fandomhigh | Ballet for Beginners; First Period [01/04].

Ballet for Beginners; First Period [01/04].

The chain of events that actually lead to Rosa standing there in front of her class in the dance studio (that was suddenly getting so much use) had been filled with internal debates, a lot of creative swearing, a handful of near cancellations, and an office moose almost getting punched. But there she was, black tights and leotard, hair pulled up, looking every bit the picture of the ballet teacher she was apparently supposed to be.

...assuming that ballet teacher also looked about ready to murder a person at the drop of a slipper.

And just when she thought that, hey, at least it couldn't get worse, she got a look at who was actually in her class.

Oh, this was going to be just great.

"Alright," she said. "So this is going to be a ballet class." There were words she hadn't expected to be coming out of her mouth pretty much ever since she was about fifteen. "Ballet is a form of performance dance that got its start during the fifteenth century," she continued, sounding like she was reading from a Wikipedia page with extreme boredom, "and developed into its current form throughout the nineteenth century, mostly in Russia and France. So a lot of the terms we'll be using are based in French, Russian, or Italian. I'm not going to require the classic black leotards and pink tights for this class," especially since one of them wasn't even wearing clothes at all, "but I recommend you wear something you can move easily in and, preferably, something tightly fitted, so that it's easier for me to see how your alignment and your muscles are turned to make sure you're not doing something stupid and get yourself injured. Right now, I'm definitely not planning on using a stick to correct you with, like my lovely ballet instructors did when I was your age; whether or not I start is entirely up to you guys."

It wouldn't be ballet class without the threat of violence, right?

"If you actually have your own ballet slippers, great. If not, turns out there's a box of them you can borrow from. And they even seem mostly unused. You're going to want them, because they'll help you to move across the floor in the ways we want better. If for some reason, there's nothing in here that fits your or works for you," because you have, say, a giant yellow claw toe, "we'll figure something out. So go ahead, take a moment to find shoes that fit, and then we'll get to stretching, because it's important to warm up and cool down after each lesson. If you're not dressed to dance today, why the hell not? What were you expecting?"

She didn't exactly give a chance for answers.

"We're not doing introductions, because, honestly, I don't care who you are. Let's just get your shoes and then get started. Warm up stretches, then you'll be learning the five basic positions, then a cool down. It's not going to seem like you've done enough to need a cool down, but, trust me, even though it doesn't seem like much, if these are muscles you're not used to using, you'll feel it in weird ways tomorrow."

Rosa gave them a few more minutes, glancing dolefully at the clock that hadn't moved nearly enough, then sighed before instructing them all to find a spot on the floor.

[[ocd ~~on the way~~ up]]

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Like the budding ballerina you are.

Breq

Prince Sidon

Vette

Jughead Jones

Manfred Bernardo

Paris Geller

Take a few moments to let it sink in about what you've gotten yourself into before diving into a box of shoes to find some that fit.

Unless you brought your own.

Rosa half-expected Geller to actually have some, because, well...she was a nerd.

Breq didn't recall signing up for anything dance-related, and if she had been inclined to facial expressions she would have looked confused. Instead her face looked blank, as she picked up a pair of slippers.

Was it bad that Vette actually looked kind of excited about this? Sure, it was sort of, um, stereotypical, a Twi'lek dancer and all that, but that was sort of the point.

Half of what she did involved getting in close to people who very much needed to be taught a lesson, after all. And so she wasn't even going to let having to use somebody else's shoes ruin this for her. She'd just make a note to get her own. Easy.

Sidon's confusion on why Muzu would sign him up for a dance class was temporary superseded entirely by his utter dismay at the words 'we're not doing introductions.'

Sure, there seemed to be one in every semester for him, but it was so disheartening! Introduction week was his favorite, and it felt a little off-kilter not to have one. He went through the motions of it still, introducing himself in his head with the fist pump and the smile before he nodded, and went to go see about shoes, feeling very much that he was indeed one of the ones they might have to 'figure something out for,' unless he were to trim his toe claws, which, ha, no, he sort of needed those for important things like swimming and fishing and battle.

Maybe if they just cut a hole in the shoe? Although they were soft enough that the claw would probably make its way out in due time anyway.

Manfred definitely did not remember signing up for anything even remotely like this, but okay, he could deal with it. He was dealing with it.

He was not dealing with it. Also, relatedly, these shoes were pink.

Since it's the first day and they wouldn't be doing too much, the warm up Rosa led the class through was relatively short, starting with a few basic stretches while standing, then down to the floor for more of the same, with an added round of stretching the feet specifically: pointing toes, rolling and loosening the ankles.

She's not one to care if you talk while you stretch, so long as you actually do the stretches.

Hey, warm-ups! Okay, Vette could do these. She was actually pretty limber already, as a general rule, and anything that required a little bit of extra flexibility, she was... maybe not showing off with, no, but what was the point of stretches if you didn't actually have to stretch to do them, right?

In the water, there was absolutely no denying Sidon's incredible aptitude for grace and flourish, and he liked to think he was rather good at it on land, as well. He was incredibly good at jumps and leaps his dives were the very definition of grace! But this...

...well, he hoped the warm-ups weren't an indication of what awaited ahead, because it didn't take long for him to realize that these stretches weren't exactly done with a top-heavy, long torso, short legged Zora frame in mind.

He tried his best, though, of course. Always. He just rather hoped he didn't look to ridiculous as he tried to get his body to do things he was pretty sure it wasn't meant to be doing, especially since...well, there were certainly people in this class with him that he'd rather not be embarrassing in front of it.

Nice bit of luck there, really. He and Vette finally have a class together, and this is what it is. But he was determined to make the best of it! Or, at the very least, try to.

Now that they're warmed up, it was time to go over five basic ballet positions to some very light and unobtrusive music that suggested an easy pace for holding and transitioning to the positions.

Hooray.

Rosa instructed the class to either find a spot on the floor or a place at the barre if they weren't as confident about their balance, and explained the five positions of the feet and arms: first, heels together, toes out, with the emphasis on not forcing your turn-out like an idiot, don't push it further than what's natural, even if it's a little bit. Second, feet apart, but only shoulder width. Third, with the heel of one food against the side. Fourth, one foot slightly out. Fifth, the heel of one foot meeting the toes of the other. She repeated it with the other foot dominant.

Rosa demonstrated one more time on both sides before instructing them to try it on their own, changing through the positions on her direction so she could come around and check your form and make corrections. And then repeat it, several times, until she'd made her way around and was mostly satisfied that no one was going to screw up their ankles or knees.

So this was ballet class. Exciting stuff, huh?

Edited 2019-01-04 12:32 (UTC)

No one had ever seen a reason for getting her ancillaries to dance, so her body memory was more aimed towards things that were actually useful in battle. Still, she was faster than most humans, her body reinforced, and finding those positions easy enough.

Still with no expression on her face.

Hey, maybe not, like, the greatest adventure Vette had ever been on, no, but she seemed to be taking this lesson pretty seriously all the same, carefully following Rosa's instructions and adjusting wherever she felt she needed to.

This wasn't really quite like dancing back home, but.. uh... dancing back home was a pretty unique creature that mostly involved twirling around because people liked watching trailing lekku or something anyway.

Since they hadn't done much activity that would have likely brought their heart rate up, most of the cool down at the end of class is focused on just stretching out the muscles that might have gotten more use in those subtle ways you don't notice with a turn out, as well as some rolling and pointing of the feet.

And once that's over, that's it, you're done, although Rosa was going to throw out the warning that it might be a good idea to practice some of the positions a few times on your own before next week, especially if you planned on being any good at this sort of thing.

She's there if you need her. It's kind of her job.

Though she may be a little busy battling with that internal voice in her head telling her that she's actually kind of missed this dumb crap.

"Is this the kind of music ballet is usually danced to?" Breq asked, approaching Rosa after class. "Are there other kinds too?"

Realizing her face was still blank, she made it change into a sudden smile.

Rosa sort of gave Breq a strange look for that weird, unnatural shift in expression, but was just going to mostly chalk it up to the fact that she was just a weird, awkward kid or something, and she shrugged. "Traditionally," she said, "yeah, ballet's performed to classical music, but people are doing all sorts of things." She would do all her practicing to heavy metal, for example, because of course she would. "Some of it's made specifically for ballet, but the stuff we're using is just...you know..." She shrugged. "Simple enough to keep a rhythm, supposed to inspire a good flow. Usually piano-based, because, you know, before recorded music, they'd actually just have someone at a piano the whole time."

It was a question she could answer easily enough because she'd asked something similar when she was dancing. Well, not too similar. It was more like 'Why the hell do we have to listen to this lame ass music all the time?' but...same premise, right?

She did kind of grimace a little at the end there, though, realizing that she was sounding like a teacher, and that was still gross.

"So are we going to learn to dance to different kinds of music," Breq asked, curious.

She'd like that. She hadn't minded the music today, but it hadn't really interested her either.

"...Maybe," said Rosa, after a moment, because she honestly hadn't thought about it. She had been trying not to think about this class at all, nor did she intend to think about it much going forward, either. But she supposed she could at least consider it.

"What kind of music would you like?" she asked. She almost didn't, because it's not like she cared about appeasing the students in this dumb class or anything, but if the answer was something she could work with, she could just go with it and, hey, look at that, no extra thinking about it.

"Oh, I like a lot of music," Breq said. "But from this universe... and with a rhythm to dance to..."

She then ended up with a long list of surprising and less surprising suggestions, and ended with: "A friend and I used to play together, mostly aggressive rock music. It's rhythmical, but I'm not sure if the contrast to the dance style would be interesting or too strange."

She had thought about this. There wasn't much expression on her face.

Well, that was a list, alright. And Rosa would remember maybe a quarter of it, but at least that last part seemed to amuse her. Vaguely. Her expressions weren't exactly the most obvious things, either, though she had to think about not showing them rather than the other way around.

"It would be a big contrast," she agreed, "but it would also make it suck less. I'll keep it mind."

I miss ballet class now, too ;_;

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Ballet for Beginners; First Period [01/04].

Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Sign In - Ballet, 01/04.

Intro/Prepare for Class - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Intro/Prepare for Class - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Intro/Prepare for Class - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Intro/Prepare for Class - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Intro/Prepare for Class - Ballet, 01/04.

Warm Up - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Warm Up - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Warm Up - Ballet, 01/04.

Class Activity: Positions - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Class Activity: Positions - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Class Activity: Positions - Ballet, 01/04.

Cool Down - Ballet, 01/04.

Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

Re: Talk to Rosa - Ballet, 01/04.

OOC - Ballet, 01/04.