Winter Hearts

Siana Warms Up

Before long she was back at the apartment block and had swung her leg off the bike pedal and stopped to park the bike on the kerb.

She was breathing hard and she felt sweat trickling down the sides of her face and also down her back. She pulled her phone out to check for messages from her dad, but found none. She thought she had enough time to go visit her class room before she would check in on him at around 7am.

She practically skipped into the lobby and walked past the lift towards the staircase. To the right of the staircase, between it and the door to her father's apartment, was a tiny metal door to what looked like under-stairs storage. In fact it was an entrance down into the classroom space below. She used her key to open the lock and then unlatched the door, rather like a barn door, and it swung open with a raspy creak. She turned on the light to the stairwell and went down to the metal grill door at the bottom. She unlocked that and was in the room. She turned off the light at a switch inside the room.

Although underground, there were some windows above ground level that let in some natural light. Under these were a long a row of barres that stretched along the whole wall. At the opposite corner to where she had come in, a proper security door that led directly to the yard outside her father's apartment stood locked. She turned on a couple of lights and crossed to open that door. Outside she heard the sounds of the rousing township. Voices calling out, radios being turned on, a couple of dogs yelping in the streets.

She opened it and looked out into the yard, turning to check for signs of activity at her father's place. He didn't seem to be awake yet. She smiled and pulled out her phone. She ran through her music list and brought up a playlist she used for warming up, which included some songs for which she had already created some choreography.

The electric piano sounds to Heize's "No Way" starting playing gently through the speakers, and she immediately started moving, at first a slow step, shoulders and arms swaying as she approached the centre of the room and faced the mirrors. With the beat, she sank into an easy, lower stance, starting to gently work her legs, while her arms began a stretch routine that began to involve the rest of her upper body. Before she knew it, she was doing gentle body rolls from side to side, feeling the rhythm and groove of the song, adopting an attitude which she felt suited the lyrics, even though, like the song, her movements were easy and smooth. The song ended and she walked around, stretching her arms more and rolling her neck. Her body, warm from the cycling, was responding well to the movement and she felt like she could start running and jumping and spinning.

Because she was up so early she didn't feel her body was up to doing that, even though she felt like her heart and soul were ready for it. The next song up was Lee Hi's "Breathe", which she knew was very slow and sombre. She considered changing the music but decided she would just go with it, and lay on the floor to do some leg stretches.

On her back, she engaged her core muscles and lifted her legs one by one up and then towards her, bending them, pulling them towards her body, then stretching them out to the side. Naturally her body followed, and she turned to twist and stretch her spine. Then she was straight on her back again and letting her legs move as if they were independent, while she kept her back cemented to the ground using her tummy muscles. Eventually the urge to express overtook the physical stretching and she arched off the floor into a sitting position, then pulled her legs straight up into the air before her, forming a "v" with her legs and body, a pilates move to centre her balance and engage her core muscles.

She rolled back,  letting the backward roll propel her into standing position. The vocals began soaring at that point, and like the title, Siana was feeling like she wanted to express that need to let go, that need to take a deep breath or to let go of one, to let out those feelings of constriction someone could feel, whether in love or exercising. She smiled, happy to be where she was.