New Girl

Ballet

Sorry if this chapter is a  bit boring! Loads about ballet in here :) x

The moment we entered the studio, I felt myself relax a bit. It was so nice to be somewhere familiar. We were in the big open studio that had a glass viewing panel at the front. Which meant anyone walking past could see in. As if I needed more motivation to dance my hardest! 

I took a spot in the middle of the bar behind Alli, with Sophie behind me. I could see most of the other girls in the room, and as I sat down to tie the ribbons on my soft blocks, I eyed up the competition a bit. Everyone was super thin, and obviously flexible. I hated to admit it but Holly looked pretty amazing with her hair in a complicated braid/french twist as she stretched her over splits on a muscle roller. She had nice feet and legs, but so did almost everyone else here. I, however, knew I had better feet than most people. When I stretched my leg out in front of me and pointed my toes they touched the floor. I did this now and caught Sophie looking at them appreciatively. 

"Nice feet!" she said, stretching her legs out, then pulling them around into the frog stretch. Her knees and feet were flat on the ground, a sign of 180 turnout, something highly prized int he ballet world that very few people had. She also had the most incredibly slim limbs, with massive swaybacks. I would have some serious competition here. 

I smiled. "Thanks, but I'd rather have your turnout." She just smiled and continued stretching. Beside me, Alli stood up and shouldered her leg. I swear her legs went on for miles, and she was obviously really flexible. My stomach fluttered with nerves. Everyone already seemed so good! What if I was the worst one? A lot of them had been in full-time training since they were really young. I had been doing ballet since I was a toddler, but not in a vocational school like this! Pushing aside my nerves, I stood up and stretched my hip flexers on the barre. At that exact moment Mr. Carper walked in. Immediately everyone ditched their warm-ups and I slid out of my body warmer and looked at him expectantly. 

"Alright girls. I know this is the first day back, but don't think I'm going to go easy on you. I need to you to build up stamina and thats starting today!" I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. He seemed serious, but his eyes twinkled a bit. He was a tall man, middle aged but with a dancers body still. He turned to the pianist, told her the music he wanted, and quicklly showed us the basic plie exercise. Then, with a wave of his hand, the music began.

Suddenly, I was home. The soft melody seemed to flow through my body, helping me to deepen and stretch my plies. My arms and head gracefully moved in time to the piano and I couldn't keep the smile of my face. It felt so good to be in a studio again! As he walked down the barre, he stopped for a minute to watch me and nodded. "Good."

I grinned. High praise from a ballet teacher. 

By the time we reached adage at the bar, I was shaking and dripping with sweat. Sounds crazy, but when you're working every muscle fibre you've got every second of every exercise, you get pretty tired pretty quickly. I wiped a drop of sweat that rolled down the side of my face, and turned around to begin the long adage.  It didn't surprise me any more that every girls leg was way above 90 degrees with each develope, and I stretched my legs to the utmost hight, wanting to be better than everyone else. 

I was relieved when we finally moved into center though...now was my chance to show off what I had, as we'd be dancing in smaller groups, and to really travel and move. We began with a simple tendu exercise that required a lot of shifting of weight, followed by a beautiful adage that was to a melody from Romeo and Juliet. This was SO my day. Then on to pirouettes from the corner. 

As I prepared in the corner next to Alli, I could feel some of the girls' eyes on my back. And chasse forward,  I thought, making sure I was turning out my legs as much as I could and pulling up. AND chasse pas de bourree, double and down, chasse pas de bourree, double and down, balance balance pique arabesque, tombe through, and triple, HOLD, finish. I grinned. That was good, and I knew it. I'd nailed every pirouette with a lucky balance at the end. I saw Holly roll her eyes but a few of the girls were grinning at me. I cheered silently in my head. Thank God I was having a good day. 

By the time we reached grand allegro, my chest was heaving. The girls hadn't been joking earlier when they said Mr. Carper was big on stamina. My legs felt like jelly and I couldn't seem to catch my breath.I'd lost track of the number of petit allegro exercises he'd given us, and I'd given my all in each one. I didn't know how I was going to make it for the last 5 minutes of class. Then, suddenly at the window a group of people apeared. I wiped the sweat out of my eyes and realized that it was our year's boys class, and Mr. Park, the school's director. Okay, I was SO putting all my energy into this last exercise. 

I marked it with Mr. Carper, trying to not to sneak a glance and see if Nate and Josh were in the window. "AND a temps leve  in arabesque, temps leve with the leg in passe positiong, temps leve temps leve, balance balance, pique first arabesque, HOLD plie. Two runs back and a grand jete entournant, soutenou, develope you left leg out devent with a little ports de bras, AND tombe pas de bourree, gissade grand jete!" he shouted.

I grinned. Big jumps were my favorite, and I smiled as I chassed backwards, opening my arms to prepare in the corner as the music began. I threw all the energy I had into each jump, pushing myself as high as I could, but really, I didn't even have to think about it. With a powerful tune from Swan Lake echoing in my ears, I let my body get carried away with the music, losing myself in the feeling of being airborne. I could almost feel the stage lights on my skin, see the vast blackness in front of me that was the audience. On the final grand jete, I felt as though someone had grabbed a string and tied me to the ceiling if only for a few seconds, and my heart surged with passion. THIS was why I loved ballet. And then the music ended, the exercise finished, I was brought back to the realization that I was in the studio, not on stage. The room was quiet for a second which confused me, but then Mr. Carper gave me a small smile and nodded his head before turning to the next girl. "Next!" he shouted, and I trudged to the back of the room, my chest still heaving. I felt dead now. Literally. Marie was staring at me with her moth agape. I'd ask her about it later. Right now, I really just wanted to sleep.