Dance 3.0

[Prudence Warner]

Prudence Warner walked into the dance studio carrying her dance bag. Walking over to where the barre met in the front corner of the room and sat down. Opening her bag, she took out her pointe shoes. She's had these slippers for the past few years and so far they had done her well.

As she put the shoes on, she hoped that the students had got the note she had sent to each of them before the academy broke up for winter break. The note had told the students that for this year each of the female students needed to wear a black leotard and pink tights and the boys were to be dressed in tights and a fitting black t-shirt. She had pretty much given them a uniform to come to class in. She had asked that they only arrived in bare feet or flat slippers though as they would only be doing very basic work that wouldn't require them to dance en pointe. Not only that, but she only knew of a couple a the girls who were advanced enough to dance en pointe (which as far as I know is only Cara and Kate as no one else has ever mentioned extensive ballet training before).

Standing up, she flexed her ankles and then rose up onto full pointe and went through a simple warm up, which stopped as soon as the first student arrived.

Once the majority of the class had arrived she clapped her hands to draw attention to her. She hated shouting, so just didn't do it. "Right, welcome back and happy new year to you all." She smiled around at each of the students. "Today we are going to do a warm up, so please spread out (it's on the video down below) and then you are going to find a space on the barre and we'll go through each of the five steps - just to make sure you haven't forgotten anything over the break - then we'll have a look at things like arabesques and jetés."

She took her place in the centre front of the room and pushed play on the CD player before taking a step forward, when the music started, she counted the students in. "Ok, and five, six, seven, eight." She then talked then through the warm up.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stood in her bathroom, just putting the finishing touches on the bun that sat high on the back of her head, and covered the bun with a shimmery black crocheted bun net, using black hair pins to make sure it stayed in place. She then pulled on her pink tights and black leotard. Rather than pulling her tracksuit over the top of the ballet clothes, she just pulled on a pair of black knitted thigh-high leg warmers, and pushed her feet into her tennis shoes. She slipped her arms into a black cardigan and then put a yellow microfibre towel into her dance bag along with a water bottle. Her bag already held all of her dance accessories. Into the bag she also placed the bag that held her ballet slippers, rather than her pointe shoes.

Exiting the room, she left the House and hurried across campus to and into the dance studio. She shook off the cold as she slipped out of the cardigan and sat down on the floor by the benches that lined the wall that the door was on. She then pulled off her shoes and leg warmers. Taking the towel, slipper bag and water bottle out of the black dance bag, she folded up the clothes she had taken off and slipped them into the bag, which she then placed neatly onto the bench with the bottle beside the bag and the towel on top, next she pushed the discarded shoes under the bench.

She carefully put on her slippers and tied the ribbons, making note that she needed to replace the ribbon on her left slipper as it was beginning to fray. She then rose to her feet and moving one foot and then the other into demi-pointe and back again. It felt strange not having her pointe shoes on, but she also knew that she needed to follow the same rules as everyone else.

It was this stage that she realised that the studio had filled up and she could feel her cheeks heating as she pressed her lips together and turned her attention to Ms Warner.

Finding a space for herself on the floor, she followed the teacher through the warm up. She liked the fact that it seemed to work every muscle that a ballerina used, and then some. And once the warm-up was finished, she found a spot for herself at the middle of the barre, a place where she felt comfortable - she could easily blend in with the rest of the students. And a place where she could easily watch Ms Warner.

Outfit

[Kate Holden]

Kate finished smoothing down her hair with gel into the perfect ballerina bun she wore to dance that never had a hair out of place. Washing the slippery excess gel of of her hands and then drying, she considered her appearance quickly. She'd gotten the note from Ms. Warner about what they wear to wear to class, and she'd been quite grateful. Kate would never have considered wearing anything but this uniform, and she was glad that the rest of her peers would now have to wear the same. Anything else would be simply unprofessional. Her leotard today was one of her favorites, and it was very classical, dipping lower in the back with a wide neckline. She inspected her pink tights each time she put them on for any runs, to be sure that she never showed up to a class with runs in her tights. Such a mistake would be incredibly embarrassing, and her old dance teacher would have chastised her for weeks about it.

Once satisfied with her appearance, she gathered her things to bring to class. Leaving her pointe shoes out of her dance bag, she collected her water bottle and towel, as well as extra hairpins in case her bun came loose, as unlikely as that was. Kate was disappointed that she wouldn't be dancing en pointe in class, but she supposed that it was only fair. It just meant that she would have to visit the studio even more often to practice en pointe on her own. Happy, she pulled on a pair of wool knit leggings over her tights as well as a heavier sweater and made her way down to the dance studio, bag in hand.

She found that she was the second one there, and pulled off her shoes, leggings and sweater, folding them and putting them neatly onto the bench next to her bag. She greeted Ms. Warner with a nod and continued to but on her soft ballet slippers. They certainly felt a lot different, and Kate thought back to remember when she'd only felt comfortable in these, and pointe shoes had felt like some sort of strange torture device.

Once the rest of the students had arrived, she found her own spot on the floor and listened to Ms. Warner's explanation of the class to come. She almost giggled as the teacher spoke of forgetting over the break, but held it back, keeping her composure strong.

When the warm up started, Kate got into it quickly, enjoying it much more than the last warm up. It was definitely a lot different than any of the warm ups Madame had used, but Kate would certainly learn to enjoy them. It certainly served its purpose, and by the time she had finished, Kate was feeling ready to work. She found a spot at the barre beside a girl she knew as Cara, leaving a good amount of space for both of them. Watching Ms. Warner carefully, she stood in first position, waiting for her teacher to begin going through the positions.