December Already!! With A Happy Week.

What a week it has been! Excitement, progress, worry, and more.

I am writing to you from my husband's hospital bed at Baptist Hospital here in Winston Salem. He has just had surgery on a facial nerve, but is doing quite well now. I spent Friday in the waiting room, hoping to hear only good things from the surgeon, and it seemed like the hours would never pass. After his surgery, we (me and his parents) were allowed into the ICU to visit him for only a few minutes. he was groggy, and sporting a long row of sutures down the back, right side of his shaven head. He was sick from the anesthesia following the surgery, and was in a lot of pain the day following. Despite the pain of the surgery, this event marks a new way of living for Robert, pain free!

Teaching this past week has been such a blessing. I felt like each and every class this week went exceptionally well, and even with those students that I have had a hard time connecting with this year. My contemporary dance class at High Point U has been particularly challenging, however I feel like we have finally found our stride, just in time for our end-of-semester showings. I'm so proud of them, they look great! At Salem Academy, where I teach a lovely group of teens, we made up the most fun holiday/broadway/jazzy chair dance! I asked them what they would like to work on, and they requested that we work on all three! So we did, and we had a blast. I can't wait to continue with our little dance this coming week.

Thoroughly Modern Millie auditions came and went this week in a whirlwind. Monologues, songs, and dancing, galore! The dance auditions were a lot of fun, but it was reiterated that more dance is needed at High Point, if we want to do dance-heavy productions, like Millie. I thought that those who have not had much dance experience did a wonderful job of keeping up and being able to laugh off their mistakes. And I greatly appreciated the few students who do have a lot of experience who were assisting the less experienced students during our activities. I am truly looking forward to working with the students that we have cast in the production, and I'm also looking forward to the coming semester, when I can continue to help create a culture for dance at High Point U.

My last week of work coming up, at both HPU and Salem Academy. I look forward to the rest of December, where I can relax, recharge, and get my creative juices flowing again!

~Cara