I've Tried To Take The Road Less Traveled By

[Keri Rocha]

But nothing seems to work the first few times,
Am I right?

As she stood in the empty dance studio, she brought her foot up to the ballet bar, stretching her legs out. She couldn't help but notice the small wrinkles in her leotard. Leotards were supposed to fit you no matter what, hug you like skin. She shook it off however and continued stretching. Once she was done, she plugged in her iPod and started her song. It was soft and classical, but not boring and slow. She started with some pirouettes across the room, broke into a leap, and then back to the spins, ending at the other wall. She tried to remember the routine from her last dance lesson, years and years prior to this day, and as anyone else would have expected, only bits and pieces came back. Keri, however, did not expect this. She'd always had a memory like an elephant, it had never failed her. Ever.

She did what she remembered, getting three quarters of the way through it when she slipped on the floor and landed on her side. She cursed under her breath, pushing herself up with some trouble and stopping when she was seated on her bum. She looked around at both walls on either side of her. Each was covered with mirrors, and within the reflection, a million mirrors seemed to go on and on, leading into the distant depths of another world. She could barely see herself at the waist. She'd never remembered being that small. She'd always had a bit of weight on her stomach, never able to achieve that flat stomach that everyone wanted. She sat up a bit taller and turned from side to side, looking at it intently. She knew that wasn't normal, but expected it was what happened from working out so often throughout the day. She stood up and restarted the song. She'd continue until it was perfect.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Just a quick note, three of the dance studio walls are line with mirrors, the one with the barre, as well as the walls either side of that. And you could possibly be moving your plot along a little too fast.

Cara put the last few pins into her bun before she picked up her dance bag and slipped out of her dorm room.

Leaving Blue House, she headed toward the gymnasium and then through to the dance studio. She was a little disappointed to see that it was already occupied, but as it was Keri - a fellow gymnast - she wasn't too upset.

Walking over to the benches that lined the wall that the door was on, she placed her dance bag on the bench, kicked off her shoes and slipped out of her school tracksuit to reveal a black leotard and pink tights. She then sat down on the ground and pulled her pointe shoes out of her bag and slipped her feet into them and swiftly wrapped the ribbons around her legs and tied them, tucking the ends of the ribbon away. She gracefully rise to her feet and in an easy motion moved up onto her toes, flexing her ankles.

Gliding over to the barre, she began to work through her normal exercises, stretching out her legs, hips and back. All the while watching Keri dance. She looked at the way the leotard sat on the girl's body and arched an eyebrow. She herself was wearing a brand new tailor-made leotard as with the weight she had lost, her old one no longer fitted her. Maybe she could suggest the tailor to Keri.

[Keri Rocha]

Whoops, didn't realize that, I'll fix it. And yeah, I was starting to think that also, but the things that I put in here have also been brought up in other posts {besides the weight loss} so I figured it would be okay as long as I didn't touch on them quite too much for now, just to establish it.

Keri heard the door open and could easily see in the mirror who it was, which made her feel a bit exposed, realizing that she could see herself no matter where she looked, unless it was at the door. Cara, the small girl from her gymnastics team, was walking through the doorway. She didn't mind her; on the contrary, she quite liked Cara. She kept to herself, just as Keri did, which made staying in the dance studio much easier than it would have been if someone else had come in, someone who might have expected her to speak. She kept going though, breaking down the dance into small parts, focusing on which movements she needed to clean up, and then putting them back together again.

She looked up to Cara after a few seconds, realizing she was being a bit rude, not even acknowledging her. Do you have some music you wanted to work with? She asked her, heading over towards the speakers where her iPod was sitting.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

All the time that she was working on the barre, once her excises had finished, she had gone to doing simple ballet moves, such as grande and demi pliés in each of the feet positions. And all the while she listened to the beat of the music that Keri was listening to and knowing that she could work with it.

Leaving the barre, she walked toward the other end of the floor from where the other girl was working and with her feet in fourth position she gracefully lifted her arms from first position to fifth position as she rose up onto her toes. She lowered her right arm to third position as she turned toward the other dancer and she shook her head, even that movement was done with grace. "No! Thank you, but your music if fine. Please don't let my being here interrupt what you are doing." She lowered her left arm and swept it back as she went into an arabesque, so that the fingers of her left hand were in line with the knee of her extended leg and her right arm reached out toward the corner of the room, her eyes following the line of her arm.

She lowered her leg to the ground again an once again stood en pointe, with her arms in first position. And then sweeping her arms out to second position she did three Fouetté rond de jambe en tournant (pretty much three really fast Pirouettes, to spin one turn as she executes a relevé, rising onto pointe.) every time she spun around, she moved her arms into her body to keep the speed up and as the movement slowed down, and her arms returned to second, her left leg also stretched out, bending in so it moved to passé (means when a foot is placed near, on, or below the other knee). She stopped the movement by moving her left leg back and the ground with her toe.

She could feel her heart hammering in her chest, and feel the perspiration of her forehead. She closed her eyes as the room didn't cease spinning, but a quick shake of her head and she opened her eyes to find the room still once again.

[Keri Rocha]

She smiled, nodding and turned back to the floor, continuing with her routine breakdown. As she was working on arm motions, she noticed Cara's work and how well she could move across the studio. She watched as the girl completed each move with ease, and wondered if she had taken dance classes as a little girl, knowing that she herself had not. Maybe she could learn a thing or two from Cara, as she definitely knew what she was doing here, contrary to Keri who looked like a duck with one wing. She sighed and continued working, not accustomed to asking for help, and not planning on changing that today.

She continued to work on the routine her old gymnastics instructor had taught her, hoping to remember it soon enough. She could get bits and pieces randomly, but by the time they came up in the dance, she had completely forgotten how to do them. She continued to move however, hoping that she'd subconsciously preform them.

She stopped after she remembered another part, a huge one, which she had spent the entire time trying to put back together. She turned back to face where she had started her routine, faced the studio floor again, and kicked up a leg, holding her arms out in front of her to keep her balance. She did not want to fall like she had years ago, swinging too hard and landing on the back of her head. After she had gotten her leg up enough times to feel comfortable with the move, she added the next step, which was a spin. She took it bit by bit, not wanting to overwhelm herself or mess it up. She'd always been that way: a perfectionist.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara drew in a deep breath, deciding what she was going to do next. With the other gymnast in the studio, it gave them half of the floor each, which was plenty of room for her to do what she wanted.

Closing her eyes, she raised her hands above her head into fifth position. In her head she had the steps for the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy mapped out in her head. On of the things she liked the most about ballet was that it is was mathematical problem to work out the music’s phrasing with the number of steps needed to create the designs.

Opening her eyes, she could no longer hear the music that Keri was working to, she lowered her hands to third position and then started her dance, en sur les pointes (To dance on the tips of the toes): pas couru (run in parallel en pointe), land in effacé devant on fondu, small pose arms, relevé and double battu front, return to effacé devant on fondu, relevé and passé through cou-de-pied, fondu in effacé derrière, second arabesque arms on and, pas de bourrée, stepping down in a pseudo-fourth croisé and then repeated the movements to the left (pas couru, fondu effacé front, beat and return effacé, passé to effacé back, pas de bourrée), then did a pas jeté, and landed in fifth position sweeping her hands into second.

She closed her eyes as she leaned forward slightly, a wave a nausea washing over her, and blowing out a long breath she straightened up again. Her mind was already working what she was going to dance next.

[Keri Rocha]

She felt like a baboon, standing there, trying to do a dance she had learned at age 10, while Cara stood on the other side of the room executing perfectly complex moves from a famous musical which she had seen as a small girl. She shook her head softly, going back to her pirouettes and lateral work. She knew she'd never be as good as Cara, that would never happen. She was an elite, and Antione never let them forget it. He wasn't blatant with it, but he definitely set different standards for her than he did the rest of the team, and she noticed.

She kicked the thoughts out of her head, knowing it would do her no good to think about that. The music kept playing, on a loop, mostly so she could memorize the beats and rhythms, wanting to know what she was putting this combination of steps, spins, and leaps to. Everything about this dance seemed silly, but since her coach had done it to make their movements more fluid, she knew it probably wouldn't hurt to do it now too, when she really needed it. She sighed as she started again, falling into the routine without thinking about it. She looked to Cara again as she continued to move along and wondered what all of those moves were, and how she knew exactly what to do. How could she be any more perfect?

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara closed her eyes and shook her head, the room was dancing in front of her eyes, and she wanted it to stop. Walking over to the bench where she had left her dance bag, she pulled out her towel and wiped her face before pulling out a drink bottle and taking a long drink of the room temperature water. Ever since she had first started attending nutrition talks while training, she had learned that drinking chilled water after working-out - although it felt nice as it slid down the throat - it caused havoc on the stomach as it hit a heated system like ice. Almost like putting cold cold water into a car radiator that had run out.

Crossing her ankles, she folded her legs and sat down on the ground. While the water settled she took a few moments to watch what Keri was doing. The other girl seemed to be concentrating too hard on what she was supposed to be doing rather than just moving to the beat of the music. She stretched her legs out in front of her and slid her hands down her legs until her fingers curled around the balls of her feet, enjoying the feel of the stretch through her lower back. She sat up again and searched for the courage to offer the other girl some advice, after all they were on the same team.

"You need to forget what you have been taught, and just let the music guide you." She finally said thankful that the room was quiet, other than the music playing, so that her whisper-soft voice carried easily across the room. They had been words from one of her ballet instructors while the girl struggled to get hold of the dance steps for Odette in swan lake. And, as soon as Cara stopped trying to fit the music around the steps, she found that the steps fitted much better when she allowed the music to guide her.

[Keri Rocha]

Keri barely noticed as Cara stopped dancing momentarily. It wasn't until she sat down on the bench that she realized the floor was now empty besides her. She continued to move through the motions, pulling them out of her long term memory, going through her routine. She had to have a routine. It was the only way she could do anything. She sighed as she made a wrong movement which was a blaring mistake in her mind, and stopped herself, starting from the beginning again.

She suddenly had that subconscious feeling she tended to get when she felt someone watching her, and it took every ounce of her will power to keep her from tensing up, as if she wasn't already tense. She knew she shouldn't feel strange about it. They were in the same room. They were both gymnasts. obviously she was going to watch her, if she was just sitting on the side for a bit.

Keri took a deep breath and kept moving, but hearing something come from Cara's mouth was a bit of a shock, seeing as she barely spoke, it seemed. The girl's brows furrowed as she looked to her in the mirror. She'd never been able to dance very well. Maybe it was the fact that she had such a low self esteem for so many years, or the fact that she was always so much taller, that she didn't move like the other girls. Whatever it was, she'd heard those words countless amounts of times, but with no explanation, which she expected to hear this time also. She sighed and nodded, trying it out again, attempting to decrease the amount of mechanics behind her movements, though it barely looked any different; harder and even more mechanic really. Dancing and Keri had never gone well together, so why would she expect anything less?

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara let out a small sigh from where she was sitting on the ground, and closed her eyes as she room began to swim once again. She opened them again, wishing she hadn't as her head felt like her temples were trying to burst their way out of her head, which was just silly when the pounding in her head was just a vibration of the pulse that was beating in her neck.

She gave her shoulders a small shrug when Keri seemed to have ignored her suggestion, without even a verbal response of her own, and just continued trying to remember the dance that went along with the music she was listening to. There were times where the music and the soul disconnected and when that happened, it was time to forget what you have been taught and just do things of your own. Sure, all of the ballet she did was from the big shows, but she had also been studying the art of ballet since she could walk... well no, she'd done gymnastics since she could walk, and started ballet six months later. She had been pushed into a number of sporting pursuits for as long as she could remember, but rather than rebelling against them as she got older, she embraced them with a passion and they became a part of who she was.

She folded herself at her hips and lay down on her out-stretched leg, resting her forehead on her calf. Her head was screaming in protest, but she didn't sit up. She given the other girl her bit of advice. Sitting up again, she curled both legs under her, placed her hands on the ground and pushing her weight onto her hands, she placed the toes of her shoes on the ground and straightened her legs so she made a right-angle with her body and legs.

[Keri Rocha]

Cara seemed annoyed, something that was obvious by her face in the mirror, but by what, Keri was not sure. She also looked sick, dizzy maybe, which wasn't doing her any good being in a warm dance studio with a girl spinning constantly. Keri ignored it, telling herself it wasn't bothering the girl too much, otherwise she'd leave.

As she continued trying to move as Cara had said, she found it increasingly harder. Finally, after the 12th time of running through the routine, while Cara was stretching her legs, Keri let out an exasperated sigh, turning around to face her this finally. How do you move with the music so well? How can you move and not think about what you're doing? It just doesn't make sense. She said to the girl in a frustrated voice, her face just as annoyed. I've never known how people do it, and whenever I try, I end up looking like an idiot who doesn't know how to keep up. Yet, when you do it, you look like you made up the choreography yourself with the help of a professional and are preforming it for a huge audience.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara turned so that she was sitting side on to the benches, and then in a swift move; scissor kicked her legs and did a backward walkover to get to her feet. "It's not that hard." She replied. "First off, you don't stress about getting things wrong, and stop being afraid of looking like a twit. I thank you for your compliments, but I have preformed what I was dancing in front of a large audience, and I have trained with professionals." She glided across the floor to stand near Keri. "I will admit though that it was after I left the professional trainers and began to train under the Madame at a very small ballet school that I learned that I didn't have to dance like a robot." She did a few dance moves as though she were the nutcracker from the same ballet she had been dancing earlier. "Alright, that was a nutcracker, not a robot, but you get the idea?"

She listened to the music that Keri was trying to dance to. "How do you move to the music? Close your eyes and listen to it, then start with one part of your body. I find the hips are the easiest." She moved her hips in time with the music. "And then wing it after that. Maybe the arms are next? And then whatever! And before you know it, you are just doing your own thing and because it's your own thing, no one can tell you that it's wrong. Not even yourself." She shrugged her shoulders, she'd never claimed to be a good dance instructor.

[Keri Rocha]

{will reply by this weekend! I've been swamped with homework!}

[Keri Rocha]

She watched as the girl got off of the bench, in a very smooth scissor kick, and then walked over to her. She listened to her speak and had a mental conversation with her, but kept her mouth shut. She always stressed... she was a perfectionist, and that was something that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fix. She then said how she did dance in front of a huge audience, and she did train with professionals. Well great, I just stated the obvious, didn't I? She thought to herself.

The girl was next to her now, and speaking of her previous dance instruction, and surprisingly enough, how she learned the most from a small time instructor. That said something to Keri. She had gone from what was probably the most prestigious dance academy in the nation to a small ballet school and she'd found out how to dance for herself. That was what Keri needed to do. Not follow someone else's moves, but make her own. It just wasn't that easy for her.

She smiled lightly at Cara's attempt to robot, and how it ended up being a nutcracker, like she had danced to many times before. She nodded at the girl's question. I do understand, yes.

As Cara spoke again, Keri didn't know how to answer her question, though she realized the girl didn't want a verbal answer, she wanted a physical one. She listened to the music again and started to move her hips, swaying them from side to side. Then, just like Cara had said, she started to wing it, bringing her arm up in a swinging motion and fully extending it to the side, before bringing it into her body, starting to move with the music. She smiled, liking how this felt; to be in control of her body. She kicked out her leg, turning her body to the opposite side as she continued to move. To her, it almost felt like being on the beam, only it was a lot more fluid and she wasn't constantly thinking about the next move.