The Never Ending Journey

Brrr. Winter has arrived with a sprinkling of snow on the ground and colder temps in the air.

I spent the afternoon working on my editing project before I headed off to this evening's TCC class. I didn't feel up to par and had to resort to sucking on cough drops to keep my calm, relaxed exterior, but I was in a humorous mood tonight and found plenty of opportunities to inject my sly wit (!?)  into our refinement session after group practice.

It was a fun session. Practice was quiet, peaceful, and so relaxed that some of the students looked as though they were just shy of falling into a deep sleep. Our refinement session was fun, too, as students asked plenty of questions and I was more than willing to offer suggestions for tweaking individual movements.

Tonight I talked about Working the Pulley in terms of how the upper body operates to create the large circles on either side of the body by simply bending and extending our elbows (based on last week's discussion about how we typically bend and extend our elbows to make many of the circles in this form). I've never quite thought about Pulley in this way before but it sure seemed to encourage class members to allow a larger circular motion as their hands moved behind their bodies.

I'll revisit this refinement in two weeks when we return to class after Thanksgiving break. It's so important to find various ways to explain how to do each movement so that, eventually, most of the students will have a better grasp of what to do and a more relaxed approach to how to do it. Effortlessness is the key and that's what inspires me to look for simpler ways to explain, demonstrate, and experience each and every movement. Learning ... it's a never-ending journey.