First Dance Meeting

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen looked behind her again to assess the other's positions. "Alright, the position my feet are in is called the fifth position."

Her left foot was angled and the heel of her right foot was touching the toes of her left. "My teachers always had us start class in this position. But for starters, we'll start in first."

She demonstrated turning out her feet and placing her heels together. She also held her right arm out in a curve in front of her body.

"Alright. So get in first and I'll check on you."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

"Hi, Damien - my name is Aurora." She did a slight curtsy.

She gave a passing glance at the shoes and socks and dismissed them. As she approached the ledge, her feet altered from mostly formless to the general shape of Kahlen's Jazz Shoes. When she got the ledge though, she realized that she was a bit short for it. She hoped it wouldn't be a problem.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less copied Kahlen's actions again. "I thought you two had met already."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne also tried to copy the first position, and mostly managed it. However, her form was a little shaky.

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora didn't have any trouble reaching the first position, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to do the fifth position that Kahlen demonstrated. That looked painful.

"I think we kind of met at the dining hall the other day, but I don't think we ever were introducted, Less." Turning back to Damien, she asked "Have you known everyone here long?"

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen went down the line of students. "Looks good Less- nice turnout. Good, Mellianne. Turnout all the way from the hips- make a note of that everyone. Hm. Sorry, Aurora, the ledge seems a bit too high. But I think you'll do fine with it."

She went back to the ledge and into first position. "We'll start with a plie. You'll bend your knees a bit and move your arm as such." She bent her knees and opened the circle of her arm.

"Then we'll return to the original position." Kahlen straightened her legs and puller her arm in. "Now you guys can try that a few times."

She stepped away from the ledge so that she could correct the others if necessary.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less probably didn't bend his knees as much as he should have, but he did his best in mimicking Kahlen. He spared the time to check on how well the others were doing. "Is this part of the dance itself, or is it a preparation for the dance?" he asked.

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

These simple excercises were little trouble for Aurora since she didn't have real knees. It was actually a little boring with how easy it was.

"These don't seem like dances to me..." she complained aloud.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen looked at Less's form. "Looks good. Bend a bit more here." She put his leg in the right position. "There. And plies are preparations for jumps. You start and end with a plie when jumping."

She stepped back again and looked at the others. "Well, the others are at a basic level. How much dance have you had Aurora? I could stay after and do more complicated things, if you want."

[Damien Griffiths]

"Ah, yeah, I've known others for a bit. Less and Kahlen are in my classes, and I've seen Melianne in lunch hours. Anyway..." Damien tried moving his feet to replicate Kahlen's stance. It went surprisingly well.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne followed what Kahlen had did, but was a bit off. She was still a little shaky, but was slowly getting better.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"Good, Damien. Nice flexibility," Kahlen said as she passed him. She stood next to Mellianne. "A bit shaky. You might want to work on leg strengthening exercises. Also, if you move your feet like this, you'll have a more stable base."

She repositioned Mellianne's right foot. "Sorry, but I hope you guys don't mind me moving you to help fix things."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

"I had a few lessons." She didn't see the need to point out that they had been when she was six years old, long before the accident. She was also unaware that she had been a thoroughly average dancer.

Foremost on her mind, however, was how this lesson was turning out to be just another boring class.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne shook her head. "I don't mind. And I don't think it's the leg strength. I just have trouble balancing in one spot. My legs need to be strong for swimming." The new foot position helped clear up a bit of the shakiness.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"Okay," Kahlen said in response to Aurora. "Hm. You would probably be a bit bored. Would you like to continue while they're learning the basics? You could always join again when we've gotten to more complex things. Or I could teach you separately?"

Kahlen also turned to the rest. "I hope the rest of you aren't bored. But learning the basics like the plie is important so that other steps are easier and you don't injure yourself."

She grinned sheepishly, hoping that she wasn't boring everyone, and turned to Mellianne. "Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. Well, different muscles may be used, dunno."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne would have waved a hand if possible, instead she just answered, "Well, isn't that how it always is? If you don't know the basics, you can't learn how to do the hard stuff." Looking down at her legs, she added, "Hmm. Yeah, I forgot that I probably don't use all the muscles."

[Damien Griffiths]

"How long do you want us to stay like this, though?" Damien said, while holding his arm in front of him. "I'm starting to feel a bit silly, and I'm not sure how long I can hold this up." His legs were starting to get a bit wobbly by now.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen's eyes got a bit wide. "Oh! I didn't expect you to stay like that for very long- just practise a few... You can stand up now." She gave another sheepish grin.

"I suppose we can start on tendu's now." Kahlen went back to her place by the ledge. "First, I'll show you the proper way to point your feet. You'll want to extend your leg like this, point your toe, but turn out your foot from the hip. Imagine candy cane swirls around your legs and you want to turn them outwards."

She demonstrated where everyone could see. "This is very important to point the correct way, so I'll go down the line again..."

[Mellianne Joss]

After standing up and shaking her limbs a bit, Mellianne carefully copied what Kahlen did. This time she managed to do everything right with no shaking, which was more of luck than anything else.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

(I should probably speed this up a little... should end soon, though.)

"Alright. You guys are looking pretty good. For the tandus you'll stand in fifth, which was the first position I demonstrated. It'll feel weird, but push your hips forward to help." Kahlen showed the position again.

"You'll keep your left leg and foot where they are. The right you'll bring forward, moving gradually so that you go to the ball of your foot and then into the pointed toe, keeping the toe touching the ground," Kahlen said while demonstrating.

"Tandus can also go to the side and to the back. For the side you'll move your foot like you did for the front, but in a sort of shallow semi-circle. To do the back, you'll do the fifth position with your right foot behind the left. Then move your food back, gradually going to the point." She also demonstrated these.

"I'll continue demonstrating and we can go a bit faster with these once you have the hang of them. One, two, three, four..." She counted as she did the tandus, looking back to make sure everyone was following along well.

[Mellianne Joss]

Now that they were moving, Mellianne was a little off again. However, as they continued she managed to get closer and closer to the way Kahlen was doing it. Soon she was actually doing the Tandus at the same pace as Kahlen was doing them. Hers just weren't as graceful.

[Damien Griffiths]

With a slight curse onder his breath Damien tried to copy the movements, nearly tripping over himself once. This was harder than he'd thought it would be. There were people who did this on a daily basis? Crazy.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen turned her head to look back. "Very good, guys! I think we can go a smidge faster. Also, Damien, a bit more careful- you've practically got the hang of it."

She increased the pace slightly. "Front, side, back. Front, side, back... A few more repetitions and we'll call it a day. Get some breakfast, eh?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne's stomach made a noise at being reminded of breakfast. Blushing, she did a few more repetitions at the increased pace, a little off the rhythm the first two or three times.

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora did the new excercises a bit too enthusiastically and wound up stretching a bit too much, straining her thigh tendons. She didn't move in a way that excercised those muscles very often, and overdid it. She stopped suddenly afterward, with a quick, "Yeah, that's enough for today, I'm pretty hungry," before exiting the gym fairly quickly.

Once outside she started limping a bit.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less was a little startled at the quickened pace, but was able to settle int the new rhythm after a momentary stumble. Admittedly, he mixed up a few of the movements occasionally. He finished the repetitions and walked over to the door to wait for the others.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen heard Aurora say something and turned her head. Before she could ask what was wrong, Aurora was gone. "Is she alright?" Kahlen asked.

"Well, everyone seems about finished. I suggest stretching again." Kahlen sat by the ledge and began to stretch. "Want to meet up again for breakfast?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne's stomach made another noise. "I don't know. I wasn't paying close attention. I hope she's alright." Starting to do some more stretching, she looked at her watch. "Sure. As you may have heard, I'm starving." She took the borrowed shoes off and set them near Kahlen's bag. "Thanks again for letting me borrow a pair!"

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"I'll have to find her later," Kahlen said to herself.

She laughed as Mellianne's stomach rumbled. "Yeah. I'm getting a bit hungry, too."

Kahlen stood, and did one last stretch for her back. She looked through her bag to make sure everything was in order. "Hey, Less, you borrowed some shoes, right?"

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

"Oh! Sorry, Kahlen." Less hurriedly kicked off the borrowed shoes and replaced them with his own. His socks were slipped into a pocket, mostly because he forgot to put them on. Holding them out, he said, "Here you go. I'll come with you to breakfast if you want."