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Week Two, for me, consisted of continuing the Dance classes I'm teaching - Adult Ballet (a mix of stretch, strength, yoga, and ballet technique) on Monday and Wednesday nights and Adult Hip-Hop (a mix of stretch, strength, choreography, and world dance) on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The Hip-Hop classes are wildly popular - with approximately a dozen local dancers coming out each night, and it is great fun for me to share my teaching and dance styles with the young men and women of Capim Grosso. I also carried on with my classes out in the community at Creché - Creative Movement for 3-5 year olds, which helps those young and playful ones learn to focus on a structured activity and engage in exercise that is an anvenue to release all that energy, and my classes at CAPS - one of the most rewarding experiences I have had here in Capim Grosso, and my first exposure working with the mentally disabled demographic. The Dance classes on Fridays for the children here at AEC-TEA are also a hit, and true to form for young girls, the youngest always state their favorite part of class is the Ballet segment, even though they seem to have more fun working on their motor-skill development (marching, skipping, galloping around the room), or dancing one of Teacher Michelle's warm-up routines (acting as animals in the Jungle Dance or working on hip-hop moves in Body-Isolations). I also began a Dance Around the World segment with the PETI children - African Dance being the focus of this week, and a Circus Arts class with the AEC-TEA theatre kids, where we worked on hula-hoop skills (to be later incorporated into their juggling and stilt walking) and decorated hand-made batons. Although it feels great to being teaching again, some of my favorite moments have been lounging in the hammock of our courtyard under the mango tree, reading or resting, eating popcicles in the square while watching the locals, receiving massage from a nun at the Casa de Saúde, and experiencing my first Capoeira class in Brazil! I also had the opportunity to get out of town and spend a night under the stars, swimming in a river beneath a night sky, with fireflies sparkling in the trees lining the shore. The land is lush and greeen just out of town, and we were blessed with rain on our tents in the morning, as well as a few cloud-covered, cooler days this week back in Capim Grosso.
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