30 Aug 2021, 17:32
Taking A Moment
Yesterday, Madeleine had gotten herself lost looking for the Hogwarts ballroom. She thought the room that hosted the fall ball months ago was the best place to practice her dancing. The girl that had ended up helping her - Cosmo - had been really nice about leading her back to lunch, but unable to offer her the correct directions to the ballroom. So now Maddie was going to go on another hunt.Tuesday 25th May 2021 - after classes
iNPC Roberta Martin (@Sylvain Wyllt)
At the cabins after class, she changed into her tights and leotard, then threw on shoes and sweats. With the two hour gap between classes and dinner, she was confident she would find it with time to get in some practice. The second-year Beauxbatons student glided through the castle halls, peering into open doors and occasionally asking for directions from the students that she saw. Finally, she found herself on the fourth floor of the castle.
After checking a couple of doors, Maddie stumbled upon the castle's Rehearsal Room. As she peered inside, it became clear what this room's purpose was. The wooden paneled floors were smooth (with a very nice Hogwarts crest painted on), and there was even a barre along one of the walls. This place was actually much better suited to her needs than the ballroom, so she took a few steps inside. The portraits on the wall seemed to quiet and their eyes were suddenly trained on her - an audience. Perfect.
Mads confidently made her way over to the barre and sat down, changing into the pointe shoes she had brought in her schoolbag. Once they were secure, she put her hair into a neat bun then started stretching. The brunette spent a good chunk of time warming up and performing some basic movements before finally stepping away from the barre and getting into position at the center of the room. Although she did not have any music, she could hear the swell of it in her head. A routine she had been practicing for a performance at her school.
At the end of her dance - a full piece - she beamed at the applause she received from the portraits. The French girl offered her thanks and a bow because she was quite happy with it, but the actual hard part had yet to come. She went back over to her bag and grabbed her wand, then returned to the center of the room. She got back into the same starting position, trying to view the wand as an extension of her arm when she started the music in her head.
Madeleine went through the dance moves, occasionally announcing and casting a spell. An arabesque accompanied by green sparks being sent across the room. A grand jeté while she cast orchideous, creating flowers that rained down. A few moves in, she tried to maintain lumos while doing multiple pirouettes, but she stumbled. That's when she stopped her dance, taking a moment to reorient herself. Her technique was suffering as she tried to focus on casting. In the same moment that she thought this, she saw a familiar face in the room. Roberta Martin. Had she just now entered or had she been watching?
Madeleine is a Charmer.You are just distracting. Distracting to look at perhaps. Maybe it is your wit or your charm, your grace or something else about you that is intangible but absolutely present.
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia
19 Sep 2021, 19:23
Taking A Moment
Roleplaying as Roberta Martin
Hexcode= #967bb6
Chin tucked, elbows tight, legs like springs and arms like blades through the wind. A flourishing sweep and an elegant halt. The fluidity of dance was something that lent itself well to duelling, and as lithe a dancer as Roberta prided herself in being, her true calling was more dangerous than becoming a dancer. This focus of hers, the ability to make time crawl to a halt when she felt the rush of adrenaline accompanied with exerting herself, deprived her of the skills of observation. Just like when someone calls your name repeatedly, only once the clapping reached a volume loud enough to break her focus did she divert her own attention.
"Bravo, bravo!" Roberta applauded, joining the portraits in encouraging Madeliene as she finished her routine and looked her way. She had not caught all of it, but that was because she had been to self-absorbed in her own business. It wasn't until the paintings began their own round of applause for her that she stopped to notice the charming and experimental methods of the woman beside her. "I envy your skill in combining both magic and dance." She admitted openly. It seemed her focus was on the performance itself rather than the technique with which she danced, but harmony was present in all of her movements. To Roberta, it seemed as though the merger of magic and dance was a new kind of artful expression. By comparison, Roberta's use of dance to enhance her duelling skills felt much more utilitarian. Not bad, just... Different.
For all of her practicing, Roberta had actually managed very little to combine her own efforts in both fields. The two, Mads and Berta, had no doubt danced together before at Beauxbatons Academy, but most recently Roberta had dropped the club to focus on her own pursuits. Now, miles from home, it seemed she had an example. Someone to learn something new and interesting from. Someone she had actually considered to be her equal. "I hope I am not intruding when I say your form is marvelous." Her voice was awestricken, her eyes filled with excitement. "Where did you learn to do all of that?" She would pause for a moment. "And more importantly, can you show me how?"
@Aaron Jones
"Things are never so bad they can't be made worse." -Elim Garak
8 Dec 2021, 03:45
Taking A Moment
"Roberta!" Maddie was pleased to see her peer's friendly visage, and as she looked around, she realized the other Beauxbatons second year must have been there before she even arrived. Had Maddie really been so focused on her own practice that she did not notice? How unlike her, but then again, this was the first time she had been dancing in days. She'd been really excited to find this place and get started, so maybe not seeing the other girl made sense.
"Thank you," Madeleine said, accepting the compliment with a slight curtsy. "But as you probably saw, I haven't quite perfected it yet," she said with a slightly sheepish smile, twirling her wand in her right hand. She was a tiny bit embarrassed that Roberta had seen her stumble at the end of that last routine, but they had been in dance classes together before. It wasn't the first time they came across each other practicing their crafts, and it likely wouldn't be the last.
"The combining of the dance form and the casting form is really tricky," the twelve-year-old girl admitted. Mads got onto her toes, extended her wand hand up to the sky and did a flourish of her wrist, as if she were about to cast something into the sky. Since she didn't say an incantation, though, nothing happened. She was merely demonstrating. "You know how with dance you're supposed to keep your arm straight, clean lines and everything? Well, you need the flourish of the wrist to actually cast the spell, and it throws me off balance sometimes," she explained. She went back to being flat on her feet and lowered her hand as Roberta asked if she could teach her. Her brown eyes widened a little bit, surprised by the request, but she nodded after only a second.
"I can try! And maybe you could help me with the actual casting part? Your input would be really great, like explaining how to maybe keep the casting movements minimal but still effective?" she explained, sounding hopeful that Berta would agree to the exchange of information. The latter was such a good duellist, and could probably show Maddie a thing or two that would come in handy with her efforts here.
iNPC Roberta Martin (@Sylvain Wyllt)
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia
27 Dec 2021, 14:23
Taking A Moment
Roleplaying as Roberta Martin
Hexcode= #967bb6
"Perfect is for fairytale endings," she smiled, remembering the words her father repeated whenever she became frustrated with herself.
"Improvement is what matters. If that's what you're worried about, I can assure you that with practice you are definitely making progress." Though she hadn't caught the entire performance, she had seen enough to provide some critique from witnessing her previous techniques. "Your annunciation and wrist motion seemed exceptional at the end of the performance, vastly improving from last year."
Putting a finger to one temple, shifting her weight to the other knee and tilting her head slightly to rest her head on her index, Roberta contemplated what advice she could possibly give her classmate. Her casting was at least as practiced as her own, though she hadn't caught much of the dance itself. Perhaps there was the issue. Focusing too greatly on one aspect of your performance could cause deficits in the end result as a whole.
"My private instructors have told me, more than once, that when I give my stance too much attention, my casting suffers, and vice versa. Performance is not perfection, but mastery of your focus. Perhaps you could give it another go, but this time try to focus less on the casting and more evenly on the dance?" She shrugged. "If that doesn't work, at least I will be paying more attention so I can give better advice."
@Aaron Jones
"Things are never so bad they can't be made worse." -Elim Garak