I talked yesterday with my ballet instructor about getting people to sign up to workshops and commit. With my brief foray into helping workshop and class organization, it is scary and difficult work (and I don’t even have money on the line for what I’ve helped organize). It seems like we’re met with the some of the same issues, despite her work being ballet and mine being Middle Eastern dance. The issues are that it’s hard to get people to commit for whatever reasons, despite the people initially being interested, and beginners can be fearful of workshops, thus lessening the number of people who may be interested.

Today I woke up and realized that I was fearful, in a sense, of taking a ballet workshop from my teacher. I haven’t been doing ballet that long, and I certainly am not that great. However, I decided that I was going to face that fear and sign up for this weekend’s Don Quixote workshop at The Studio: A Dance Center for Adults, which I did earlier today. My fear of being sucky in this workshop is silly; my instructor, Sue, is really encouraging and none of the students are judgmental (or if they are, it’s completely in their heads and I don’t know about it, so it isn’t my issue). The workshop will also be a good time and a good workout. Win and win.

Am I ready for a 1.5 hour ballet workshop? Maybe, I don’t know. I won’t know until I try it. I was reminiscing on Twitter today about how I waited until 2008 to take my first Middle Eastern dance workshop; it was with Aziza of Montreal. I had been dancing seriously for about 5 years total, a little over 3 years seriously. It was scary then, too, and I certainly didn’t get everything, but I learned a lot and had a great time.

Unless you’re an absolute, never stepped into a class of that dance genre beginner, I think workshops are beneficial for even beginning dancers. If you’re afraid to commit to a full weekend, you could always do only a day of workshops or do what I’m doing, a workshop that is a bit longer than a typical class. What do you have to lose from taking a workshop? More importantly, what do you have to gain from the experience?

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