to the brass and woodwinds, as well as continuing with our trio. I kind of stumbled into this project, but I'm really glad I did. Aaron had the trio for the first time on his own while I was at the studio early doing my own thing, and he kept asking to use me to demonstrate or act as a second partner, as there are two guys and just the one girl (also named Danielle, strangely). And after a while, it just made sense for me to stick with it and co-teach the sessions. While Aaron was away in Vegas, I taught two sessions on my own, which was soooooo good for me as a teacher. I had no new choreography or patterns to fall back on; it was just four hours of the fundamentals of tango movement. I didn't know if I could do it, but I did, and I learned a ton from making myself plan those lessons. Now we're expanding hugely by working with all these other kids, but I'm having a blast. Unfotunately, band camp starts bright and early at 8 AM, which is like 4 AM in ballroom dancer time, but I managed to survive our Wednesday and Friday morning gigs, as well as the Monday morning from 10 AM-noon with just the three dancers at the studio. But those band camp mornings made for really long days, so that by the time I was leaving the studio at night I'd been working for 14 or 15 hours straight. We've got two more of these on Monday and Tuesday, but after that we're back to just having the trio at 10 AM a couple days a week again, which will feel like sleeping til noon after these band camp hours we've been keeping.
It also means I want to enjoy the crap out of my weekend, just because I feel like I've earned it. Despite how tired I was yesterday and how raw my nerves were, I have to say it was a very good work week. Along with successfully surviving the corporate audit, an upfront conversation with Tony in which he officially committed to hiring a new receptionist and having me teach full time, and a could of totally rocking dance sessions with Tony on our cha cha and then Aaron on foxtrot, I also managed a couple of really good enrollments. My favorite back department couple that I inherited from Stephanie, the Plants, had a phenomenal showing when they did their very first routine at Nouveau Duo last Friday. I'd been hoping that they would be my solid entry at the Chicago Showcase in September, but they had other travel plans for that weekend. But this week I had my first lesson with them since they performed, and I really wanted to see them use their success at Nouveau Duo to propel themselves from their Bronze I program into Bronze II. I prepped really hard for the lesson to get them on board with the idea, and at the end of that lesson they ended up enrolling in another 60 lessons, a $7300 enrollment, half of which they payed for up front. A big sale for the studio, and a really proud moment for me as a teacher. Everything about that lesson and the Bronze II program try went exactly like it was supposed to. Just a textbook success with my prize students, and so I couldn't have been happier.
I also enrolled my Saturdays-only cruise couple in their Bronze I program on Friday, which I was totally stressing out about, just because I've grown to really enjoy them and have seen over the course of our lessons how much they've already benefited from learning how to dance. She has always wanted to dance, but grew up in a very strictly religious household where dancing was actually forbidden, and so to see her smile and laugh and pick up the patterns I give her is just so rewarding as a teacher. But when you spread out the beginner program lessons like we had to, it makes it really hard to strongly establish the benefits that come with dancing, and since he is a truck driver, his work schedule highly narrows the windows of time available for dance lessons. Not to mention that asking a truck driver and dental hygienist to invest over $5000 in dancing is a significant request if they're not really feeling the good it's doing them. But not only did they enroll after their progress check on Friday, but the close itself was very smooth. They put $1100 down, a solid downpayment, and then did monthly payments for 12 months afterwards, which is a good payment plan given their 2-3 lessons per month plan. And they didn't have to get talked into enrolling, we just had to adjust the payments, nor did they seem too taken aback by the tuition itself, which means I did my job in establishing the financial investment we'd be asking them to make. All of this could be summed up quickly by saying that having Jeremy and Susan start their Bronze I program was extremely gratifying because it meant that A) I'm doing a good job with my front department responsibilities and B) it feels really good to be a conduit for happiness through dancing. It makes it possible to look past the "give us your money" aspect of this job and understand the positive effects I can have on people's lives.
So I feel I have the right to live it up this weekend and enjoy my days off. I'm planning on a trip to Unique this afternoon, and then either with company or alone I will be heading into the city to do the Latin night at Chicago Summerdance, which I think will be a blast regardless of whom I go with, if anyone. I know I'll be spending Sunday night at Beth and Aaron's, just because it makes the 7:30 AM carpool to Lowell less complicated, but maybe Sunday I'll get to see Killeen for a spell. He and I need to go over some choreography stuff at some point as well, but we'll figure that out as we go. Mostly I just want to fill today and tomorrow with stuff that involves very little stress and a whole lot of good, happy feeling.