Of Black Belt Spectaculars...
I've been stuck in a lot of long (very looonnnggg) meetings that didn't require much involvement from me this week (side benefit of being the documentation and training lead on a very big project that's just kicking off) which has inadvertently given me some time to mull over and write about our black belt ceremony.
We'd been doing two hour rehearsals, three times a week, leading up to the performance. All of which was totally needed. We all knew our forms, but there was a lot of time spent figuring out what order we'd enter and exit the stage in, which side we were supposed to be on, who we'd be performing with, and what sort of bows we'd start and finish each piece with. The fiddly stuff. On top of which, Kwan Jan Nim (or Kwanji, as everyone affectionately calls her) the school's owner and our master, was constantly changing the choreography of the big weapons piece we were going to end with.
The day before the performance, we did a five hour rehearsal where we ran through the full performance twice, and tweaked all the bits that still needed perfecting.
The day of the performance, we were at the theatre before 10 a.m. (The school rents the Chinese Cultural Centre's theatre.) We got an orientation of the stage and how to access it from the green rooms, figured out where the cameras were going to be for the livestream, and had a chance to practice our individual bits on the stage so we could see where we had to stand on the stage so the audience could actually see us. Then we did a full dress run through, including all the background video that we'd only heard about 'til that point.
The kinks weren't totally ironed out. When I did my musical form the P.A. system conked out, so I had to do it without the music and count on the fact that they'd have it fixed for the actual performance. They'd warned us that in past years there were a few times that people lost the music for their forms during the performance. Thankfully, it worked fine for the real performance. I also discovered, to my horror, that the opening video they played while we waited at the back of the theatre to run on totally made me cry. (Darn those pre-menopausal hormones, making me cry at any overflow of emotion!) I figured my only way to deal with that during the performance was to not watch the video, which fortunately worked.
There were lots of emotional moments during the performance. When one of our young instructors was given the award for the candidate who showed the most community spirit, he broke down in tears in Kwanji's arms, and the rest of us choked up a bit. And there's a piece called Attitude of Gratitude where the candidates all go into the audience to present flowers to the friends and family who have supported us in our journey to black belt. I got to present flowers to Ros and the Sweetie, my mom, my mentor, and my main instructor.
The moment when we all got our belts, surrounded by a circle of all the other black belts from our school or who are friends of the school was extremely powerful. I really felt the strength of the school's community in that moment.
I've now done three classes as a black belt, and it feels great, if a little disorienting, to be at the far end with all the other black belts. (We line up in belt order, and I can't help remembering my first classes, when I was at the very start of the line with a bunch of black belts beside me.)
We'd been doing two hour rehearsals, three times a week, leading up to the performance. All of which was totally needed. We all knew our forms, but there was a lot of time spent figuring out what order we'd enter and exit the stage in, which side we were supposed to be on, who we'd be performing with, and what sort of bows we'd start and finish each piece with. The fiddly stuff. On top of which, Kwan Jan Nim (or Kwanji, as everyone affectionately calls her) the school's owner and our master, was constantly changing the choreography of the big weapons piece we were going to end with.
The day before the performance, we did a five hour rehearsal where we ran through the full performance twice, and tweaked all the bits that still needed perfecting.
The day of the performance, we were at the theatre before 10 a.m. (The school rents the Chinese Cultural Centre's theatre.) We got an orientation of the stage and how to access it from the green rooms, figured out where the cameras were going to be for the livestream, and had a chance to practice our individual bits on the stage so we could see where we had to stand on the stage so the audience could actually see us. Then we did a full dress run through, including all the background video that we'd only heard about 'til that point.
The kinks weren't totally ironed out. When I did my musical form the P.A. system conked out, so I had to do it without the music and count on the fact that they'd have it fixed for the actual performance. They'd warned us that in past years there were a few times that people lost the music for their forms during the performance. Thankfully, it worked fine for the real performance. I also discovered, to my horror, that the opening video they played while we waited at the back of the theatre to run on totally made me cry. (Darn those pre-menopausal hormones, making me cry at any overflow of emotion!) I figured my only way to deal with that during the performance was to not watch the video, which fortunately worked.
There were lots of emotional moments during the performance. When one of our young instructors was given the award for the candidate who showed the most community spirit, he broke down in tears in Kwanji's arms, and the rest of us choked up a bit. And there's a piece called Attitude of Gratitude where the candidates all go into the audience to present flowers to the friends and family who have supported us in our journey to black belt. I got to present flowers to Ros and the Sweetie, my mom, my mentor, and my main instructor.
The moment when we all got our belts, surrounded by a circle of all the other black belts from our school or who are friends of the school was extremely powerful. I really felt the strength of the school's community in that moment.
I've now done three classes as a black belt, and it feels great, if a little disorienting, to be at the far end with all the other black belts. (We line up in belt order, and I can't help remembering my first classes, when I was at the very start of the line with a bunch of black belts beside me.)