Dance class at a private school

My niece has two roommates; Grace, who came when she arrived, and Colleen, who came last year in the same program and decided to stay because they offered her a full time job. This is very rare for an American to get a teaching job, because they make sure they employ Africans first.
Colleen teaches at a Private school that was designed by the King. At this school, they have a dance program. The King is by trade is an architect, and the school he designed has to be the most progressive, interesting and gorgeous school I have ever seen.
Teaching dance was one of the things on my bucket list to do. My niece was a bit hesitant, because she said I am not sure if it would go over well??? Ummmmm…lets put all ego’s aside so I can make one thing perfectly clear. I did not give up Dance because I couldn’t do it – I gave up dance because God called me to rebuilt the Lemoyne Center.
Now that I got that misunderstanding cleared up, let me continue. I told her to set it up with her roomie and I would take it from there.
This school, called LeBone (leboni), is a test school for all of South Africa. The school goes to the 13th grade. This is for the students who may be struggling because of the harsh life they come from and are not prepared to graduate.
The Dance teacher is named Sue, and I asked her all sorts of questions about what technical skills her students have learned. She told me that this was her advance class of students grades 10th and up. She also said that you can be strict with them because they love to work hard. Well, well, well, we got a match, because I go all out when I teach dance.
I prepared a few combos in the car on the way to school (no JED dancers, I did not teach combo A) with the CD’s my niece had in the car.
I told the students we would warm-up so I could see what skills they had. Lets just say that after the 12 minunte warm-up, they were worn out. They laid out on the dance floor breathing hard saying, “That was the warm-up?” I quickly changed up my tempo and direction, because these African darlings would have a sworn off dance from fatigue and being over worked.
They had a ball learning new things, even though I slowed the pace and only taught one combo. They were all excited and asked their teacher when I was going to be back. I was prepared to teach a class while in Cape Town, but all of South Africa would be on school break. Not only could I not come back to LaBoni, but also I couldn’t go to the other school to teach dance.
I told them I had brought gifts from the USA to give to some of them. Who ever worked the combo I taught the best I would pick them as a winner. Wouldn’t you know it, true to form God showed up!!! Those students I selected needed this boost to help elevate their personal struggles. This is a private school where the rich and poor attend. I am reminded that the poor pay according to the parent’s wages. One young boy was ostersized by his family and they did not support his love for dance, another just began dance and felt it was too late for her to start a dance career. I told them the story of how I took my first dance class at age 16, and opened my first dance studio while still in school at age 17.
The gifts I gave that day were T-shirts from three of my favorite Dance Studios – Grace Christian Dance Company was started by one of my formal dancers Danielle, and I have enjoyed mentoring her from her beginning, Synergy Dancers by Roz another with whom I also mentor, and my neighbor Sandy with the Sandy Kay Mesler dance studio. You would have thought they won some lottery how excited they were. I also gave a Joyce Ellis Dancer lanyard, and a Lemoyne Center camp shirt that says “I can believe, dream and achieve it.” I also gave the office workers two calendars from Quality Quick Printing, a pen from Ron’s Self-storage, and another jar opener from Niagara Bank.
I told the winning dancers that they had a gift and that no one else in Africa would have them. The dancers presented me with a gift from their school, which I was not expecting. I received a bracelet that has the school name on it, ‘LeBone,’ which means truth, some earrings, and a pin made of an angel. Anyone who knows me knows that I have been collecting angels all my life.
It was wonderful to see the sweet, sweet spirit of the Lord at work. They said the same thing to me about being the only one with these gifts going back to the USA, and that I was their first American dance teacher.
More next time… stay blessed.