Fandom High School

So, Verity had had the final last week because it seemed like a good idea to have it before prom not because I couldn't read a calendar. Which left today kinda free from lessons.

"Okay, Verity said, back in the dance studio. "I know many of you are studying for finals, but it's really important to move around sometimes while you're studying. Get your heart rate up, get your blood flowing, that actually helps you retain information better and helps get rid of study fatigue. So today we're going to stretch and then it's a freeform dance class."

She had her playlist set up, a bunch of high-energy songs that could be adapted to formal ballroom dances or just grooved to on a casual basis. Whatever worked best for each student.

"All right, one-and-two-and-three-and begin!"

Verity greeted the whole class with a big grin as they entered. "Welcome to your final class," she said. "Next week will be the final - where you're just going to have to successfully dance to about a minute or so of music, don't worry - so today is the last day to teach you a dance. Which means today, you learn the tango."

She immediately put on music, slow and sultry. "The tango is about desire and passion, for life, for love, for sex, even for violence," she explained, easing into a solo routine. "Even if you learn the steps perfectly, you have to figure out what passion you're unlocking during the dance to really make it work. Otherwise, you're just doing a collection of fancy steps."

She stopped dancing, bringing her feet together in preparation for leaning the steps. "The Argentinian tango is complicated, with eight individual steps," she said, starting to demonstrate the follower's steps. Then she moved to showing off the leader's steps, which were the follower's except in reverse. "So, let's practice, a one and a two and a three and four."

Class met in the Danger Shop today. Verity was still supposed to be taking it easy, but ahahaha. No luck with that after the 'conversation' she'd had with Liam on Monday. The one that had ended with him walking out, with no sign when - or if? - he'd be coming back.

Time to push that out of her mind and focus on class though. Blessed, blessed class. "So, on the first day of classes, I chatted about how most fights fell into a kind of rhythm and how dancing could help you figure that rhythm out and use it. What I didn't mention was that there have been certain kinds of dances that are actually fighting styles for centuries now. Today we're going to learn about one in particular: Capoeira. It was created by enslaved Africans in Brazil, who needed a way to practice fighting moves under the noses of their captors. Through the history of Capoeira, it has been banned several times by the Brazilian government because of racism, but in 2014, it was named a 'intangible cultural heritage' by UNESCO. Today, we'll be going over the basic steps."

Which meant stretching was even more important than usual, kids!

"And once you've learned the basics, you can practice them out with some Danger Shop dummies until it feels like second nature."

Verity wasn't alone in the classroom today; Liam was standing next to her in front of the wall of mirrors when the class walked in. "Hey class, come in. Since it's the day before Valentine's Day and there's a dance coming up at the end of the week, I thought we'd deviate from coursework a little and teach you how to slow dance. There's more to it than awkwardly swaying to the music. To help me demonstrate what to do, today we're joined by Liam, who's agreed to be my co-teacher today."

“A recent promotion,” Liam said with a grin. “Up until yesterday I was still just a student myself.”

"You'll be fine, babe," Verity assured him. "So let's stretch and warm up, huh?"

Since they'd be slow dancing for the rest of the class, Verity had picked out a bunch of fast-paced Latin dances to stretch to, just for contrast. When that was over, her slow dance playlist queued up. "Okay," she said, standing up and tugging Liam with her. "The first thing you need to do is stand up with your partner at a distance that's comfortable for you both. That may be almost a foot apart if you're nervous or don't know people well, or it might be much closer if you're comfortable." She pressed against Liam's chest, barely coming up to his chin, even in her heels. "In the end, you'll probably be most comfortable a few inches apart." She backed up, until there was maybe about a handspan of distance between them. "Whoever is leading, their left hand will go either on the follower's lower back, or right behind their shoulderblade. Followers, your right hand will rest on their shoulder." She and Liam demonstrated, with Liam taking the follower position.

Gender roles be damned, she was the professional dancer of this partnership. "Your other hands clasp to the sides. If we're being formal, they go up to your shoulders, if you're more casual, they stay low, around your hips." They found a comfortable location, going lower because they were demonstrating a casual dance. "Now, leaders, your hands are how you communicate what you want to do. If you want to move across the floor, you tug in that direction with your clasped hands. You want to move in a circle, you push with your clasped hand and lessen then pressure with your hand on their back. That tells the follower to move backwards. Followers, your job is to pay attention to what the leader is trying to tell you to do." Without speaking, Verity and Liam walked up and down in a row, then left towards the mirrors and back, Verity using her hands to gently signal which direction she wanted him to pivot in.

"The steps are actually really easy to slowdance," she explained, once they'd finished demonstrating how to communicate without words. "It's two steps - one out to the side, and then you bring your other foot next to it. Then you do it again in the opposite direction. Once you get this basic step down, we can move to the big finishers: dips and spins."

Class today started with the lights low and another screen at the front. Don't worry, kids, it wasn't another movie day, Verity just wanted to show a quick movie clip.

"So, the waltz," Verity said as the clip played. "In our day, it's considered one of the fanciest of the old-fashioned dances, lovely and formal. When the Vienniese was introduced in the 18th century, however, it was considered quite the scandal. Dances before that were group affairs, partners switching with a lot of intricate steps. This was a one-on-one dance, where the partners held each other scandalously close. How times have changed."

After stretches, Verity had the whole class stand in line in front of the mirrored walls. "So, today, we're learning the box step for the waltz. The waltz is slightly different than a lot of other dances as it goes in 3/3 time. One-two-three, one-two-three." She counted out the time for them, tapping her foot loudly to show the rhythm. "Today, we're learning the waltz box step. It's very easy. You start with your weight on the right leg, step forward with the left. Then take a step to the side with your right leg, and lastly, bring your left leg together next to your right. Step forward, step to the side, bring your legs together. Then, you do it backwards: take a step back with your right foot, step to the left, and then bring your right leg in. You should be back to your original starting position."

She demonstrated, dancing in a small square: forward, to the right, feet together and then backwards, to the left, feet together.

"We're going to practice this way all at once, but remember: whoever is leading starts going forward with their left leg, and whoever is following starts backwards on their right leg. You should always be mirroring what your partner is doing. Keep that up and soon you'll be waltzing. Leaders, right hand on your partner's lower back, left hand holding theirs. Followers, right hand on your partner's shoulder, left hand holding theirs. Dance a couple of boxes, then switch who's leading and who is following."

Look at that, kids, you were waltzing! Hopefully.

"Today we're actually going to learn a dance," Verity announced. "You've learned the basics of rhythm, you've learned to move parts of your body in isolation, now time to learn actual steps. And today, we're learning one of the easiest dances to begin with, the Foxtrot."

Made up of four steps in its most basic form, Verity was confident that she could have everyone dancing to it by the end of the day. "For this class, you'll be splitting up into partners, taking turns leading and following. Usually that's broken down by gender lines, but there's no reason not to learn both parts. They're the same step, just performed backwards."

And often in heels, but Verity wasn't going to make them all try dancing in heels yet. First she'd need to see them successfully walk in heels.

"The Foxtrot has a rhythm of slow-slow-quick-quick," she explained. "Which means that the first two steps each take about a beat, and the last two make up a half beat each. If you're leading, you start with your left foot and take a step forward, and then do the same with your right foot. Then you step to the left and bring your feet together. Followers, you do this in reverse. Start right, take a step back, then another step back with your left, a step to the right, and end with feet together." She demonstrated this for them several times, both backwards and forwards. "Okay, so we're going to practice the steps for a few minutes, both leading and following, and then you're going to pair up and practice dancing together. One person lead, the other follow, and then when you feel pretty confident, swap."

Verity wasn't hung over anymore but being up and ready to teach a dance class at 8am made her feel like she was. It was possible that she was going to go and kick the moose in the face when class was finished. Still, if she could come out screaming with excitement at seven in the morning to tape the opening of Dance or Die!, she could at least fake some pleasantries.

"Morning," she said, welcoming the class into the dance studio. There was a wall of mirrors with a barre mounted in front of them. Verity was standing in front of it, doing stretches. She'd sent out a handwavy email to students, requesting that they come to class in comfortable clothing they could move in, with either sneakers or, should they have them, ballet flats. Later in the semester, Verity might try to transition them to ballroom heels or jazz shoes, but not until they were comfortable moving around. "Welcome to Intro to Dance. I'm Verity Price, a semi-professional Argentinian tango dancer, and we're going to be focusing on ballroom dance this semester. Ballroom dance is excellent for helping improve your balance, flexibility, and strength. But perhaps the two most important aspects of ballroom are what we're going to be focusing on today: rhythm and the ability to work with a partner."

Or, as Verity liked to think of it: nobody learns dips until she knows they won't be dropped.

"The first part of every class is going to be devoted to warmups and stretches," she explained, gesturing for everybody to sit on the floor. "It's really easy to pull a muscle or get cramps while dancing and stretching first helps prevent those." She ran through about ten minutes of easy stretches with the class. The first and last set of exercises were the same, so they could see if they were able to reach farther and stretch deeper than before.

Once they had finished stretching, Verity turned on the music. "All right, let's start working on that rhythm and teamwork, shall we?"