Hello All -
Merry everything and happy always!
Time for my tri-annual recap of school and life over the past four ish months.
In a nutshell, this semester was a doozy (hence the title of this post). Although, while the daily grind has been basically miserable, a lot of good happened this semester.
Also, since the semester ended, I have hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. So, that removed a lot of the bitterness I had towards school and work (not all, but most). I anticipate being back to my sarcastic, cynical self shortly...
Anyways...
Here we go ...
- The number one and most important thing I did this semester was survive it. It was brutal. Mostly due to a shift in my own perception of a lot of things; Suddenly my normal routine was no where near satisfactory. In fact, I find it quite awful. So this was challenging - which is code for I learned a lot of stuff about myself (good, bad, and ugly). All that being said, I didn't cry under my desk once this semester #smallvictories
- I taught yoga/pilates (or yogalates) which basically became a yoga class because *secret* I don't like pilates. The class reminded me how much I LOVE teaching yoga. Like LOVE teaching yoga. And, if I may flaunt my ego a bit, I think I'm pretty damn good at it. Oh, and there were 60 of them...60 students. Luckily, most had horrible attendance which made for a smaller class size.
- I taught modern dance ... I'm pretty sure my students slightly hated me for the first third of the semester...maybe the first two thirds because I was all about floor work and they didn't like getting all bruised and stuff (if they listened to me and did floor work right, there wouldn't have been bruises...) By the end, it was a fantastic class. This was probably the most rewarding challenge of the semester.
- I started a rooftop dance series! Because, why not?! It was semi-successful - I think we had more performers total than audience members, but, whatever, it was super fun and exciting to do a series of dance performances on different rooftops at sunset. I choreographed the first in the series and had others take over the other two slots. Great fun. Super random. And I think I've been on almost every rooftop in downtown Tempe.
- Speaking of downtown Tempe, I performed in the middle of it on a 4'x4' stage during one of the largest arts festivals in the country. Because (again), why not?! It was ok. I was barefoot on Mill Ave. which I'm pretty sure is something one is only supposed to do when they are terrible drunk which I was not...it was a nice little warm-up performance for the future performance which will be at the end of January (ya know, in addition to my thesis).
- I choreographed a former advisee's capstone performance. It was dark and creepy which made it wicked awesome to choreograph! I haven't had an excuse to make something dark and creepy in a long time. It's was a lovely counter to my other work.
- I choreographed Orange Theatre's H E R A K L E S which I performed in last spring. It was a weird out of body experience to watch the show with someone else playing 'Molly' ... and it was the first time in possibly ever - or at least since high school - that I watched a show and wished I was performing in it.
- I have been working on It's Not That Simple (2016) since the end of last semester. We've been in rehearsals for seemingly ever. It's been the weirdest process for me. I thought I would hit a groove with it quickly, but I haven't. It's like I walked in expecting to be in my comfort zone and accidentally walked into someone else's comfort zone, if that makes any sense at all. It's probably my thesis committee's comfort zone and I don't like their comfort zone. So, again, to keep with the theme of the semester, it's been challenging.
- I raised nearly $5000 for It's Not That Simple (INTS) so I can pay the performers and have the barriers associated with productions cost reduced. This was may more work than I anticipated, but I'm so proud to have almost achieved my goal. It was a big-ass goal. I feel that I reached for the stars and ended up on the moon, so it's perfect. Plus, the new and old connections that came from it were just serendipitous.
- Speaking of INTS, I also got kicked out of my performance space the week before I was supposed to move into it to start tech. I don't have a place to perform my thesis *insert gigantic fake smile* That's a problem to solve this week...and it shouldn't be mine to solve, but let's not open that can of worms...
Note: this is just a sample of the hell of the semester, there is no need to recap all the hellish things, so I chose to highlight this one small example of bullshit *insert another gigantic fake smile*
- I started a company! It was the Black Box Dance Theatre Collective, then yata yata yata, name change to the Grey Box Collective. GBC! I received some seed-funding from the school to assist with the initial costs of starting a company, and I'm doing it! Someday, this will be my full time job, and it will be amazing. Website coming soon!
- I took some classes. They were ok. My new motto is 'C's get degrees!' My counselor taught me that one :-) For one of the classes, I definitely deserved to fail (do NOT tell my students this). I didn't participate in online discussions, I didn't do the majority of the reading, and I missed almost every deadline. I wrote the mid-term and final papers, and by some miracle, received A's on both. And the C I earned overall, magically became an A on my transcript ... I attribute this unearned success to a culture of mediocrity and faculty who have no time or energy to grade properly. Disclaimer: I'm not complaining. Just, sharing how flabbergasted I am at the whole situation.
- I presented twice at the national dance educators conference. I presented a workshop by myself which had great success! It was so much fun! I hope to be able to continue to do work such as that. I also presented with my grad pack on how to survive grad school. It was enjoyable, but didn't feel like as much of an achievement. I want to write a book called 'Hacking Grad School' ... it would be filled mostly with recipes and some tips and tricks on how to earn A's when you deserve D's :-)
- I went home for Thanksgiving for the first time since I moved to AZ. I wasn't home for Xmas for the first time ever. And this new tradition felt really ok for me. Peru helped it feel super ok. But speaking of home and the east coast, I feel like the east coast version of me is back, and I love it! I've reclaimed my take no shit, fuckitall attitude that results in an insanely productive lifestyle. I've missed it.
Well, I think that's it. I'm always disappointed at the end of these posts. I always have a "that's it?!" feeling ... but I guess it's a lot. Especially when I remove all the negative shit of the semester from the post. The good stuff that is left is really quite pivotal in where I am thinking/hoping/guessing/wishing I go next.
OK. Until next time y'all! Oh! That's a new thing to add this semester: My use of 'y'all' has reached an all time high and combined with my Maine-risms....oye... I find myself saying things like, "wicked, y'all" all. the. time.
And now I'm really done.
Thanks for reading!
- M
