The first day of classes
Wren has flat out exhausted. The party had gone perfectly. The dancers were able to dance just fine on the protective plastic and so she had not had to come up with a way to make her guests comfortably barefoot. The guests came from all walks of life, a good portion of them were already enrolled and by the end of the evening she'd doubled her enrollment.
The dancers had taken the floor one couple at a time as the songs changed so that there was always dancing happening on the portion of the floor set aside for that purpose. She and Drev had joined the couples every sixth song, of course they stuck to the waltz, swing and foxtrot as that was what she had assigned to them. The other couples had danced ballet, tap, jazz, exotic, and salsa. The exotic dancers were a female couple and had garnered raised eyebrows during each dance. It was quite comical every time it happened.
The food had been perfect, the wine flowed freely and she had surprisingly made it home by three AM, after the place was cleaned up of course. Joey had been an incredible help and a selling point she hadn't counted on, but he worked the crowed like a pro. Sunday she'd spent on her computer entering new clients, and making out a deposit slip. She had enough enrollees to pay the first month's expenditures and was quite happy with that. She and Joey had prepared the Studio for the next day's classes so that all she had to do this morning was arrive and do some last minute things.
5:30 had come incredibly early for her, in fact Drev was still awake and she got to enjoy breakfast with him before dressing in a lavender leotard, skin colored tights under her jeans and sweater. Into her gym bag she'd thrown a pair of panties, and a black wrap skirt. She'd left by 6:15 and arrived at the Studio at 6:30 because of traffic.
She let herself into the back door and walked through the place turning on lights, stopping to adjust the thermostat for the dance floor making it a few degrees cooler than the rest of the building. In the lobby she filled the electric kettle up at the water cooler and plugged it in so that anyone arriving early could have a spot of coffee or tea before class. She unlocked the front door and headed into the women's dressing room.
The buzzer in her office sounded as she was taking off her jeans. She folded them neatly and pulled the sweater off before pulling the skirt out of her bag. She greeting the young woman that entered the room, trying desperately to remember her name. She tied her skirt, slipped on her jazz shoes and left the blonde with no name to dress.
((feel free to join this thread if you are taking classes at The Studio.))
She'd worn jeans and boots but figured it would be fine since she wasn't intending to actually dance tonight. But hopefully they would let her watch. Walking up to the front door, she liked the atmosphere already. Smiling and exchanging hellos with a couple people outside, the blonde stepped into the lobby and looked around approvingly. Now, she just needed to find someone who worked here.
She looked up at the front door opened. A leggy blonde entered and Wren offered her a smile. She didn't seem to have a bag of any kind which possibly meant she was here to ask questions. Wren pushed away from the group and crossed to the blonde.
"Hi! Welcome to The Studio. I'm Wren. How can I help you?"
She held out her hand to the pretty woman, and offered a smile.
I have studied a lot but I think what really interests me, her voice dropped a slight bit and her cheeks pinked with embarasment, are the exotic dancing lessons. I've never seen those offered before. 'Not the mention the late hours offered here work better for me than some of the others', she added to herself.
"I'm the only instructor right now, and you are more than welcome to sit in on a class. The one that's starting soon is a fitness class so there's not as much specific work. It's geared toward cardio and stretching."
A wide smile lit Wren's face at the mention of exotic dance lessons.
"I'm really looking forward to teaching that class. Why don't you come on back to my office and I'll get you some paperwork and stuff?"
She moved to the door of the dance floor "If you'll just slip your shoes off, please. That keeps oils and dirts from making the dance floor slippery."
While toeing off her cowboy boots Amberelle reached into her bag and pulled out several pieces of paper folded in half. Grabbing up her shoes she followed after the shorter woman. Waiting until she had Wren's attention again, she extended them. She explained, I looked over your website and printed out all the paperwork you had there. There wasn't enough room where you write in all of your previous instruction so I wrote the rest out on a piece of paper.
There were some fairly prestigious schools and instructors on there, money and connections had gotten Amby into some highly sought after places. The vampire liked to think talent had gotten her there but she had a feeling the smug sense of satisfaction Gustav had when he informed people how *he* had gotten *his* granddaughter into there was more likely.
That's all Ana saw as she tried to pry her own hands from her steering wheel, her knuckles clenched so tightly all blood had drained from them. She'd prepared for the day she signed up for Wren's Studio Classes with a short shopping binge for exercise clothes and a leotard - suggested by Wren herself - and the monthly fee for the classes was one of the few luxuries she was allowing herself.
Of course, 'allowing' herself the luxury of being 'prepared' for the day didn't absolve any remaining esteem issues she may have allowed to become dormant and hidden. She felt a bit foolish covering the oceany blue exercise tank she'd gotten with a heavy gray sweatshirt, not to mention the oddly frumpy feeling she felt with a pair of matching sweatpants over her light blue leotard. Ankle-length socks barely peeked above her brand new pair of white New Balance sneakers... The white that still matched her knuckles.
"Oh, come on, Ana," she admonished herself in her raspy voice. "It's just exercise. There's a very good chance there'll be other women there that are the frumpy librarian types."
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, one of her hands freed itself to smack her, palm first, upon her forehead. "Bah, what are you talking about? You've got a good looking hunky guy looking out for you so there's gotta be something about the way you look at the likes. Just shut up and get out of the car."
Locking her car as she got out, Ana dragged her 'gym bag' - a cheapish child's backpack with Hello Kitty styling - out of the back seat and headed into the Studio.
Turning off her cellphone as she entered (even before she saw the bold, large sign marked "PLEASE POWER OFF ALL CELL PHONES/PAGERS") she made note of the time - extremely early.
She did hear voices beyond the lobby and, slipping her shoes off before entering the door to the dance floor, passed in to follow them.
She looked though them and had to force her mouth shut and spoke quietly to herself. "You went to...and you want to take my classes?...wow"
She finished reading everything and gave her head a small shake. "Wow, well thank you so much for considering The Studio, it means a lot to me."
She refolded the papers and cleared her throat. "Well then let's start with the tour. This is obviously the dance floor. It's made of a composite that can be used for all genres of dance with out suffering damage from heeled shoes. I chose it so that I could teach ballroom in high heels."
She offered Amby a grin, and looked beyond her when the door opened. "Hey Ana!"
She turned her attention back to Amby and gestured toward the back of the building. "The bathroom's through there." She pointed to it as they walked past then swung her hand to the other wall
"Men's dressing room." She entered the only other door and held it open for Amby. "This is the ladies dressing room and my office is just through here."
Luckily another woman appeared to be doing the same thing she was, trying to talk oneself into entering. The first dreaded step of 'group therapy' in the form of physical activity. She had on comfy yoga pants, that's what the tag had said anyways, paired with a sports bra, tank top and very large long sleeved tunic in cotton. Luckily there was only a small smudge of paint on the cuff so she did not look too crazy, just frumpy.
Sighing heavily she walked to the door and screwed up her courage enough to open it. Inside was nice, so she stepped in a foot and moved out of the way of the door. Her backpack almost got shut in the door but she moved slightly to avoid squashing everything. Biting her lip she wondered what to do now as she looked around with trepidation.
Nodding about the floor, she followed Wren further. Peeking into the dressing room Amberelle smiled. No matter where you went things were usually the same. Yet this one was a little cheerier and brighter, which was nice. Glancing down to see who had just walked up, the vampire smiled warmly as she recognized Ana from Fallon's party.
Hi Ana.. remember me? We met briefly at Fallon and Cyrus's party.. she held her hand out to the brunette.
"Amberelle?" Smiling, she realized she hadn't really expected to meet anyone else from the party ever again. "Hello!"
Switching her sneakers to her left hand, she extended her hand to shake Amberelle's firmly twice. About to ask her how she was (though she honestly didn't know what to 'do' with a response to same) she settled for nodding her head towards the dressing room. "Did you want to be the first to bless the dressing room? You were here first after all."
Ana waited for Amberelle's response then after the blonde headed towards the office ducked back into the dressing room. She sat before the very last locker on the left, fiddling with the strap of her 'gym bag' still slung over her shoulder, held in place with one hand. Her other hand reached for the locker's latch, then flopped back in her lap, then reached for the latch, then landed with a slap on her thigh. "Come on, Ana, it's only exercise around people. Just wait til you actually start, you know. Dancing." She snorted at herself.
Standing by the cobalt wall she tried to place where exactly while studying the piece. While it was not quite her style she admired the effort and technique that went into such a work. Of course inspecting the artwork let her pass the time without fretting and she made no move to enter the studio further.
Inside the office, she stepped up beside one of the client chairs and waited for Wren to join her. While she waited, the blonde looked around and admired the space. It was different and Amby liked that.
Wren walked to the side of her desk and propped her hip on it so that she was a conversational distance away with out separating herself from Amby with a desk. She hated that and had already decided to get a few arm chairs to cluster in the corner, instead of having a screen.
"Let me tell you a little bit about my self and the class and then we'll go from there, okay?"
She gave the blonde a smile and continued at Amby's nod. "I've been dancing since I was three, and I have a degree in classical dance with a minor in theater production. I focused on ballet, but because I love all forms of movement I took classes in tap jazz, ballroom, salsa, and the occasional hip hop. To pay for college I worked as a dancer in a gentleman's club. I know four years of stripping doesn't exactly qualify me as a teacher, but I was good at what I did and I think there are women in this world that want to learn how, if nothing more than for the novelty of it. It's also a great work out."
She took a quick drink of water. "I have three classes available Tuesdays at eight-thirty, Thursdays at six, and Saturdays at four-fifteen. You are welcome to take all three or just one or two, and the cost per month depends on the number of classes you take per week. So any questions?"
((no permission for Amby's nod, and I'll edit if needed.))
She glanced down at her watch and realized she only had five minutes before class. "Well I need to go get ready to start class. Can I get you a water or something else to drink?"
She downed the rest of her's and tossed the bottle into a green recycle bucket, then touched a hand to her hair to make sure it was still neat.
Wren walked out into the dressing room and noted that there were still two students left inside. "Five minutes, ladies."
She returned her attention to Amby. "I don't see why they would. You could even join in if you want. I'm not doing anything that you couldn't handle barefoot."
With a smile she walked from the dressing room to the floor, picking up the remote for the stereo she set it to track twelve, which began the evening work out music with a soft concerto by Brahms. It was filler music until the class began and it would transition into classic rock for stretching. She opened the door to the lobby, after walking past several students milling about the dance floor "Almost time guys."
She returned to the front of the class dead center of the mirrors. She put her feet in first position, and took several deep breaths and found her center. With a smile she reopened her eyes.
"I want to welcome you all to the evening fitness class. I see a couple of faces from this morning so welcome back. Now before we get started I just want to take a minute to tell you what to expect from this class. We'll start each class with a brief warm up then stretch, from there we will move into thirty full minutes of cardio work with a hip hop back beat. I will be using movements from all forms of dance and you will use every part of your body and some of you may discover part you didn't know you had."
She waited for the smatter of chuckles to stop then continued. "Then we'll move into a brief cool down and a final stretch. Each movement we use can be modified for your own fitness level. If you can not maintain the pace slow it down and step on every other beat instead. You won't get behind. The key is to never stop moving."
"Ok let's get started. Every one spread out and put your hands out like an airplane and do a quick twist. If you don't hit anyone then you're in a good spot."
The music transitioned into Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine. "Ok we're going to move into a jazz square."
She demonstrated and counted out the step. "And five-six-seven-eight."
She moved them through ten squares, grapevines, some shuffle ball changes and then made a pattern out of them. When the song finished she sat them down and stretched them out through Roxanne by the Police and Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas. The cardio music ranged from Fergie to C&C Music factory to Snoop Dogg. It was about keeping a good back beat and Wren didn't pay much attention to it beyond that. For this first class she stayed with simple jazz and hip hop movements that the class could pick up and follow easily. She kept her voice just louder than the music and upbeat with out being perky or demanding. She instructed as much as she lead and her students had worked up a good sweat by the time Justin Timberlake slowed them down with Senorita.
The class finished up by stretching to Vivaldi's Concerto No.7 In D Minor. She stood from the floor, sweat glistening on her forehead as her chest still rose and fell a little more quickly than normal.
"Great class every one. I'll see you all tomorrow."