Er . . . Oooo . . . HUH? . . . Oh YES!!!

I’m back home and catching up after a wonderful weekend teaching at three different pole schools in Plymouth: Pole Power, Pole Dance Plymouth and Aerial Allsorts. And what a lovely weekend it was. It was the first time I had taken on the role of teacher for four months, and very kindly the sun made an appearance again after a week of rain.

I’ve been teaching circus for 17 years now and I still love it. I’ve had a short break as I’ve recently moved back to Cornwall to live and as with anything in my lovely laid back home county it’s taking a little while to sort out a venue for teaching in etc.

My Plymouth weekend has reminded me just how much I love teaching!! The confused looks as you describe something, then the “oo’s” as you demonstrate it, then the “huh?” as they try it the first time, followed by the beam of a smile as they achieve it the second, third, fourth or however many-th time. If there’s ever evidence for “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” it’s silks.

I absolutely love sharing that moment of achieving something for the first time. Sometimes it’s something fairly new, other times it’s something they’ve been trying for a while and have just made progress with. It’s a great thing to be able to share this. It also reminds me of the first time I managed to turn myself upside down, in the air, without any assistance. I share my students’ moments and relive my own moment with great joy.

The other thing about this weekend was seeing how much the students had progressed. I haven’t seen them since January and the great thing about that is they’ve been practising away and I get to see the results of this practice – stronger, smoother, more supple. Well done, girls! See you again soon!