Dancing kids

Every Thursday afternoon I get myself ready, pack a drink and snack for the boys and run out the door at 3.30 to bundle them into the car and drive to town to teach my most dedicated class of belly dance students.  This is my biggest class and my students all turn up each week (unless they are really sick) - there is no lack of motivation or "just didn't feel like it"s in this class, and if they aren't able to come there are often tears - these are my belly princesses and belly dance kids.

The students range in age from 6-12, are girls and boys and come from Woolsthorpe, Koroit, Port Fairy and Allansford primary schools and the Warrnambool Special school.  Each week they come in, pleased to see each other, and usually dressed in satin harem pants or a belly dance tshirt and always with coins a-jingling. 

This is my most intense class too.  For 45mins we jump from one activity to the next - skipping, swirling veils, colouring in, reading stories, learning choreography, listening to Middle Eastern rhythms, playing musical instruments, playing games (shimmy limbo, veil pyramids, musical cushions and belly dance cards), learning new moves, improvising and always SHIMMYING!  At the end of the class the kids don't like to leave, they continue to play until I send them all home with their parents.  At the end of the class I'm sweaty and exhausted but my heart sings with the joy of sharing with enthusiastic children.

The parents love sending their kids to belly dance too.  They love that in class their children are taught culture as well as choreography and that they are given clear direction as well as a chance to immerse themselves in the music and just dance.  They also appreciate that there are no tests or requirements for the students to be at a particular skill level, this is a class that suits all abilities and if the students never improve beyond the basics, that's OK.  They also appreciate that while I charge a reasonable fee for each term of classes, they are not required to buy expensive equipment or costumes.  Not that the kids don't wear costumes and use materials, but I either supply them in class or give a range of options for buying them - from op shop, to make it yourself, to pay me a fee to make it for them and I also have a small range of items at reasonable prices for them to buy.  I run this class the way that I, as a parent, would like the class to be run.

I love this class - it brings a smile to my face on even the dullest of days.