Vᴀɴᴅᴇʀʙɪʟᴛ Aᴄᴀᴅᴇᴍʏ Fᴏʀ Tʜᴇ Eʟɪᴛᴇ © discussion
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// dance
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marthie !
(last edited Mar 21, 2016 03:25PM)
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Nov 22, 2015 08:22PM
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I have not claimed the dance teacher yet, but i am planning to . Her name is Anastasia Schulyer.
Anastasia enters the studio and places her bag on the table. She's had a bit of a struggle with her past students and hopes this group will be better, refined manners and all.Shouldn't they?
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Stasia nodded. "Your name, please?"
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((Btw, Russian female surnames conjugated with - a or if surname ends in -sky, it becomes -skaya. Names ending in -ko, -uk, - ik, or -a are exempted from this rule. Thus, it should be Chernova. Anyhow...)Masha entered the room as softly as possible.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Marie-Catherine. I'm a scholarship student."
Stasia smiled. "oh, yes. Vasily talks about you."
"Vasily?" Masha asked. "You mean Mr. Saltykov?"
Stasia nodded. "I think he prefers Vasily Grigorievich, though."
"Yeah," Masha said. "That's the formal way of addressing people in Russia."
Stasia entered the dance room and put her stuff down. She opened the door to the waiting students outside the studio."Alright, come in."
Tamara entered.
"Hello," Stasia said. "Tamara... Bagration?"
Tamara nodded.
"Alright then, take a place at the barre. Have you done dance before?"
"I've done a little Georgian folk dance and I took ballet for a few years in preschool and kindergarten."
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Stasia nodded. "Yes, this is ballet. I'm not sure about your individual levels, so we will have to adjust a bit as we go on. For the present, please take a place at the barre and we will start with a basic plié combination.
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Stasia shook her head. "I suppose I should show you."She held onto the barre with her left hand so that her left foot had turned towards the barre and her right foot away from the barre, but her feet touched at the heels.
"This is first position."
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Stasia nodded. "Yes, and a grand plie is a deeper bend at the knees, as far as you can go without sticking your rear or chest out."She adjusted her arms and feet to a shape relatively similar to a star.
"This is second position. I have a chart up here."
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Tiffany glanced up at chart, mimicking the positions. "I think I have it!" She stated confidently, smiling broadly. "I'm ready to move on!" Tiffany was a quick and dedicated learner who only needed a little coaxing- it what was made her such a great violin player. She sunk into a grande plié, making sure not to wobble or lose her balance. "Madame, if we may move on?"
"Well, first we shall do the combination. Begin in first position, two demi-plies" - she demonstrated a smaller plie - "and a grande. Then move to second and do the same, and then fourth, then fifth, and then we turn around, always toward the barre. We don't do third for some odd reason involving the fact that third is quite similar to fifth."Tamara nodded.
Ellis ran down the hall, late for class again. Oops. Well, she was actually excited for this class, dance, as she was an advanced dancer before coming to Vanderbilt. Of course, this class would not be as rigorous, but it would still be good for staying in shape. Pointe shoes or not? she debated as she slid her bag into a cubby. Realizing that the class wouldn't be very hard she decided to pull on her pointe shoes before quietly walking into the studio. "I'm sorry for running late, Ms. —" Ellis stopped, realizing she didn't know her instructor's name.
"Stasia," Stasia said. "Anastasia Schuyler. We have just begun our plie combination. Please take a spot at the barre."
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The music stopped."So now we do tendus, en croix. Stretch your leg out just far enough for it to be straight and have the toe point. Do two to the front, two to the side, and two to the back."
Ellis nodded and took a place at the barre. The combination was extremely simple, which meant she could work more on her technique. It was only two tendus en croix, but it could still be challenging if you worked hard on the shape of your feet, turning out, rolling through demi pointe, and a million other things. She started the combination, focusing on those things as well as port de bras and epaulement.
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Tamara was not overwhelmed by the combination, despite having not remembered doing this as a girl. The other two, however, seemed to be overdoing it. Trying too hard. Or maybe that was just the Vanderbilt way.
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The music stopped."Alright," Stasia said. "Now we move on to degages. They're like tendus, only you lift your foot two inches off the floor. So same combination only with a slightly lifted leg once you point your toes.
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As the girls finished both sides, Stasia stopped the music."And now we do rond de jambes, which is the second-to-last part of barre. I know it does seem a bit tedious, but we do need to warm up before leaps and splits and all that because it reduces the risk of injury and helps you stretch more."
She demonstrated making a vaguely ovular shape with her pointed foot and straight leg on the floor and then a few inches off the ground.
"Two on the ground and one in the air, then go backwards."
She demonstrated starting from the back.
Haneul glanced at his watch. Time for class to start, yet nobody was here. He hated that his class was always in the middle of the day, because the other teachers never let the students out on time, but complained if they were late. He sat on the floor, sketching out diagrams of various positions as he waited. Since he was unable to actually dance (without the doctor getting annoyed at him again), he had resorted to drawing the positions based on old videos, rather than trying to explain things verbally — diagrams were easier than trying to describe it, because the students could simply mirror it rather than having to interpret instructions.
As students began to filter in, he stood and moved towards the front of the classroom, out of the corner. His limping had become more pronounced over the last few weeks, after he'd made the mistake of putting slightly too much weight on his knee while trying to carry something heavy. Haneul hoped none of the students noticed — it frustrated him enough that he wasn't able to do as much as he used to without having people point it out. He'd put up with fussing from far too many people, and he hoped that the students at Vanderbilt were different.
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Mirabelle walked huffily into the room, reeking of weed. She had lit up ten minutes for class, but it didn't show-- only smelled. She was wearing her leotard and tights, and held her pointe shoes lazily in her left hand as she laced them up. Mirabelle might have been a typical teenage delinquent, but she was Paris Opera Ballet bound also. Mirabelle side eyed the teacher, he didn't look like he was a ballet teacher, but who knows: maybe he was trained in all fields of dance? The last teacher was a Russian lunatic, who drove Mirabelle absolutely insane, so insane that Mirabelle forked her lawn in Wilmington.
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Xinyi was more than excited. If he was being honest, he was positive he might pass out due to hyperventilating ( it wouldn't be the first time ). He must have looked odd, standing just beside the door, peering in for a full five minutes. This was no big deal. Just an international star teaching him how to dance. Really, no big deal. He took a breath before stepping inside, scurrying into an open spot with his head down. Maybe if he didn't look at the Yoo Haneul, he wouldn't pass out.
Hanuel decided that enough students had entered the room for class to begin — anyone who was any later could ask their friends what they'd missed. “Alright. I am your dance teacher, Yoo Haneul. Some of you may not know me, some of you may. Whatever the case, you are here to learn. My expectations are simple: you will listen to me, you will be respectful of one another, and you will not talk when I am talking.” He was already eyeing one or two students he would ask to repeat what he had said later. He found humiliation in front of their peers to be much more effective than reprimanding them — if there was one thing these kids cared about, it was their image.
“This class is not going to be focused exclusively on one form of dance,” he said, eyeing the girl wearing ballet attire as he did. “A dancer who can only dance one form is not untalented, simply unmotivated. But first— introductions. Name and favourite dance form, please.” He pointed at the girl. “You first, then from left to right, front to back.” Maybe it was unfair to target her, but Haneul had dealt with ballet dancers when he'd been learning to dance — and he had done his utmost to avoid making generalisations, but the vast majority of those he encountered seemed to look down on him for studying contemporary dance. Judging by the way she carried herself, the girl was much the same.
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“Mirabelle Brown.” Mira answered curtly, crossing her arms. “And ballet. I guess.” Okay, so this teacher clearly wasn’t a ballet teacher by the way he side-eyed her attire. She wasn’t at Vanderbilt to become a hip hop star after all— but one contemporary class a week wouldn’t kill her. She hadn’t even heard of the teacher though; Yoo Hanuel? Most teachers at Vanderbilt were incredibly successful in their field before they came to teach, but maybe Vanderbilt was skimping on staff. Unlacing her pointe shoes, Mirabelle rolled her eyes a little, wondering what else this teacher would dream up.
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(( that's generally how i prefer to do it when there's more than two people, it's just easier to make sure every character is included that way ))
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(( should i post again then or wait? ))
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Haneul didn't like the first girl's attitude. The second seemed much more interested in actually learning, which was good — provided she wasn't one of those who thought it would be cool and then gave up once things got too difficult. He pointed to the next person, the boy who seemed to be too shy to look at him. Haneul disliked targeting shy kids, but this was dance. There was a point where you had to ignore your fear or awkwardness and just do stuff anyway. “Your turn.” It seemed that the class were reluctant to actually interact — something he'd been hoping wouldn't happen, but clearly rich kids never got taught to socialise properly.
“If you get through your introductions quickly enough, we might be able to actually get this lesson started before it ends,” he added, hoping that the students were interested enough in the prospect of being able to dance that they actually paid attention to when it was their turn. He doubted it would work — but he hadn't really expected the first lesson to be productive anyway.
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Work a stage? Please. Mirabelle bit back the urge to roll her eyes at the girl's comment. This class was already making Mirabelle feel like she wanted to claw her eyes out, and they hadn't even finished introductions. "Hurry up, won't you?" She snapped at the shy boy, her anger not withheld for long. She knew the teacher wouldn't receive those comments well, but he had a stick up his butt anyway, and Mirabelle had never been a people pleaser.
(( if y'all would like my posts to be longer, just tell me! ))
Xinyi nearly jumped out of his skin at being called on. The whole 'stay quiet' thing wasn't really working out in his favor, it would seem. Instead, he was being called on directly. Swallowing, he looked up to his classmates, about to speak when a girl - Mirabelle? - snapped at him. I'm trying to, he thought, about to try again when this time, Diane spoke up. Turning his attention away from what was probably going to end in a verbal altercation, he tried a third time.
"Wang Xinyi, and I don't have a favorite style of dance." The words were said as quickly as he could manage to get them out, and probably sounded a little more like an incoherent mess. He glanced towards the two girls beside him before again focusing on the front. Though, he was doing a lot more of staring at the space around Haneul rather than actually looking at him.
( Sorry! had to travel and was away for a bit )
Haneul sighed. Clearly Mirabelle wasn't going to co-operate of her own accord. “Miss Brown, I suggest you keep your mouth closed unless you have something useful to contribute.” He smiled at the nervous boy. “Thank you, Xinyi. There's no need to be nervous.” He wanted to say that nobody here would judge him, but that would probably be a complete lie. Teenagers tended to be judgemental, whether they intended to or not.
After the rest of the class had finished introducing themselves, Haneul spoke again. “I should probably go over rules and expectations in this class. So: first, I expect you to respect your classmates. No snide comments about their dancing skills — this is about effort, not talent, particularly since not all of you will be familiar with some of the styles we'll be learning about. Second, if you're here before me, come in and start warming up — it'll mean that we can spend more time doing fun stuff. Third, there is theory for this class, so don't think it's one of those practical subjects where you spend the entire time on one thing — your first assignment is to research a famous dancer and analyse one of their performances in a powerpoint — that being said, we will go through some of that in class so you know what to do.”
He walked over to the speakers to plug his phone in, avoiding wincing even though the slight pressure on his knee caused it to flare in pain. Haneul knew that his limp was probably quite obvious, but he hoped that the students wouldn't notice. “For the next five minutes, dance in whichever style you want to until the music stops. This isn't supposed to be a test — it's just to gauge your abilities so that the class isn't too hard or too easy for you.” He pressed play, letting the song begin. It was cut from a Beethoven symphony, he was fairly sure — he really needed to label the songs on his phone better.
(
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(also changing the song would be godmoddinh too)
