The Friday Morning Go Slow.

Thursdays are busy for me. 

I start the day with home things, then spend the afternoon in teacher mode - revising lesson plans, printing handouts, dressing for class, preparing a dinner to take with me, packing the car.  As soon as the boys come in from school, I fuel them up for dancing, then we're out the door.

From 4 o'clock, I am the queen of the belly princesses (and princes).  We shimmy and giggle, dress up and play, and I fill 10 young minds with all sorts of information about the dance,  how bodies work, Middle Eastern culture and ancient stories.

Once I've chatted to mums and waved off my princesses, I'm left in the big hall with my little princes.  Sometimes we dance some more - the class stereo turned up loud and a whole hall to spin, chase and pull out our craziest dance moves.  Other times, we chill out with books or the boys play their games while I dance some more.

After 5 Stu arrives and we catch up on the day.  I heat up our dinner (filling the hall with smells I later have to explain to more students).  We eat together and enjoy the family time.  Simple meals, but usually healthy and homemade.

Then the boys leave me to prepare again.

At 6.15 my adult students start to arrive.  Some are new faces, most I've danced with for years and call my friends.  We fall into chatting about our weeks with ease and I have to remember I'm the teacher and pull away from the girly chat to start our class.

It always takes me a few minutes to get into the swing of it.  The first two songs always feel the hardest.  Then I find my groove and I push the girls through a session of world dance fitness, body conditioning, drills & skills and then learning some of my latest choreography.  The class is mixed level, so I am kept on my toes giving a challenge to the advanced students while ensuring the beginners are getting the basics right.  I sing the songs, joke and say silly things - we all have fun, get sweaty and feel the feminine joy of the dance.  Then we're done.  We stretch a little and say our goodnights.

It's 8.30, one of the troupe girls puts the kettle on and gets out some biccies.  We're not done yet.  The three of us are close - mother, teenage daughter and friend to both.  This is our time.  With cups of tea (chai on lucky nights) we keep chatting while we keep dancing.  Last night was a quick rehearsal of our regular style before learning a new choreography for an upcoming performance.  It's different each week, but always full of teasing and giggles and hard work.  I'm still the leader here, but the learning is much more mutual.  The dancing is harder, pushing our bodies to learn new things and working towards the synchronicity that our little troupe is commended for.  We're definitely not the best dancers in the world (not even close!), but people tell us we're pretty good and we work hard to make that as true as possible, and we always thread the energy of friendship through our dancing - its the ribbon that holds us together.

Eventually our bodies have had enough (usually after an hour, sometimes two), and we pack up to go home.

I drive home.  If I'm good, I stretch while telling Stu about my night.  Often I'm not good though and just have a drink, wash my face and head to bed.

But sleep isn't easy with all that music in my head and I often lay there till the middle of the night continuing to dance in my head.

Now I'm here on Friday morning.  I can feel the effects of Thursday on my body and my mind feels foggy.  So the boys are sent to school and work as usual, but I take my time.  It's the Friday morning go slow.  An extra cuppa, something light to read and time to think.  Today I think I'll go to the library for a weekend book, and pick up more milk for the weekend.  I will work on a few things that came up last night, but stroll through the morning.  Friday go slow is lovely.

At least until noon, when I'll be back at the hall to dance with my mums and kids group :)