Closed Practice Doesn't Always Make Perfect| PV Linnéa Seacloud

The first few weeks of school had been tough. Never mind that Linnéa was studious, and did make sure to get top grades in her classes; it was just a lot of changes in a short amount of time. Deadlines in multiple classes, about subjects she had no previous knowledge in. She needed a break, and decided that some dance practice would be the perfect way to get that. There was a rehearsal room in the castle that was mostly left empty except for during club meetings, from what she'd gathered- it was the perfect room to use for her extracurricular activities.

Linnéa had checked the schedule to make sure she wouldn't be interrupting any meeting, so she was surprised to find that she was not alone when she arrived. Madisyn, a first year slytherin that she knew from drama club, was already there in her dance outfit. She was sitting on the floor when Lin peaked her head inside, assumedly taking a break.

"Oh, I didn't think anyone would be in here." She said with a smile, before entering the room and closing the door behind her. She quite liked the girl. They had similar interest, and Madisyn was nice, so she didn't think she'd mind if they shared the rehearsal room. Lin sat down on the floor to put on her ballet slippers and warmup gear. "I didn't know you danced ballet as well. Don't stop on my behalf." She encouraged her to continue, curious to see what the other girl had been dancing before she arrived.

@Madisyn Jones

"Sorry," Madisyn said. She honestly didn't think anyone would even come into the rehearsal room other than to attend meetings. "I figured everyone would be in the courtyard for their break."
Madisyn stood off and lightly dusted herself off, debating whether she should keep dancing or pack up and leave. She ultimately decided to keep dancing. Nothing to be embarrassed about, right?
She started from the beginning. Piqué turn into an arabesque, grandé jette, and a tilt that she had spent months trying to perfect. Now for the part she was nervous about. Pirouette, pencil turn pencil turn, fouette, fouette and... she fell. Again. She knew she was going to mess it up. It had been months since she had even done the dance, let alone five fouettes in a row to a knee drop.
She sighed. How was she ever going to do it. She was never gonna get it and she was sure of it. The only reason she could do it in the first place was because she spent months having three hour long privates with her dance teachers to get it right, and she spent twelve hours in the studio a day. At least, she used to.
"I haven't done that in months," Madisyn said, excusing her fall. "I used to spend hours in a dance studio everyday until I got it perfect, but now I spend my time doing homework."
Linnéa nodded in understanding. Madisyn knew everyone had a lot of homework, so it wasn't really much of an excuse, but it would suffice.
"The dance was called Dream on a Star." Madisyn told her. Maybe if Madisyn kept dreaming on a star, she would get it right.
@Linnéa Seacloud

"Most of them are. Except for us apparently." Linnéa grinned, pushing herself up to stand by the barre and warm up. It was a little bit too cold outside, so she prefered to stay in. Grabbing the barre and doing a few pliés and tendu's, she had a good view of Madisyn practising her choreography in the center. Her legs and arms worked mindlessly, as Lin's gaze was glued to the slytherin girl doing her combination.

Her arabesque and grand jeté was pretty solid, she noted in awe. And it continued to look good until she got through a few fouettes, then she stumbled and fell to the floor. Up until that point, and honestly even after, Linnéa was impressed. Tripping was just a natural part of practising that she knew all too well. Madi didn't have to apologize, but she knew what that was like too. Linnéa was also notoriously famous for apologizing for her failures, or things she just didn't think she'd done well enough. Most of it was just in her head.

Linnéa paused her warm up and nodded understandingly. Homework was tough. And the choreo even more so. "Aw, don't worry about it. It- you- looked great! The combination did look pretty advanced as it is. I'm still trying to work on my turns in pointe shoes." Madi had clearly progressed a bit further than she had in that regard. "I've never heard of it before, was it an independant ballet?"

@Madisyn Jones

"Yeah, it was. It was more of a lyrical but it had a lot of ballet technique." Mady explained, slowly lowering herself into her middle split. Maybe stretching would help.
As Mady stretched, Linnèa did some turns, and Madisyn noticed they were pretty good. Linnèa was graceful, and she came out of the turns easily.
"You're really good at that." Mady said, nodding towards Linnèa.
Mady got up, starting her routine again, when she got to the part with the turns, she was much better at them, but still bobbly.
She sighed. She knew she couldn't always do everythingperfect, but she wished she could just get it right.
She plied to prep for her turns, and began turning. One...two...three...four...five.. and knee drop... nope. She fell, again. She sighed. She was so frustrated. What was it going to take for her to do it right? She knew she could do it, because she had already done it-in front of a thousand people! But when she was in front of one, potential friend, she embarrassed herself? It was pretty embarrassing to not be able to do something you used to be able to do. But that was just a part of life. Even though Madisyn didn't like it, she wasn't perfect, but she knew that nobody was perfect.

"It looks really cool." Linnéa said genuinely, thinking that Madisyn was a talented dancer. While Lin herself was good, she was too much of a perfectionist to admit it to herself when she'd done a good job. It was much easier to see the good in others instead. After warming up by the barre, she decided to practice on her own turns in pointe shoes, not minding if the slytherin girl watched. She'd done it a thousand times before, but was still feeling slightly wobbly going from demi to point. Not to mention, these shoes were new and rock hard, not having had the change to break them in properly yet.

Linnéa did a few, focusing on herself in the mirror and snapping her head around after the turn to regain her balance. Most of them turned out alright. Though she could always be better. When Madisyn spoke, Linnéa glanced at her inside the mirror with a smile. "Thanks," then resumed to try again. Maybe because she was a bit self-aware that the other girl was watching her so closely, the turn turned out to be the worst one yet, even if she managed to save the landing.

"Ugh, these floors are a bit slippery, aren't they?" Lin commented, hands on her waist as she caught her breath. Both of them had tripped a bit, so many she could relate. More slippery than the floors in her old studio, but of course she knew the floors shouldn't matter that much in her technique. Anyway, she sat down and splayed out her legs on the floor, taking a break while Madi went up to try her routine again. It went better this time, but the part after the fouette turns were clearly challenging, since that's where she failed again.

"It looked better this time!" Linnéa encouraged her, even if Madisyn didn't seem to completely agree. "Seems like we're both bit of perfectionists, huh?" She teased. At least she was. For better and worse.

@Madisyn Jones

[quote]"Thanks." Madi replied to Linnea, who was now on the floor stretching.
Madi decided to try one of the other complicated moves from her dance. Well, not complicated for her. She had been the best at a develope tilt at her studio.
She stood up, and grabbed one of the bars, stretching by swinging her foot back and forth e until she felt ready.
She made her way to the center of the room, and began the develope tilt. She had nailed it, and her leg went higher than it usually did. At least she could still do something.
"At my old studio, my teacher used to tell me that you're only as good as your last performance. She actually said a lot of things, but that's one that sticks out to me." Madi blurted, hoping to spark up a conversation about old studios. While waiting for Linnea to reply, Madisyn did another develope tilt. She nailed it again. She realized that just because she hadn't gotten that turn sequence back, she was still a good dancer, and could do things that a lot of other dancers can't. If she wanted to, she could randomly throw an aerial, or even do fifty pirouettes in a row. SHe realized she was good, and that she just needed practice.

"I guess it makes sense... But what about people who hadn't done a performance yet? What would your old teacher say about those?" Linnéa wondered, remembering at her old studio that most of the students just came to class, but not nearly as many dared to perform on stage. Many of them had been talented though. Suppose it didn't really matter, but it got her young brain spinning. Adults said weird stuff sometimes.

Madisyn did a perfect developpé tilt and Linnéa clapped her hands. That was really good!

"Do you think the drama club, or dance club will put together a show sometime? It would be really fun to participate. I was a snowflake in the nutcracker one year, but I've always dreamed of doing a cool solo. Giselle would be really awesome." She could already see it in front of her, dancing in the pretty peasant dress, contrary to the name might suggest, with her feet perfectly arched in her pointe shoes, and with high extensions. Of course, in her head she looked much better than her current skills. Not a step wrong. But she still had time to practise if there would ever be a show like that.

Wow, she really enjoyed hanging out with Madisyn, Lin thought and instincively smiled at the girl. "We should totally do something sometime!" That wasn't necessarily studying or accidentally practising dance together.

@{Madisyn Jones}

She looked at Linnea curiously when she asked that question.
"Well," Madisyn said, plopping herself onto the floor next to the girl. "Everybody performed in at least one dance. We went to a different dance competition each week, and- I know it sounds crazy- but we did new routines. Every week."
Madisyn looked over at Linnea, trying to gauge her response, but, like Madisyn, Linnea wasn't an open book.
"Oh, that's a lot," Linnea replied, her eyes growing wide. "That's a lot of choreography."
Madisyn nodded. She loved her old dance studio, but would never go back. There was a lot of drama, and people arguing. All she wanted to do was dance. Not the arguing. She shuddered at the memories.
"Yeah. But my dream back then was to be a professional dancer, so I trained every day." Madisyn shrugged, doing a middle split. Madisyn could go pretty far in her middle split, but never bragged about it.
"We should totally hang out some time!" Linnea blurted.
"Oh, yeah totally. You seem really cool. And you're a dancer like me, so you get it." Madisyn agreed.
They started chatting about other things. Homework, when they would hang out. Anything other than dance. And for once, Madisyn was happy dance wasn't the main topic.

A new dance routine every week, performed at a competition no less, sounded like a lot of fucking work. Lin was no stranger to a full schedule, but on top of everything else she was doing, she wasn't sure she would manage that. "Oh, that's a lot," she said, expression exhausted at the mere thought. "That's a lot of choreography. But no wonder you're so good now!" Still, it sounded like it might have been too high demands and expectations for a kid. Maybe it was worth it to someone whose goal was to become a professional dancer. That was not Lin- I mean, of course she dreamt of dancing ballet on a big stage, perhaps even professionally, but she knew how difficult it was to succeed. At least at a big and prestigeous company.

"You still could, probably. If you want to. I don't know about lyrical, but I know modern dancers can succeed professionally at an older age, compared to ballet where you retire at 30." In other words, there wasn't much time for other things if you wanted to make it. "It's fine though. For me, any kind of dance would be nice, if not ballet. I'm also into the idea for figure skating professionally..." Which also was a bit of an age sport, but at least retirement didn't come so early.

The two girls talked some more about homework and classes, both of which was kicking her ass, though she did manage to get good grades. She was happy when Madisyn said that she would love to hang out. They both 'got it', because they were both dancers. Linnéa thought she understood what she meant by that. Both of them must have a lot of expectations on themselves, not just from other people.

"... Don't tell anyone, but I bought a fake permission slip to hogsmeade. Do you have one? Maybe we could sneak out sometime." That was just one idea, otherwise they would find something else. "I heard there's a nice candy shop there."