Getting Ready for a Workshop!

Morocco's Juneau workshops are set to begin this week (she's arriving today!) and I wanted to share a few pointers that have been helpful to me in previous workshops.  

First, yeay!  I'm glad you've decided to take a workshop!  Workshops are a great opportunity to gain inspiration and kick you out of a dance rut: they can be a fantastic hot house to grow your dance in new and marvelous ways.  You'll never know until you try.

GET READY.  Remember, a workshop is an extended class (2 - 5+ hours) on (usually) a specific topic.  So make sure you have everything you might usually take to class:

• Class/workout gear
• (some kind of dance shoe can be nice for extended days, even if you usually dance barefoot)
• Water bottle
• Protein snack
• Towel (in case you get sweaty)
• Hip scarf (aim for something quiet or silent that isn't shedding!)
• Props (finger cymbals, veil, or anything identified in the description)
• Notebook and pencil/pen

Extra things to consider bringing:

• Money (the instructor may have items for sale, like a CD with the choreography music, or some workshops have other vending also)
• Video camera (see more below!)
• A friend!  If you signed up with a friend, you'll be able to help each other remember more.  But don't worry if you didn't, hopefully you'll make new ones at the workshop.

Other things you can do to get ready for a workshop:

• Get to know the instructor -- visit their website, try to find performance footage, or borrow any instructional dvds they may have produced, etc.  Getting familiar with the way an instructor communicates and moves will help you during the workshop. (Everything won't be as new, so you'll be able to concentrate on the main material.)
• Talk to other dancers or check out online discussion boards to see what previous students have to say about their workshop experiences with the instructor.
• If you're working with a new prop, take some time to play with it before the workshop so it begins to feel comfortable, or at least familiar.

WHAT TO DO.  Your regular classroom rules apply here too:

• Arrive a few minutes early to get ready and check in. If you come late or need to leave early, do it quietly.
• Turn off cell phones, etc.
• Don't wear strong scents or perfume... people need to breathe.
• Participate in the lesson.  Don't make it a habit to sit out!
• Pay attention.  You paid money to learn from this instructor and this may be the only time you have the opportunity.
• Be respectful of your teacher and your fellow students. 
• If you need to have a conversation and it isn't during a break, take it outside the room.

If you're new to taking workshops, don't worry... everyone there has had a first time too.  If you're a "baby dancer", remember you paid just as much for the workshop as the other attendees and you deserve to have instruction as well.  However, if you signed up for a workshop that you know (or have found) to be beyond you, you should consider moving to one side so as not to be an obstacle to your fellow attendees. 

Try to keep moving but if you're having trouble processing a movement, step to the side and just watch, listen, and analyze.  Remember to start with the feet and work up to build the movement. 

Don't be afraid to ask the instructor for clarification; chances are someone else has that question too. Don't ask your neighbor for instruction, they're trying to learn too and they may not understand the full technique being taught. (Plus, remember the note above about having conversations?)

TAKE NOTES.  Granted, this can depend on what kind of learner you are, but I've found jotting down notes can really help my retention and memory of what was covered.  I especially recommend transcribing your random scribbles into fully thought out sentences the same day.  If I let it sit for more than, say, 3 days... I've already lost a lot of the extra context of what was being said or demonstrated.  Don't even get me started about my first workshops when I didn't review my notes for more than 3 months!

Keep in mind, for your first few workshops you're still working out what works for you.  Some people have remarkable movement memory, etc, and can cue off a few words, others need more descriptive paragraphs!

If you ask your instructor (and the workshop organizer) in advance, he or she may permit you to take a video of the material at certain times during or after the workshop.  Not all instructors will say yes, and that is their right (so don't get offended or upset if they say no) as it is their image and livelihood and they may not want it spread for free over the internet.  You may be personally responsible about it, but others in the world aren't.  Alternatively, team up with a friend and video them doing the combinations, techniques, or choreography.  Make sure you ask before videoing someone.  And don't put it up on the internet (even "privately") without their permission!

Some instructors provide handouts with their lessons (for the workshop contracts that Daughters of the New Moon hosts, we always try to include a section specifying that the instructor will provide a handout).  These can be enough for some and a good starting point for others.

WHAT YOU TAKE AWAY.  Take from each workshop what you can, and sometimes that is learning what you never want to do again -- which is just as important as learning how to do what you do like.  If you only take away a few new ideas -- even one or two, be it a new move or combination, concept or technique, then you can consider your workshop money well spent. (One piece of knowledge can trickle down and influence everything after or redefine everything you knew before -- sounds trite but it's happened to me.)  Your dance isn't going to change over one weekend, but you can be so inspired that you will want to work to change and incorporate changes that will grow you in your dance.

In addition to writing out your notes, remember to practice what you learned a few days after the workshop to keep in fresh.  And periodically thereafter too... with your (new) friend(s)!

Anticipation....

Two weeks.  That's when Morocco (Aunt Rocky to her students) will be in Juneau again.  Rocky is a particular favorite of the Daughters of the New Moon troupe.  When we brought her up last time in 2006 (wow, I had to go double check, I didn't think it'd been so long) she told us that she'd only be traveling to teach workshops for a couple more years.  So, keeping that in mind, we'd scheduled other (also wonderful) instructors to come up, thinking that we'd had her for her final Juneau visit.  But last year we got an e-mail asking when we were going to invite her up again... and of course we had to make it happen! 

Morocco's huge depth of knowledge on Middle Eastern dance never fails to astound.  The woman's been learning and studying for over, what 50 years now?  Just her having witnessed the change in the history and culture (over there and over here) is an amazing perspective and insight.  In the last workshop I decided that in addition to writing down choreography notes* I'd just sit and write down all of the 'extra' cultural and background information that she gives while teaching her choreographies.  She has her favorite repeat phrases and anecdotes, but there are always new stories and other tidbits that will influence the way I view the dance or that I'll want to pass through to my own students.

Now to decide if I want to take the semi-private lesson on Guedra that's been set up.  It's not really something I have a passion to know about, but I'm unlikely to have the opportunity to study it again with a person who's researched it so much.  And having extra pieces to the puzzle is always preferable, to me at least.

If you want an incredible learning experience this month, you can learn more at http://daughtersofthenewmoon.com/Workshops/Morocco12.html.  There's still spaces available in the Saturday and Sunday workshops... hint hint!  I'm looking forward to Rocky's views on women's Egyptian cane dance on Saturday in particular!

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*Rocky always provides a sheet of notes, and she likes to keep her dances relatively** clean and straightforward -- always in keeping with the music, of course! -- so once you're familiar with most of her movement vocabulary there's just a couple movements or sections of the choreo that will require more detailed notes.

**Relative to many modern dancers and choreographers who create very intricate and/or technically complex dances.  Music repeat with theme and variation; therefore, so too do Rocky's choreos.