I write again, with too much time since my last post. I put way too many expectations on myself of how frequently I will have time to write. Therefore, I have decided to free myself of those expectations, and write when I can.
As you know, or have probably found out, Justin and I decided to spend the Summer in Shanghai in exchange for going home at Christmas. We have a very limited income during the Summer, because I am not working regularly and Shanghai empties of students needing tutoring during the Summer months. It has been an interesting time for us, because most Ex-Pats are gone and everything slows to a crawl. For a little while, it is a nice change of pace, but then, it becomes rather boring.
To help counter this phenomena that I will call the "Summer Exodus," Justin and I set up some personal goals for ourselves to complete during the Summer. One of those was for me to find some work, to generate income this Summer. So, for two weeks in July, I worked at a Summer Musical Theater Camp called "StarZone Dream." You think that I would have learned by now, that in China, nothing is EVER as it seems. I went into this job with a list of expectations as follows:
1. I will be working with children who have experience with singing and dancing.
2. I will be working with children ages 10 and up.
3. I will be working with children who speak English and are mostly foreigners.
4. I will be working in an established studio with everything I need in it.
I had been warned that we would have varying degrees of experience and levels, and to have an easier version of my Choreography, just in case. Therefore, I planned choreography for two dances ahead of time and then had to wait on three dances until I met the children. The first day, we started with a song from Oliver! titled "Consider Yourself." I had choreographed a routine that I thought was fairly easy, because I could sing along with it, while I danced (I never really did musical theater). I quickly learned the following:
1. The students could sing a bit, but many looked like they had NEVER learned a dance routine in their lives.
2. Half of the 23 students were under the age of 10.
3. Most of the students knew little to no English.
4. The studio had one working toilet and poor A/C.
5. AND, they did not hire a pianist for the afternoons, when I was teaching, so I HAD to sing the songs while I taught... because the children could only learn steps on the words and not on the counts.
The first day ended up being a HUGE struggle for me and I had to re-choreograph the whole dance on the spot. I thought, "There is NO WAY these kids are going to learn all of this in two weeks!" After that, I went home and revamped everything I had planned and took a deep breath. Thankfully, to my surprise and despite my terror, the children came out with a great product by the end of the two weeks.
The experience of putting on a show in a theater in China was a whole different beast, and I am glad that I only had a minor role in that portion. The sound could have been better and the level of professionalism during dress rehearsal and the performance could improve, but overall it was a learning and growing experience for me.
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| Our Program |
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| Pre-show pep-talk |
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| Into The Woods |
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| Be Back Soon |
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| Somewhere Over The Rainbow |
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| Somewhere Over The Rainbow |
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| Consider Yourself |
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| Follow The Yellow Brick Road |
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| The Merry Ole Land of Oz |
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| Do, Re, Mi |
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| Do, Re, Mi |
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| Do, Re, Mi, |
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| Any Dream Will Do |
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| Any Dream Will Do |
The whole point of the camp was to educate kids on the process of an artistic performance. The vision was to see the children learn and grow through the experience, and maybe pursue a career in the arts on their own. The point of our final performance was to raise funds for a charity. Our sponsors donated 20,000 RMB and the guests of the event added to that number.
I made some new international friends and also got to work with some Hip-Hop students from the studio. They performed at the end of the show with a routine choreographed by their teacher, and then learned a routine from me to "Let It Go" while the students of the camp. I was slightly embarrassed by that final routine, because they only had two hours to learn it, and it was not Hip-Hop. When I was asked to prepare the routine, I was under the impression that the students had experience in other styles of dance. They did a great job picking it up and tried hard, but it was way out of their comfort zone.
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| Full Cast and Crew |
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| Hip-Hop Instructor, Director, and I (bad-quality) |
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| Rest of the studio staff added |
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Beautiful sunflowers from one of the students, May. She found out they were my favorite :)
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Needless to say, it was another experience for the books! I even travelled by 3 subway lines everyday to get there. Oh the things that I have seen and the heat that I have experienced. Until next time, whenever that may be...
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Greenhouse walkway from Line 3 to Line 9.... spent more time walking from line to line than on the metro. I calculated!
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