Things have been going strong for the past few days.  I know I haven’t posted since last week (April Fool’s Day, I think) but it has been a crazy week.

April 26th, I will be participating in my first dance recital, and I am terrified.  That’s a hard thing for me to say since I am usually pretty comfortable on a stage.  But dancing is not my area.  At first, I was told by the instructor that she doesn’t need me to dance so much as just be a good showman and “play my part” during the closing number. 

That closing number is “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray.  And my “part…?”  Link.  That’s right… the hunky lady-killer, played by Zac Efron.  I get to dance a little dance (any dance from me is a little dance) with the dancer who is supposed to be Tracy, mouth the words to the song, and that’s it.  Oh, then, I stay on stage and bring on another dancer who is supposed to be Penny while I again mouth the words for Seaweed’s part and dance another little dance.  Then, I’m off stage and that’s it.  But wait… I come on stage again, flip a girl over my back (hopefully without killing her or breaking my back), and then off stage again.

No pressure.  The instructor just told us Saturday that this has to be the best finale anyone has ever seen.  But no pressure.

So that’s pretty much it right now.  I love this experience because it reminds me how stressful it can be to learn something new, to go out of your comfort zone long enough to try something new or help someone else.  This creates quite a bit of empathy with my students in understanding how they feel when I present them with a new idea or teach them a new skill and they have to learn it through practice.

Wish me luck with the recital.  I’ll post on it the night after it is over.

Until later — “There’s no turning back now that you opened up to your mind.”