Getting back into the groove of things. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Ginny Bellrose

June 10, 2015 9:55 PM

First Dance Club Post! by Ginny Bellrose

It was already a week into the new term and Ginny felt it was time to start recruiting for the Dance Club. This was her last year at Sonora and she wanted to make the club super successful in the hopes that someone would decide to take over the club after she was gone. The Dance Club was the only place where Ginny had felt like herself. More so, dance was the only time in her life where she felt like no one could hurt her. It was her own private moment that people couldn’t take away from her. That is why she wanted to be around others who enjoyed dancing too. She only hoped that other people felt the same way that she did.

After putting posters up all over the school (large with dancing figures and moving letters) a few days ago advising that the first Dance Club meeting would take place that coming Saturday, Ginny now found herself in the Mars Dance Room on the day of the meeting. The room was already set up to await the oncoming members of the club but she still had about a half hour before people were supposed to start to show up.

This year was a difficult year. She had her RATS exams. She had to say goodbye to her friends. She had to figure out her future. Ginny had no idea what she was going to. Maxwell was great, but they weren’t anything official. They hadn’t really even kissed. He had made it clear before he went off to University that he was likely to meet other people and see where it went with them, essentially telling her that she probably wasn’t good enough for him. Ginny had told him it was okay, but then had cried quietly in her room that evening.

It had taken her some time, as usually, but she realized that she wasn’t really crying over Maxwell. He was and will be her friend, but her feelings for him had never really went above that. They just felt like they had because he had paid attention to her when she needed it the most. She should have realized that some time ago. The feelings that she was always trying to swallow down for Adam were completely different than what she had felt for Maxwell. Maxwell was just something new. There was a chance that he would still marry her and for that, she was grateful. But if he chose to marry someone else, then Ginny would have to figure out what to do with herself after that. Her father would never allow her to work and she would never be able to live off the family land…

Ginny put the music on and slipped out of her shoes. She was wearing her black dance shorts and a pink dance top. This wasn’t something she normally wore around other people, but she didn’t care today. Today was about dancing. The song was ‘Lost’ by Anouk. It was slow and full of meaning for her. Of course, the person in her head that she was thinking about was someone whom she was not supposed to be thinking about as she needed to move on, but he was always who came to mind whether she wanted him to or not.

Her body moved with ease around the floor, following the flow of the music. She twisted and twirled, jostled her head around, gently guided her arms, raised her legs, did splits, and even dropped to the floor when the song became more intense, as she performed with the song. Her short hair was kept down, which gave the movements more of a chaos to them as it flung around her head.

It wasn’t a long song, but because of her movements, by the end of it, she was huffing. Of course, she realized after a moment of catching her breath that it was time to start the Dance Club and there was a good chance that some of her peers had seen her.

Feeling embarrassed, Ginny greeted those who were waiting at the side of the room. “Hello, sorry for that.” Ginny said while she waved her arms to have everyone join her and take the open seats. “For those who do not know me, I am Virginia Bellrose, but I go by Ginny. I’m a Seventh year, Crotalus Prefect. I started the Dance club in my Second year, I think? And everyone has been such great supporters for it that I hope after I graduate, it keeps on going.” Ginny gave a hopeful look to the younger students.

“So, the whole point of this club is to get together with other people who love dance. It doesn’t have to be any specific dance and you certainly don’t have to be good at it. It’s just about having fun and doing something that you love.” Ginny explained. “We are always open for learning new things or if you all just want to talk about new dance moves or favorite dancers or just have free dance hours, that’s totally fine too. Just shoot me out some ideas and we’ll go from there.”

Subthreads:

Lettuce dance. by Caelia Lucan

Getting back into the groove of things. by Liliana Bannister

Feeling a little awkward. by Adam Spencer

Looking ahead. by Julian Umland with Ginger Pierce, Ginny

6 Ginny Bellrose First Dance Club Post! 0 Ginny Bellrose 1 5

Caelia Lucan

June 12, 2015 11:42 PM

Lettuce dance. by Caelia Lucan

Her first year at Sonora, Caelia had only joined the Dance Club. It had been a lot of fun and was definitely on the list of things that Grandmother Viviane had approved, so it was a no brainer that she joined the club again that year. However, as she made the walk from the Crotalus common room to the MARS room in her most comfortable dress with matching shorts underneath, she wondered what else the school offered. She knew her brother was a part of the book club and some of his friends were in the library helper program, but somehow she didn’t see herself doing either of those things. She did want to get more involved, though. Dancing with Ginny and the other dancers in the club had been really fun but surely it couldn’t be the only activity her grandmother would allow her to do?

She was lost in thought as she approached the MARS room, forehead puckering as she thought hard about what she wanted to do. She had seen that in the yearbook there was a baking club and an archery club and while the latter might have given Grandmother Viviane a heart attack if she found out Caelia had joined it, she thought that perhaps to join the baking club wouldn’t be too bad. She would likely learn an assortment of different pastries which having a thorough understanding of couldn’t hurt her later on in life when it came time to host luncheons and teas, right? She nodded happily to herself, her blonde curls bouncing, and pulled on the doors to let her into the dance room.

Music poured out of the door and she watched, pink faced as the hostess of the dance club danced across the room in a very passionate manner. Caelia let the door close quickly and stepped back, embarrassed at having interrupted what was likely a very personal moment and instead of going back in, she waited in the music room, conversing with one of the portraits, poking her head out of the door every now and then, waiting for other students to arrive. When she was sure that she wasn’t the only student there for the club she bid goodbye to the man in the white powdered wig carrying a violin and stepped out to the dance room.

When she entered the dance room for the second time, her fellow club members were already in their seats and Caelia took one, crossing her ankles like she’d been taught a lady should, and placed her hands in her lap, her posture straight as she’d been instructed to keep it. “I’m Caelia Lucan,” she said when it came her turn to talk. “Second year, Crotalus. This year I think I would most like to learn dances and have free dance time.” If what Ginny meant when she said ‘free dance time’ was that she put on music and they all got to dance around however they liked, then Caelia was definitely down for that. That sort of dancing wasn’t one that Grandmother Viviane approved of, but it was one that Caelia loved to do and had commenced hiding in her room to do since they had moved into Grandmother Viviane’s house in Ekley.

“We should do a fundraiser to get colorful scarfs,” she continued. “To twirl with!” Twirling with colorful scarfs was probably her most favorite thing to do when she had private dance time in her room.

10 Caelia Lucan Lettuce dance. 307 Caelia Lucan 0 5

Liliana Bannister

June 16, 2015 12:54 AM

Getting back into the groove of things. by Liliana Bannister

When Liliana saw the sign up sheets for Dance Club she had been excited. Dancing was something that she had really loved when she was younger but something that had sort of fallen to the side in her life because her first year she had decided to stick it to her cousins and prove that even though she was a girl she could run with the big dogs and get on a Quidditch team. The result had been three lovely years of team building and one year of building a solid friendship with Atlas, but as a result she had neglected her dancing.

Her grandmother had not been pleased with Liliana’s position on the team, while she had no problem with other witches playing Quidditch—Liliana’s own aunt had played while in school, Grandmère was not a fan of her only granddaughter racing around a dirty field on a broomstick. Speaking of which, Liliana had yet to write the matriarch of the Rosenthal family to inform her of the recent promotion though she had written home and said that she had made prefect, an award that was sure to please everyone. However, by signing up for dance club Liliana hoped that when she news did eventually come out it would pacify the sharp woman.

The struggles her latest transfiguration assignment had been giving her meant that she was running late to the first club meeting of the year since she had promised herself not to get up from her desk until she had completed at least half of the assignment. Thanks to her daily morning runs around the Pitch, however, she was able to make it to the MARS room, taking any stairs on the way two at a time, to only be a couple minutes late rather than five minutes like she would have been had she walked.

When she arrived, her loose braid had started to become undone and her cheeks were pink from the brief sprint. Liliana tugged at her t-shirt to get some cool air on her warm skin and by the time it came her turn to share what she hoped to get out of the club her breathing had already come down to regular and gave everyone a smile. “Liliana Bannister,” she offered. Over the past five years her British accent had faded slowly from the daily interactions with Americans though it was still prevalent in many of her words. “Fifth year. I’m here ‘cause I like to move,” she grinned pleasantly. “I used to do ballet but then when I got here I kind of got into Quidditch and that sort of took over my life so I’d really like to get back into that though I have no opposition to a block of time where we just kind of do whatever it is the music tells us to.”

Speaking in such a poetic manner was not something normally accustomed to Liliana’s speech, but she thought she had heard someone somewhere use phrasing like that before and had thought it sounded nice. Besides, she never had occasion to talk about dancing, really, and who better to share such a cheesy sounding line with than a group of people who liked to dance, were at a dance club meeting, and perhaps even felt as though the phrase described their feelings towards the sport. To some degree that was even how Liliana herself felt about dancing—certainly when she was particularly stressed out she would play music in her dorm room and just kind of rock out in whatever manner she pleased.

10 Liliana Bannister Getting back into the groove of things. 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Adam Spencer

June 22, 2015 6:26 PM

Feeling a little awkward. by Adam Spencer

Ever since Adam had faced the possible fate of losing Ginny to another wizard, he had been raging inside with every possible emotion he did not know existed. He was a rather well-tempered lad, usually eager to see the positive aspect of things, but not any more. At least not when it came to Ginny and her blooming boyfriend. It had been a wave of despair, longing, anger, exasperation, and others all within the first week of returning to Sonora. He'd hardly had time to really deal with those feelings, however, as he was thrust into a world of leadership responsibilities.

What Adam really wanted to do was bury his head until his seventh year ended and he could move back to England and forget Ginny ever existed, but he knew he would never be able to do that. Ginny and Francesca were both incredibly important to him and he never wanted to forget the close friendship they'd once had. He was very sorry to see it dissipate so, but he didn't know what to do to resolve it. The thought of their friendship failing forever and the three of them going their separate ways after graduation with no interest in keeping in touch filled him with despair.

But, a true friend to the end, Adam showed up for Dance Club when he saw the poster. He was very tired from staying up late preparing for another meeting as Head Boy, but his accursed heart was beating excitement and dread into him at the thought of interacting with Ginny again. He didn't really recognise himself these days.

When he walked in, just a tad late, she was apologising for something and introduced herself. Adam quickened his pace and took a seat. He recognised Liliana, but the younger years were a little unfamiliar still. He turned his eyes over to Ginny again, wondering what it was about her that made her more attractive to him than Francesca or any of the other witches in their year. She was lovely, of course, but so was Francesca. She had dark eyes that were mesmerising and she dressed well.

Before he could reach any sort of conclusion, it was his turn to speak. "I'm Adam Spencer," he said, looking at everyone except Ginny, "Seventh year Pecari. I've only done ballroom my whole life except for some fun dances we've learnt in this club, so I'm open to any new ideas as well. American swing dancing would be loads of fun, I think." He turned his dark eyes to Ginny as he said this and suddenly he couldn't look away. "Maybe too difficult to learn for inexperienced dancers?"

40 Adam Spencer Feeling a little awkward. 257 Adam Spencer 0 5

Julian Umland

June 24, 2015 5:18 PM

Looking ahead. by Julian Umland

Joining the dance club had started out as an act of self-preservation, but Julian had kept it up despite a certain lack of natural grace even after the ball was just a memory. She felt better when she exercised and having a time for some vigorous physical activity set for her worked a lot better than just reminding herself of that fact and making herself get up and do it on her own. Having a schedule also, for some reason which likely wouldn’t hold much more water than a bracelet under examination and which she therefore hadn’t examined, made it seem less weird that she was doing something that was just for her own edification, since she highly doubted that any of the others particularly cared if she was here or not.

She smiled at Ginny, though, when the other seventh year stopped her solo routine and greeted the group. They had never been close – social differences, she supposed, which was a pity considering that she was the only one of Julian’s classmates who was likely to spend much time in the same country as her after graduation – but Julian thought of her as a friendly acquaintance. Most of the club fell into that category by now, really; it was hard to feel too formal around them when some of them had been regularly making fools of themselves trying new moves out in front of each other for years. When good manners crossed over into formality, it was, she thought, usually due to pride, and it was hard to have too much of that around people who’d seen her foot completely disregard her instructions to it in favor of hooking around her other ankle, resulting in her hopping around on one food and wobbling wildly until she could catch her balance again.

She did, though, have enough that she had improved the looks of her own exercise shorts and t-shirt a little since fifth year, going for more color and more flattering cuts, and had braided her hair instead of just tying it back in a ponytail. She doubted her old t-shirts were why her secondary goal for her first year in dance club – obtaining a date who wasn’t gay or twelve – hadn’t been achieved, candidates were few, far between, and usually pureblood and she had really been more comfortable with Charlie than with even remotely possibly interested boys anyway, but they probably hadn’t helped, either, and matters had progressed from that year until she now found it downright uncomfortable to look that sloppy in front of the others. It was all right when she was at home and sleeping or weeding the back garden, but in front of people, it was different. Looking like she was going to weed the back garden in front of people now felt like it meant that she either didn’t have much respect for her companions or, at best, didn’t have much respect for herself.

Julian smiled when a second year suggested a scarf-twirling fundraiser. The Pecari Keeper wanted to get back into ballet, and Adam Spencer wanted to learn swing dancing, but thought it might be too hard for beginners. Julian suspected he was right, but thought it was a shame. Then it was her turn. “Hi, I’m Julian,” she said. “Umland. Seventh year Teppenpaw. I like learning the different kinds of dances – the fast ones are fun, but it takes me forever to learn them.” She looked toward those who had spoken before her for a second and added, “Adam and – Caelia? – gave me an idea – we might have a theme party or something, invite people who aren’t usually part of the club so they can see it, see if that helps keep things going when, you know, next year.” When we’re all gone sounded vaguely like she and the other seventh years were going to die or cease to exist, which wasn’t the case. “Pick some period dances and dress up a bit, maybe – I don’t know, I just thought of it so I don’t know about logistics.” She made herself shut up and look toward the next person before she really rambled her way into a hole in the ground.

16 Julian Umland Looking ahead. 254 Julian Umland 0 5

Ginger Pierce

July 02, 2015 11:32 AM

Oh! That's my cue! by Ginger Pierce

Ginger had not joined any clubs last year. That was partly because she had been a first year and was using the year to get acclimated to her classes, her roommates and classmates, the school as a whole, being a Quidditch player, and any number of other things that were completely different from her life as a California Pierce. It was also partly because she hadn't known what clubs Annabelle and Annette Pierce were in and she was, quite frankly, just a little bit scared of her New Hampshire cousins - not because they had ever done anything to her, but just because they were *From the New Hampshire Branch*. Now they were graduated, though, and she was acclimmated, so here she was at the first meeting of the dancing club.

She clapped enthusiastically when the dance leader finished up her opening demo (or so Ginger assumed it to be since she'd come in after it started and missed any introduction that had accompanied it) and took one of the seats. Listening to all the good ideas her fellow club members had, Ginger tried to come up with something of her own.

Being a Teppenpaw, she danced a jig every day of her Sonora life, and that was fun, and so were the reels her family did sometimes, and formal medieval dancing wasn't too far off ballroom, she guessed, but she wasn't sure other people would be interested in such old styles.

Well, not until the older girl next to her made her suggestion and Ginger's eyes opened wide with surprise and excitement. "Oh, oh!" she exclaimed, barely waiting for Julian Umland to pass the discussion on to her. "That's a great idea! I'm Ginger Pierce, second year Tepenpaw, and I know all kinds of period dances! Actually, I only know period dances, so I wouldn't mind learning the kinds people use now, but if you all want to learn formal Elizabethan dances or lively reels for a dance party, I can totally teach those to everybody! My mom can probably lend us period costumes, too! All those actors at the Rennfaire last year were my family so we've got loads of costumes available." She looked over at Caelia and added, "Scarves, too. We don't use any of that much in the winter."

1 Ginger Pierce Oh! That's my cue! 302 Ginger Pierce 0 5

Ginny

July 07, 2015 10:08 PM

I like where this is going. by Ginny

Ginny gave a polite smile of hello when Caelia introduced herself to everyone. Ginny loved it when people came back the following year to her club. It meant that they really enjoyed themselves the year before. Or, they just really liked dancing, but Ginny preferred to believe that they enjoyed the club as a whole. If they kept coming back due to all of them having something in common and having fun with it, then it would mean that someone would step up next year and keep the club going.

She gave a thoughtful look when Caelia suggested doing a fundraiser in order to obtain some colorful scarves. She never really thought about collecting money from the rest of the student body, but if her club members wanted additional costumes or assets and the school wasn’t already providing them, it was something that they would have to look into.

Ginny was actually quite surprised to hear that Liliana had been into Ballet. She knew the younger girl was in Dance Club in previous terms, but she never connected her to Ballet. It was probably because of how hard she played Quidditch. Ginny went to all the games in order to support her friends. Even when the three of them hadn’t been talking to each other, Ginny had still gone to support them (quietly) from the sidelines. Ginny would always support her friends even when they were fighting.

Speaking of friends, Ginny’s green eyes flickered over to Adam as he began to speak. She was annoyed with herself for allowing her mind to think about him while she danced. She had done so well over the summer by forgetting about her feelings, but they always came roaring back whenever she was around him and it was completely unfair. He had already made it clear how he felt about her and she was only letting herself down if she kept this up.

When Adam locked eyes with her while he spoke of swing dancing, Ginny felt suddenly embarrassed and quickly looked down at the floor. She had no idea why she did that, she hadn’t been doing anything wrong. He had been speaking so it wasn’t weird for her to be looking at him and yet, here she was feeling embarrassed and like she had been caught doing something wrong.

Ginny smiled happily when Julian came forward with her ideas. Parties were a great idea, even if they didn’t have to raise money or anything like that. Any reason to not have to think about the RATS exams for a little bit of time (and, if she were being serious, spending time with Adam in a social atmosphere) would be such a relief and a happy occasion.

Before Ginny could comment on the idea that Julian presented, a new member exclaimed her agreement to it. Ginny smiled widely to the girl and suppressed a giggle. The amount of excitement this Teppenpaw oozed was refreshing and adorable. “Ginger, it is a pleasure to have you here today and you definitely solved any issues we might have had regarding both Caelia’s issue and Julian’s idea.” Ginny said.

“Firstly, Julian, I love the idea. Parties are definitely fun and we should have done them before. So, I want everyone to think on where to have it, when to have, what sort of dance we should do, etcetera.” Ginny said to the group as a whole. “Secondly, Adam, I like the idea of the swing dancing. I don’t actually know it, but I think I can find some books on it or some painting in the school who knows how to do it. Maybe we can partner up later to test it out.” Ginny suggested.

“I really like this brainstorming session. Let’s keep it going.”

6 Ginny I like where this is going. 0 Ginny 0 5