The Dance Saga- Part 2

Since this is part two, that means you must read part one to understand what is going on (I hope you already knew that but just in case). Soo if you've read part one read on....

On only the first day at this newest dance school I was already ticked off. Why? I had visited the place a few days earlier and the main teacher said I had to start off in a lower level than I had wanted to because she said I didn't have the correct posture she wanted her students to have at the upper levels. My knee-jerk reaction was to yell, "huh? what the heck are you talking about? I'm being held back because of posture? My other dance teachers were pretty dang good and they didn't say anything about that!" I managed to control myself, however, and not say anything. After all maybe my posture was really horrible. Anyways I was determined to prove this teacher wrong and move up to the higher levels as fast as I could.

During my first lesson I quickly discovered the first of my two new teachers was not to be trifled with. She may not have looked very imposing (she was as skinny as a stick) but she had rather frightening eyes that you did not want fixed on you and her voice was shrill and startling. When she called out (rather harshly) one poor girl for saying one whispered word to another classmate, I was determined never to open my mouth in this class if I could help it. Not only did she yell at you, she also nitpicked. Every single little thing you did she noticed it. Pretty soon, whenever she started looking my way I wished I could fade into the wallpaper. She also kept reminding us how important it was to do enough work to move up to the next level and subtly implied that if you didn't make it you were more or less a failure. I wanted to yell, "So we're pretty much nothing but losers if we don't achieve the next level? Thanks for the confidence boost!" However, I decided that keeping my big mouth shut was the smartest thing to do at this point. All I knew was that nobody in this studio was in it for fun. They all wanted to be professionals, something that I definitely didn't want to be. I just did it for pure enjoyment. But apparently no one in this studio knew the meaning of the words "fun", "enjoyable", and "nice".

Since I didn't dare talk in my first class, I didn't really get to know too many of the other students very well. However, in my next class the teacher was more relaxed (no one could have anything on my first teacher in the strict and cruel department) so I got to know one girl who was also semi-new to the school. We talked about a few random topics and then she asked, "So are you planning to be a professional dancer? That's what I want to do." I smiled politely and said, "No I'm just in it for fun." She looked at me as if I said I was in it to beat up senior citizens. She recovered quickly however and we moved on to more pleasant topics. Like how painful braces were. Much more pleasant....

A few weeks later all the other students were doing a dress rehearsal for a performance of The Hobbit that I had missed out on due to enrolling late in the year. This meant that yours truly was stuck with a 2-hour private lesson with my second teacher. Fun right? Not. I'm not really an attention seeking person and the last thing I wanted was to have her eagle-eyeing me and no one else all through class. I'm just glad it wasn't with my first teacher though. I'm not sure I'd be alive to tell the experience.....Anyways the private lesson went better than I thought, but once when I was doing some turns she stopped me. I was hoping she was going to say how much improved they were, but instead she said, "Did you know you have a funny habit of sticking your tongue out while you're concentrating?" I had a strange urge to punch her in the face, but I smiled and said, "No I sure didn't know that." They weren't much for compliments in this place...

Since I had enough to worry about in class, it would have been nice to know that my family (who had to stay the whole time due to distance constraints) was staying out of trouble. ha I should have known...During one of my classes (I found out what exactly happened later from my brother) my brothers got restless and decided they wanted to explore around a bit. Soon they found an interesting looking courtyard, and went in shutting the door behind them. After they were in there for a little while they got bored, and decided to go back to the main studio. When the older of the two tried the door, he discovered that it wouldn't open. He tried it again, twisting it this way and that. It wouldn't budge. "Uh, bro," he muttered to the younger of the two. "I think we're locked in." Of course this sent the younger one into a royal panic while the poor older one desperately tried to think of ways to get out before they starved to death or died of dehydration or something. After he tried every possible way to get out, he noticed a window to one side of the courtyard. When he looked in he saw a pottery class in session, and eagerly banged on the window to get their attention. No one answered. He banged again. This time he heard the teacher say, "Is everyone all right back there?" Still no one noticed. By this time he was so mad he almost punched the window out himself, but he didn't which was a good thing since we didn't really need to be sued at this point.

Finally the boys gave up and decided that sooner or later their father would wonder where they were and come looking for them. A few minutes later they finally saw him coming down the hall eating a bag of skittles. "Hi, guys," he said, opening the door and striding in. "Nooo, Dad!!" shrieked the boys. "We're locked-" it was too late. Dad had slammed the door behind him. So now all three very unhappy, ticked off, furious, guys were trapped in the courtyard. Dad tried calling Mom, but her cell phone was off. While he fumed about that the boys tried attracting the attention of the pottery class again, but to no avail. Dad, who had had about enough tomfoolery for the day and was probably wishing he had never come to this accursed placed, walked up to the window and banged on it so loudly that I'm sure everyone was quite terrified. It worked though. The teacher sent someone around to unlock the door, and they were finally free. They could probably sue if they wanted to, but heck it would be too much trouble.

To be continued (once again).....