Creating Space

[img]541|left|||no_popup[/img] One thing I have enjoyed over the last few years with my teaching business has been the flexibility it has offered me in my creative life. I always have had the perfect number of students and taught enough to stay in the groove, but not so much that I get worn down. (I remember only three days in the last two years where, at the end of the day, I checked my calendar to learn what NOT to repeat.)

Part of the reason I have been so free in my teaching has been because of my financial flexibility. Teaching out of my loft space kept my work overhead to almost nothing. After all, how quickly could I go through pencils, manuscript paper and stickers?

Even so, I have decided that it is time for me to step up my commitment to myself – through my teaching business. I have tracked my income for the last six months, and I am ready. I am getting my own teaching space.

The search hasn’t been easy. For the last few weeks, I have experienced more rejections than I hope an adolescent male will ever tender. Calling at least a dozen brokers and/or leasing managers, I have learned that regular and executive office spaces won’t work because of noise clauses in leases. Commercial spaces that would work often are too large for my current purposes.

I am found an option I hope will work; I should know this week. If it does, I will move forward to implement the group classes I have been planning, have a place for the OC Cello Choir to rehearse consistently, and know that I have given myself and my husband the gift of our home as a private sanctuary. If not, I will keep searching. It is time.

Ms. Dewberry, an accomplished cellist, completed her DMA in Chamber Music Performance from UCLA in December 2005. She received her MM in Cello Performance from UCLA in June 2002 and her B.M. in Cello Performance from Western Michigan University in April 1998. She also holds a B.A. in French with a minor in Women's Studies and Philosophy.

She may be contacted at carter@carterdewberry.com