Dance is the song of the body (Dance 3.1)

[Prudence Warner]

Pruedence Warner walked into the dance studio. She shuffled her feet over the floor, not the most delicate way for a ballerina to walk, but the floors had been recently buffed and she wanted to make sure that none of her dancers were going to slip on the floor and break any bones. Happy with the floor, she glided over to the stereo and put the CD they were going to use that day into the player.

She had noted that quite a few of her dancers hadn't exactly enjoyed her chosen styles of warm-ups. They didn't say anything, but their body language was something that spoke for itself. So, today she had some more traditional ballet exercises planned.

Walking over to the benches, she put her bag down on the bench that met the corner of the room. Out of it she took a handful of pink ballet belts (also called hip alignment belts). She had planned to purchase one, for Aurora, but she got extras in case there were others that would like to use them. They came in a range of colours, but she felt that pink was best as it stood out on the black leotard that the girls wore to class and it didn't look out of place as they wore pink tights and slippers.

She walked over to the barre and hung the belts off the end of the barre that she used - as it only went half way across the end of the studio, where the one that the students used went from one short end of the studio to the other. She then began to stretch out her muscles and waited for the first student to arrive.

Prue smiled as the door opened and her first student entered the room. "Welcome. As soon as you have your slippers on, please find a spot at the barre." She offered each girl the same greeting as they arrived.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara raced from Psychology and up to her room in Blue House. She knew that she had roughly ten minutes to get ready for dance class. She knew that she could have taken her dance clothes with her to each of her classes, but she hadn't wanted to take the chance that anything happened to her satchel and the delicate pink tights and shoes got damaged. She also didn't feel like lugging her dance bag everywhere with her either.

In record time she shed the suit that she had been wearing for her academic classes and quickly pulled on her tights, followed by the black leotard and then pushed her feet into her tennis shoes. Next she quickly brushed her hair out of it's french braid and spent no time twisting it into a ballet bun and along with the hair pins, used a bun cover to keep it in place. Grabbing her dance bag, she had packed it that morning before classes started so she knew it had everything she needed, and left the House to head to the gym.

Walking through the gym, she quickly arrived at the dance studio. Pausing to slow her racing heart - from jogging to the gym - she opened the door. She bowed her head at Ms Warner's instructions and gave the woman Révérence (a ballet curtsey) before entering the studio and walking over to the bench against the wall behind the door. She placed her bag on the bench and sat on the floor where she took her street shoes off and pulled out the bag that contained her ballet slippers and slipped her feet delicately into them. Once the ribbons were tied - as she used proper shoes rather than the simple elastic ones that girls were so partial to these days - she rose to her feet, flexing her ankles as she went into demi-pointe and then floated over to her favourite spot at the barre, in the middle of the room, and awaited the next instructions.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney left Creative Cooking and headed to the gym. She'd put her ballet gear into a plastic bag and tucked it into her school bag that morning - yes, because she was too lazy to run back to her dorm room - so that she could head straight to the gym after class and get changed there.

Once in the changing rooms, she changed her clothes and then shook her head at herself. She may have packed all of her gear, but she had forgotten her hairbrush so she hadn't saved herself any time at all. She then snapped her fingers and rushed up to her gym locker - the one she had been assigned for being on the cheer squad - as she remembered that she kept a spare hairbrush and ties in there. Quickly running the brush through her hair, she twisted it into a ballet bun and used a pink crochet bun cover to keep it in place, which she held in place with hair pins - at least she had remembered those!

She then threw the clothes she had changed out of, along with her school bag, into her locker and admired her reflection in the mirror. She pursed her lips together, thinking that she needed something. "Got it!" She said as she rushed back to her locker and pulled out the purse that contained her collection of Lip Smackers. Rifling through the collection of Smackers that she had grabbed that morning and finally pulled out the cotton candy flovoured Lip Sparkler and applied it to her lips before putting the purse away, once again closing the locker and then rushed to the dance studio.

She smiled as Ms Warner spoke to her and she hurried over to the barre where she saw that Cara was already standing. She chose a spot half way between the short girl and the front wall that Ms Warner used.

[Monique Chambers]

"Mom!" Rory wailed as her mother ran the brush through her long blonde hair, catching a few tangles as she brushed it out. And from the tone of the girl's voice, it was obvious that it hadn't been the first tangle that Monique had caught.

"Sorry." Monique said as she kissed the top of her daughter's head before she ran the brush through the girl's long tresses again and then began to skilfully wind the child's hair into a ballet bun, she'd had lessons from the dance instructor so she had it down pat. She then covered the girl's hair with a pink sparkly crochet net and stepped back. "All done. Now go get changed."

Rory spun around and beamed at her mother as she threw her arms around the woman. "Thanks mom, you're the best." She then hurried out of her mother's apartment on the ground floor of Red Ribbon House and up the stairs to her dorm room and quickly got changed into her pink tights and black leotard. She grabbed the bag that held her slippers before tearing out of the room and flew down the stairs. "See you after class, mom." She said as she ducked back into her mother's apartment and then hurried toward the gym.

Slowing down to a fast walk once she was inside the building, she ran into the studio. "Ok Ms Warner." She said as the woman spoke to her before she went over to the benches and changed her sports shoes for the ballet slippers and then ran over to her spot at the front of the room. She bounced on her toes as she waited for the other girls to arrive so they could get started. She had been practising hard since class a couple of days ago and she was sure that her turn out was getting better.

[Deleted]

Erica hurried over to her dorm in the Blue Ribbon housing. She unlocked the door to her room and started to get her stuf ready for her next class, Dance. She was glad she had enough time to pack and get down to the studio before being late. She made sure she packed everything she needed, already starting it this morning, but later lazily gave up on it. She shed out of her outfit for the day and changed into her black leotard and light pink tights. After pulling on the last part of the tights, so it was comfortable and not so tight, she lightly and neatly placed her ballet slippers into her gym bag.

Gliding over to the bathroom, she scurried through the stuff in the drawers for her hairbrush and hairties. Brushing out the tangles in her blonde hair, the girl brushed her long hair up into a high ponytail and tied it in place, before twisting it into a nicely done ballet bun. She secured the bun with another hairtie (or two) and then thought about what she was missing. "Of course!" She brightened up as she quickly found a black crochet bun cover and started pinning it in with bobby pins, so it wouldn't slip off during class. She pursed her lips as she added on some chapstick to them while they were beginning to crack. She shrugged it off and threw her chapstick into her gym bag. Slipping into her sneakers and zipping her bag before heading out of the dorm, she fast walked over towards the gym.

Slipping through campus and through the gym, she made it to the dance studio, just in time. Hearing her instructions, she gave a nod and placed her bag on the benches before sitting down next to the object. The blonde slided out of her sneakers and substituted it with her ballet slippers. After she placed on what she needs for the class, she started to stretch her legs a bit while on the bench, before standing back up and finding a spot at the barre. Spotting Cortney, she floated over to the spot next to the girl, but still giving enough room between the two. Adding a smile in greeting towards her, she waited for further instructions.

[Deleted]

Kate rushed quickly back to her room to change into her dance things before her class. Pulling on her tights and black leotard, she made sure everything was straight and run-free before leaping over to her bathroom to quickly twist her hair into its bun. She'd become so used to doing this that it only took a few moments, and she quickly stuck in the necessary pins and a teensy bit of gel to keep her baby hair away from her face. Over the bun, she put her hair net. She'd worked hard to find some that matched her hair exactly and was fine enough so that it was practically invisible in her hair. She grabbed her dance bag and quickly laced on a pair of oxfords. It was getting warmer out, so she just pulled on a lavender cardigan for her walk over to the gym.

Entering the studio, she smiled and nodded to Ms. Warner. She was a bit surprised that a bunch of other girls had made it there before her, especially since she was usually second, just after Cara. Making her way over to the bench, she sat down and shed her shoes, placing them neatly together before putting on her ballet slippers. She'd been pressed for time to practice en pointe lately, and she really needed to get into the studio to do that soon, especially since she was not allowed to dance in her pointe shoes in class.

Ready to begin, she smoothed some Burt's Bees onto her lips, took off her cardigan, and found her spot at the barre near Cara, on the opposite side of where Cortney stood. She stood in first position, ready for the warm-up to begin.

[Prudence Warner]

OOC: I realise that it hasn't been a week since Prue last posted, but I know for a fact that Bacon - who plays Sam - is really really sick, so I don't expect her to be posting for a while, and Harley - who plays Henri - is busy with RL stuff so I thought I'd just move the class along when Harley does find time to post she is more than welcome just to join in rather than coming in "late"

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Once her students had arrived, Prue walked closed the studio door and walked to her spot at the front of the room. "Today we are are going to do some more traditional ballet warm-ups, both working at the barre and on the floor. If you turn to face the barre, we're going to so some shoulder raises - with the preschoolers I used to teach, I liked to call then hello and good bye shoulders. Lift your shoulders up to your ears and lower them again, lift them up, lower them, up, down, up, down. Now just the right shoulder, and then the left, up, down." She had then lift the shoulders, alternating them for four lifts each. "Now we're going to roll our shoulders backwards and forwards to help loosen up our neck muscles." She had them repeat this again four times is each direction. "Now, we are going to do tendus to the front. As all music is in fours, we're going to do it to the count of four. Slide your left foot forward, point your toe to stretch out the leg, point your toe to the ceiling, bring your feet together again. Now repeat with the other foot." She had them repeat the exercise, this time eight on each leg. "Now we'll do some demi-plié lunges. Move your feet into second position. As you plie extend your right leg out to the side so that it is straight, as you bed your other leg, you will feel the pull of the muscles along your inner thighs. As you straighten up, bring your extended leg back to second and repeat on the other side." Again, she had them repeat the exercise, alternating legs as they completed four on each side.

She moved away from the barre. "Can you please all find yourselves a spot on the floor and sit down with your legs in second position - so not quite the splits. Now, reach forward from your hip socket. trying to reach your chest to the floor." She silently counted to thirty. "Come back up, keeping your stomach pulled in to keep your back flat." She had them repeat the forward stretch four times. "Now we're going to stretch gently to each side. Only stretch as far as you can do so comfortably so that your muscles don't tighten up in reaction to being yanked." She had them do the side stretch, alternating to stretch each side twice. "Rolling on to your side, we're going to do leg lifts. Lift your leg up as high as you can comfortably go. When you lower it down though, I want you to push against gravity so that it doesn't just drop, and stretch your leg out so that the leg is longer than the lower one." She had them repeat it four times on one leg before they turned around and repeated it on the other leg.

Prue sat up and moved so that she was on her hands and knees. "Now we're going to do 'kitty cats'. You need to start with a straight back, so that means head down and eyes on the floor so that your neck is straight as well. Now, bring your your knee to your nose and chest, bending your head to meet you knee. Now, in one graceful motion, lift your head up and battlement your leg behind you. Your leg reach the height of the battlement fully stretched, your foot will be pointed and your back arched. Bring your head and leg to starting position." She had them repeat the exercise four times on each leg, they would work their way up eight.

Standing up again, she then had the girls stretch out their hamstrings by getting them to demi-plie with their feet parallel and bend forward from the waist, getting those who could to place their palms on the floor, then had them straighten their knees, hold for a count of thirty and then roll up to stand straight. She had them repeat this four times.

The last stretch was for the quadriceps. She had them place one hand on the barre, the lift the opposite leg and use that hand to hold the foot to their glutes, holding for the count of thirty, then release. She had them repeat the exercise two times before getting them to turn around and repeat on the other leg.

"And that's just the warm up." She said with a grin. "Go and have a drink, towel your face if it needs and and return to the barre in first position and we'll get the lesson started."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara turned to face the barre and followed the instructions for the shoulder raises, making sure she stayed in count with their instructor - even if shoulder raises were one of the easiest exercises.

As they moved through the exercises, Cara fell into the swing of the movement, as it wasn't hard to follow the count. She had to admit that this was much more enjoyable than the latest warm-ups that they had been doing. There again though, she was a prima ballerina so what would she know about any other way to warm up that wasn't traditional and structured?

When they moved into the seated position, she went into the splits - even though Ms Warner said not quite - because she knew that in the splits, she hips were as open as they could be, and the exercises the woman took them through were a lot like the ones she did to warm up for gymnastics, so putting her chest to the ground with her arms stretched out in front of her was easy, as was stretching beyond her toes when they stretched to the side.

As she shook herself loose when they had finished, she floated over to her bag where she picked up the micro fibre towel and patted her forehead and neck before she took a drink from the water bottle that was beside her bag.

Once towelled and hydrated, she walked back over to her place at the barre and placing the fingers of her right hand on the lower bar - since she was so short that was the one comfortable for her - she moved her feet into first position and waited for their next instructions.

[Cortney Smit]

As she followed the woman through the exercises, it was obvious to Cortney how out of she really was. She honestly didn't think it had been that long since she'd done a good work out - even in the previous dance classes she'd brought up a good sweat - but this kind of warm-up was going to kill her from not spending enough time working on what ballet she had done in the past.

When they moved onto the floor, she found a spot near the back - so that her really bad form wouldn't be so obvious - and sat down with her legs in second position, she knew that she could push them into the splits, but didn't want to end up injuring herself. Stretching forwards and to the side wasn't too hard, but the leg lifts proved to be her greatest problem, and the only thing she could put this down to was the lack of horse riding.

When the warm-up was finished, she could feel perspiration running down her back and she followed Cara as they headed over to their bags and after taking thirsty gulps of her water, she scrubbed the towel across her face and neck.

Walking back to the barre, she shrugged her shoulders and waited in first for the lesson part of the class to begin - and she was already exhausted!

[Monique Chambers]

Rory grinned when Ms Warner said that they were going to do some more traditional warm-up exercises and she did her best to keep up with the woman and try to follow what she was doing - to a point that she was at least two counts behind everyone else to start off with, but she quickly picked up the pace and managed to stay in count with everyone else.

As the instructor took her class through the exercises, Rory tried to memorise them all so that she could do them when she came down here in her spare time - as she wasn't an actual student of the academy she had a bit of that.

Working through the exercises, Rory noted down what she really needed to work on, and wondered if she should be doing more of these leg lift things in her dorm room when she had nothing else to do... aside from the craft work that she did to fill in her time. I wonder what I'd need to make a ballet skirt and a leotard? She asked herself silently and then shook her head as she quickly caught up with what everyone else was doing, telling herself off for letting her mind wander.

When the exercises had finished, Rory flopped over. She was dead tired and there were still forty-five minutes of class left. Straightening up, she jogged over to her bag where she grabbed her drink bottle and had a drink before heading back to the barre. Placing her right hand on the bar, she moved her feet into first position, her heels toughing and her turnout almost spot on - it was something she was working on.

[Deleted]

Erica faced the barre as instructed and followed what was told for the warm up today. It felt a bit awkward to do warm ups that pre schoolers were taught, but not wanting to question it, it was still good to go back to the basics. She kept in count as they started off with shoulder lifts. Making sure not to go too fast or too slow, just keeping to the pace. Rolling shoulder backwards and forwards, she started to feel her neck loosen as directed to.

Continuing on with the rest of the lesson, they were now told to find a spot on the floor. She moved to the middle as she didn't know whether to be in the back or the front. She shifted into second position, not quite the splits as told so she wouldn't injury herself. She started to reach forward, trying to reach her chest to the floor and seemed to wait for about a few seconds more or so before they were to straighten back up  and do it four more times. Rolling to the sides as they did some leg lifts. Those really do stretch out some of your muscles.

The 'kitty cat' stretches sounded a bit odd at first, but actually doing it made her understand. She followed the class as they did the stretch four times on each leg, going up to eight tops. All this stretching was really easy and young kid friendly, though they really do get you to stretch out those muscles they would need for ballet.

After the rest of the stretches were done, it was time for them to take a minute's worth break. She went over her bag at a bench. She dabbed her forehead with a towel and took a few sips of water from her waterbottle. Already emptying one fourth of the whole thing. She slipped back over to the barre and modified herself into first position as she waited for their lesson to start.

[Deleted]

Kate turned towards the barre as instructed and did the shoulder lifts along with Ms. Warner and the rest of the class. She appreciated the teacher's comment about hello and good bye shoulders, and gave a small, tight smile, focusing more on the movement of her shoulders. She did the next shoulder exercise the same way. She followed through the rest of the exercises.

She found a good spot on the floor for their floor exercises, sure to not quite go into the splits as Ms. Warner had instructed. She moved through the seat exercises with control, but managed to keep her muscles loose. She loved the way her back stretched out for these, pulling her muscles.

Kate's smile returned when Ms. Warner called the next exercise "kitty cats." Kate could already imagine what they would be like, but the name pleased her. Peter's nickname for her was Kitty, and thought she pretended to often hate it, and wouldn't tolerate it from anyone else, she did sort of like it. She completed the exercises in the sets of four for each side.

After finishing the rest of the exercises with the class, Kate returned to her dance bag and took a couple of sips of water, lightly toweling her face before returning to the barre, standing in first as she waited.