Dance, like no one's watching, class

[Prudence Warner]

Aurora Chambers
Cortney Smit
Bethan Young
Daniel Wallis
Erica Morgan
Henrietta Charleston
Cara-Jean Kitchi
Samantha Lawrence

Prudence Warner sat on the floor of the dance studio, carefully wrapping the ribbons of her ballet slipper around her ankle an tying them off before she did the other slipper.

Now that that vacation was over, it was time to actually teach the students a little about dance, and for this semester, they would work on classical ballet. She wasn't expecting the students to go out and buy ballet slippers, so she had just asked that they come in a sleeveless t-shirt and tights, they would take their shoes off and dance in bare feet.

Rising to her feet, she moved through the positions. It felt strange not to be wearing her pointes, but she didn't want to over stretch the students as it took years of training before dancers were introduced to pointe shoes.

The young teacher floated around the room and she moved from one ballet movement to the next, each flowing into the other so it was hard to see where one move finished and the other began. It was times like that that Prue remembered why she danced, and in teaching she hooped to share her passion with others. Dance, like no one's watching.

[Monique//Aurora Chambers]

Aurora stood in front of the full length mirror that was on her wardrobe door. Her reflection smiled back at her. She was dressed in a pink leotard and black tights, and outfit that she had begged and pleaded her mother for before the vacation had finished she had squealed with delight as her mother had handed her the box. Her blonde hair was swept back from her face and twisted into a tidy bun.

She looked at Princess who was lying on the bed, head on her paws as she watched the girl. "I'm not sure if I'm excited or nervous." She told the canine as she found the sports bag that she was going to use for dance; it was pin with black trimming and the words Dancers do it with attitude! in black on the side. She opened the bag and made sure it had everything she needed; a towel, two water bottles, and her soft pink elastic ballet slippers.

Picking up the bag, she swung it over her shoulder, pushed her feet into her tennis shoes, headed out of her dorm room and across campus to the gym.

Walking into the dance studio she gave the teacher a beaming smile. "Hi Ms Warner!" She said. "Did mom get me the right things?" She twirled around before heading over to the benches that ran down one side of the room and swapped her shoes for the slippers.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, putting her hair up in a bun for what seemed like the millionth time, although it was only the third try and was finally satisfied when it remained in place. Opening up the drawer that held her whole gloss collection, she pulled out the shimmery strawberry gloss and coated her lips with the sweet scented gloss. She then stepped back and appraised her reflection; she was dressed in a black leotard and pink footless tights with a matching pink scrunchie wrapped around bun - pretty much the normal ballet uniform. She was cross with herself for leaving her ballet slippers at her grandparents' house but she didn't want to bother anyone to have them sent up either. She slipped her feet into a pair of sneakers and grabbed her dance bag.

Leaving her dorm, she made her way down to the gym. Walking in to the dance studio, she saw that there were already two girls there along with the teacher. She ducked her head as she walked into the room and sat down on the bench. She loved dance and knew that this was the one class where horses would be the least likely topic to be mentioned.

[vj101]

Milisa put on her tan tights, and layered them with neon green dance shorts, and a purple camisole. She hadn't danced in so long, so she knew she would need to work extra hard with her knew year. Milisa had an extremely old pair of ballet she hoped would work, due to the fact she hated to dance barefoot. Milisa put her hair up in a pretty bun, but not pretty enough to go on a stage. She knew that she could do better. She put on a pair of flip flops, and Grabbed the old pair of ballet shoes, and headed out the door. Milisa was hopeing that would they do jazz, that was her very favorite.
When she got to the dance studio Milisa put on her ballet shoes, and set her flip flops to the side. She began to stretch using the sane routine her old dance crew did. Her pleyas were a tad bit off but she knew that she would work to get them better. She had been watching Dance Moms earlier and hoped that her dance teacher wasn't as strict as their Dan e instructor. She continued to stretch as she waited for class to begin.

[Erica Jane Morgan]

Erica remembered that classes were starting again and one of her favorite classes were dance. She wasn't that good in dancing, she knows the basics and all yet she always tries her best to do it right. She heard they were doing some classic ballet and to dress in a sleeveless top and tights. She looked through her closet and wore her black sleeveless top, and slipped on footless tights. She walked over to the mirror and tried tying her hair up in a bun. She did it horribly for three times until the fourth one where the bun was firm and some of her strands of hair aren't loose which will get in Erica's hair when she would be dancing. She blames herself for forgetting her ballet shoes back in her hometown, but she didn't notice until now. She just sighed and shrugged it off as she grabbed her dance bag and headed off.

As Erica slipped through the gym into the dance studio she already noticed that there were four girls here already, not counting the teacher. She then shyly went over and sat on one of the benches. She glanced over to all the girls that were here. She wondered if they were some what better at dance then she is. Hopefully she won't make a fool of herself.

[Prudence Warner]

Prudence smiled as each of her students entered the room, she couldn't help but chuckle as Aurora came bouncing in wearing a leotard and tights. "You did well, Rory." She said.

She watched as four more girls walked in, all of them pretty much wearing what she had asked them to turn up in. "You need to take the shorts off." She said to the girl in the green shorts. "I asked for tights and a sleeveless tee." She had also asked for bare feet, but she wasn't going to stop the girls from wearing ballet shoes.

When her instructions had been followed she smiled at the group of girls, knowing that the full class wasn't there yet, as she had a list of eight on her attendance sheet. "For this semester, I want to teach you the techniques of classical ballet." She clapped her hands. "Everyone to the barre please."

She stepped back so that there was room for the girls to line up at the fiberglass bar at the mirror. "Today we will work through the first five positions and some simple exercises." She smiled. "But as all of you haven't stretched out yet, let's start with some simple toe touches. Down, two, three, four, and up, two three four. Reaching arms out to the side and back, two, three, four and then stretching them out the front, two, three, four. Great!" She placed her right hand on the barre. "With your left hand on the barre; in first position, the balls of the feet are turned out completely. The heels touch each other and the feet face outward, trying to form a straight line. Making sure that you are turning out through the hips, not the thigh or else you are going to pull your hamstrings and you need those to ride."

First Position:

Posting order (just cause I do them now):
Aurora
Roxie
Cortney
Milisa
Erica

[Monique//Aurora Chambers]

Rory beamed at the teacher's words, pleased that she had asked for the right clothes when she told her mother what she needed. She was sitting on the benches and watched as the other students entered. When a couple of them started stretching on the floor, she got up and found her own spot on the floor, deciding that these older students knew more than she did so she would follow their lead.

When the teacher finally called for attention, the pre-teen jumped to her feet and skipped over to the barre and waited for the next instructions. She leaned over and touched her toes, then stretched up, then out and finally forward. She listened keenly as the woman explained the first of the five positions. With a frown of concentration, Rory turned her feet out, trying her hardest to make sure that she was making the movement from her hips. She squeaked as she felt a pain shoot through the backs of her thighs but continued the movement until her feet were turned out completely, heels touching. She gripped the bar tighter as the pain grew stronger, but she refused to stop trying and ignored the tears that slipped down her cheeks.

[Daniel 'Dan' Wallis]

Dan jogged down the steps of Blue Ribbon dorms with a note clutched in his hands. Though he resided in Red Ribbon, Beth had asked him to come see her as she was sick and had a note for Miss Warner why she could not attend today's lesson. Unfortunately, this now made him late. Picking up to a run, he moved quickly and carefully through the crowds, and slipped into the gym. His attire for the lesson was not the required tights, because that just wasn't attractive on him, but a plain grey wife beater and a pair of navy sweatpants. Pushing open the door to the studio, he stayed put while Miss Warner spoke.

Dan stiffled a groan at the mention of ballet. He was classically trained in the medium, but just didn't enjoy it. He said nothing though, and approached Miss Warner with a slightly guilty smile. "Sorry I'm late ma'am. And Beth won't be attending today's lesson, I have her note here." He handed the note to her, which explained that the girl had a flu type virus. He gave her another smile and slipped off his shoes, putting them at the side with his bag and approached the barre. Fitting in carefully beside the girl on the end (Erica), he gave her a slight smile before catching up with his stretches. He'd done them enough to not have to worry anyway.

Sorry it's so short! ):

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney kicked her shoes off, non too gracefully, at used her feet to push them under the bench that her bag was sitting on and at the command, she walked over to the barre, finding a spot as far away from the teacher as possible, and moved through the warm-up's as Ms Warner instructed. She then moved her feet into first position, the fingers of her left hand balanced delicately on the smooth polished wooden bar.

For as long as she had done dance, Cortney had always had great turn out - possibly came from spending a lifetime in the saddle - but she didn't have the discipline that was involved in becoming a proper dancer, so she had done nothing more than attend lessons to be able to move with her horse better and then to forget about horses after the accident. In fact, dancing had been the only thing from her past life, that she had actually kept doing, even without her sister. Now, Myriam on the other hand, she was perfect at everything she did. And in dance class she shone - as she did in everything else.

[Prudence Warner]

Prue nodded as a boy entered the room and gave his apologies and handed her a note excusing another student from her class. "Fall into line and follow the others." She said softly, she had no doubt that he had heard her instructions about first position.

She then walked down the line of students, correcting the odd position on a couple of people and reposition the centre of gravity of others. She heard the words of encouragement that Roxie was offering Rory. "Don't push yourself until it hurts, Rory." She said softly as she crouched down in front of the girl so that she could talk to her without towering over her. "You are only learning. I explained how it is done by a well conditioned dancer." She used her thumb to wipe away the girl's tears. "I don't want you in here if you are going to push yourself to tears. I want you here to learn to dance for the fun of it." She stood up again. "Now, put your legs together so that your feet are touching each other. Now I want you to move move your toes away from each other, yes, your knees are going to open, that's fine. Now, keep going until you feel a little tug back here." She touched the back of the girl's right leg.

The door crashing open pulled her attention away from her youngest student and she arched her eyebrows. She didn't say anything however when the girl in the door way looked as shocked as she felt. She took the proffered note and unfolded it, nodding her head as she read it. Folding it she walked back to stand in front of the students. "You are all doing well with first position. I would like to move onto the demi plié. Now the word plié, literally means "bent". To go on, it is a smooth and continuous bending of the knees.

"For demi-plié the you will bend you knees until just below the classical hips while maintaining turn-out, allowing the thighs and knees to be directly above the line of the toes. The intention here is keep the heels on the ground as long as possible." Moving her feet back into first position, she placed her right hand on the barre and demonstrated the demi plié while facing them and then turned around so that she was facing the same direction as the class and repeated the movement so they could see that her back remained straight.

Demi Plié

[Monique//Aurora Chambers]

Rory tried to follow Roxie's words but she just couldn't get it, and was getting more and more frustrated. She jumped when Ms Warner suddenly was in front of her. She bit her lip and listened to the teacher, nodding her head.

She moved out of the painful position she was in and stood as though at attention, she feet straight - which was the opposite of what she was trying to do moments ago. She listened and started to move her toes away from each other, leaving her heels touching, until she felt that tug the woman had mentioned, and she stopped. She had the gut feeling that if she ended up in tears again she would be asked to leave the room and not come back, and she wanted to be a dancer, so leaving wasn't going to happen.

She listened as Ms Warner told them what they were going to do next. "Plié." She whispered the word over and over until it was stuck in her memory... well at least she was hoping that she would at least remember it for the rest of the lesson.

When the woman had finished demonstrating, she took a deep breath and, keeping her feet the way she had finally convinced them to go, she bent her knees ever so slightly until she was sure she looked like the teacher had, other than her feet not being perfect like they should be. Rory thought about the floor length mirror that was on the door of her closet, she would practise every morning before heading to her lessons and then again every night before bed, she knew that with a bit of practise, she could get her feet and legs to co-operate and move into first position.

[Henrietta Charleston]

Henri stifled a sigh, today she had dance as well. The girl was feeling tired already throughout her first day, though this class would be fun. She had always enjoyed dancing, though she had never really gotten into it. Of course, like many other little girls, Henri had taken ballet as a child. Then, of course, she had quit, with few attempts to start up again. In this class however, there would be others and surprisingly, Henri didn’t mind messing up with dance in front of others. She would try her best, though her slender body was well out of shape. Henri grabbed her newly bought dance bag with the ballet shoes and a water bottle.

Her face turned somewhat actually enthusiastic as she wandered the halls to the dance class. The girl walked for nearly about ten minutes when she realized she was simply going in circles. Her face, now twisting into a pained look turned toward the main office for the second time that day. At least she would be excused, though her entrance would be quite noticeable. Henri winced at the thought of eyes turning to look pointedly at her. She walked in to the woman on the other side of the counter explaining her lack of direction.

The woman, friendly enough pointed her in the right direction and handed her a late slip to be saved as she hurried her way to the gym. Henri made it quickly into the dance studio, where she found her co classmates were already dancing. Briskly, the girl walked to the teacher, her outfit exactly as asked; black tights and sleeveless tee. She gave the teacher an embarrassed look, “I’m sorry I’m late… I got a bit lost. It won’t happen again.” she handed the teacher the note before switching her sneakers for the ballet shoes.

Quickly, the girl stretched before joining the others at the bar behind the youngest looking dancer. Henri offered the girl a smile, comforted by the fact she wasn’t the youngest here. Thanking her longtime old ballet teacher, the sixteen year old managed to achieve the demi-plié without looking like too much of a goof; bending her knees and turning out her thighs. Her heels struggled to keep on the ground, though she stopped before they could raise.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Hurrying out of her calculus class, Cara raced back to her dorm room so she could grab the dance bag that she had left just inside the door. Not wanting to be late to class and then have to get changed into her black leotard and pink tights in the room, not bothering with the tracksuit over the top even though outside was a little chilly - bitterly cold in her opinion - as that would just take more time than she had. With ballet flats in the bag along with a towel, drink bottle and sewing kit, she made haste and headed toward the dance studio - although she did make use of the time and did a few warm-up moves on the way; such as skipping and running while pointing her toes.

She slipped into the dance studio just behind another girl, whom she didn't recognise and assumed was last due to being lost. Cara was late due to a teacher who had talked longer than he should have.

Dropping the bag carefully onto the bench she slipped out of her shoes and slipped the ballet slippers on. Walking to the barre, she dropped a curtsy to the instructor and took her place at the back of the line - where latecomers should always position themselves. She was just glad that the woman didn't do the three bar rule; where the dancers were placed due to their skill, the best on the first bar - the one by the mirror and the least competent ones on the third - closest to the door, as she knew that that is where she would have been told to go. With those rules, if you spent two lessons on third bar you were asked to find another class.

Placing the tips of the fingers of her left hand on the smooth bar, she drew in a deep breath and released it, allowing all tension to flow out of her with the exhaled breath. She easily moved her feet into first position, her hips smoothly moving out to allow her feet to be aligned and touching heel to heel, in a straight alignment, with her knees also touching with legs straight. Holding her right hand in bras bas or preparatory position: arm down and rounded with hand just in front of the hips she bent her knees as she did a plié, reminding herself that it was only demi and not to go all the way down. She also had to keep reminding herself to keep her feet flat. It had been a long time since she hadn't done ballet without her pointe shoes, and it was be good to re-educate herself on the earlier lessons of classical ballet.

As she worked through her demi-pliés, she worried about what she was going to say to Ms Warner at the end of lesson as there was really no excuse for her tardiness other than the word of her teacher as he had shooed them all out of the room before she could ask for a tardy slip.

She watched the others in front of her work through the exercise and she realised that she was the smallest person in the room. Even with Rory at the front of the room - who was only eleven - Cara was still a good head and shoulders shorter than everyone else. It didn't often effect her, but it suddenly made her feel a little self-conscious and she was happy that they were facing away from the mirror beside them and that she was at the back of the line so she couldn't see herself in the mirror that lined the wall at what was their front of the studio.

[Samantha 'Sam' Lawrence]

Sam sprinted up to her door room. She had just been switched into Dance, late the afternoon before and was running extremely late. Her book bag smashing against walls as she torn up to the room. Once inside the room she changed quickly into her lime green and purple sleeveless leotard and pink tights. She took a drawstring bag, threw in her slippers and sweatpants in. She slipped on sliding Nike shoes and ran back down to the gym. Her new bag thrashing as she ran.

She slipped into the dance studio and made her way over to the bench. Removing her shoes then put on her slippers. She glanced up seeing Cara hop in the line at the end she smiled lightly and did the same. She hadn't said anything to Ms. Warner because she didn't want to interrupt the class. Sam exhaled and placed her left hand on the bar. Her heels lined up and her knees bent. Due to her being late she missed the instruction and simply did as Cara did. She was completely clueless as to what they were doing until Cara moved into the Demi-pliés. Sam smiled because she was used to these movements. In most of her classes, be it Geometry or Chemistry she was completely lost.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney held back a groan as the word plié was mentioned. For as long as she had done dance, she just couldn't do the move perfectly. She was just thankful that it was only the half bend and not the complete bend, so hopefully she could stop from embarrassing herself completely.

Keeping her feet in first position, she kept her back straight and started to bend her legs. However. no mastter how much she tried, her heels crept up. Blowing out an annoyed breath, she straightened her legs and tried again, but her heels started rising as soon as she bent her knees this time. She straightened her legs again and smacked the barre in frustration, and then gave an apologetic look to the two girls behind her. She quickly arched an eyebrow at how easily they were going through the movement time and time again.

She turned back to the front, resting the fingers of her left hand on the barre once more, feet in first position, heels glued to the floor and she bent at the knees. She could feel a frustrated tear slid down her cheek as her heels lifted, but she angrily wiped it away with her right hand as she saw Ms. Warner approach her. "I promise I'm trying." She said and stood tall as the woman walked behind her. Then, with the teacher's help, she managed to do an almost perfect plié.