Dance

Shayla's never learned how to dance.

Oh, she can hear the statements now, 'sure you can, you're just not giving yourself credit', 'what do you mean, you've never learned how to dance?'

Rephrase - Shayla's never learned how to dance.

Various facets have contributed. Mostly lack of opprotunity. Shayla always having been such an introvert also played a great part. Master, on the other hand, has been dancing almost as long as he can walk. Given that he's older than shayla is, that puts him about a lifetime ahead of her in this aspect of things.

She's always wanted to learn, though. So she was equally eager and petrified when Master declared March to be The Month Shayla Learns to Dance. So Master's got plans with this, many of which shayla does not even know of at this point. He always likes his surprises. And shayla, as kajira, will be happy with not knowing until he wishes otherwise.

But first shayla's got to learn how to move. Most of her life she's kept her motions restrained. That's not saying she's been sedentary, but her motions have always been minimized. She's tempted to use the word compact. The free-flowing, open motions of dance require effort for her, simply because they are so open. Outside the range that she's been used to all her life, it's as if her body freezes, having forgotten how to move past a given point. Today her Master took her through some motions, instructed her on a thing or two, then turned her loose in the living room. He wasn't expecting anything pretty, or even cohesive, simply for shayla to move her body, feet, and hands. Just to keep them moving.

So while he worked on repairing a friend's computer, shayla danced in the living room. The whole purpose of this was to just get her to move, to get her to become used to dancing, both in general and with him observing. Occasionally he'd pause in what he was doing, observe, offer a suggestion or two, demonstrate occasionally, then go back to what he was doing. At first she couldn't get all her parts to move. She'd start, & not be able to figure out what to do with her feet. Get her feet moving, & suddenly her arms and hands would freeze. After a time she was able to at least keep things moving. But still restrained, kept in that little perimeter she's always kept herself in.

So more encouragement followed. Master had her do some motions for the express purpose of trying to make him laugh. Just to get her to move outside of that little perimeter she was having trouble getting out of. He wasn't wanting to mock her, simply to push her past that range of motion she was stuck in. And somehow it started to work. Yes, she felt ridiculous; no, it wasn't pretty. Only the fact that Master's never mocked her in any way enabled her to continue along this tack and not flee. Looking back, it was comical in a way. And it's surprising that she's able to laugh at herself about it. Shayla tried, really, she did. At this stage it was all she could do to simply keep moving. Which was all Master was looking for in the first place.

Occasionally it was as if something would begin to happen, only to cease when shayla realized it. Likely, she's thinking too much about what she's doing. Another thing that shayla is learning to stop, this thinking too much. Because apparently with dancing it's a bad idea. Along with a number of other times.

So she'll keep at it, and take advantage of every opprotunity that her Master allows her to. And she's got an exceptional teacher to push her through things in him, as well.

shayla