Partnering
Hey babe, let's go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on!
James would have slept through half of the day if his upstairs neighbour hadn't started shouting things out the window like a maniac. He woke up at around 1PM to plenty of swear words, which sort of bothered him. James was not one to cuss often, so he did the only acceptable thing possible: putting on a robe and a pair of slippers and knocking hard on his neighbours door, until he stopped what he was doing to answer.
“Hey man! Sorry to bother you, drunk aintcha? I've got this really sexy girl over and she's in my bed sleeping like a sweet little baby! If you keep shouting like that I will be calling the police for disturbing public peace.” He said, giving the man his nicest smile.
“Orrgiht…” the old dude said, sort of embarrassed.
James went back to his flat, feeling great about what he had just done. For a while Sirius and Remus lived in the weirdest place, people always disturbing everyone at any given time. During those days Prongs created a list of embarrassing situations that would make people stop. Since he wanted his good mood to last, James figured he would eat his favourite breakfast. He made some tea, just plain tea sweetened with honey, not sugar. Prongs considered that sugar in tea was a crime that urgently needed to be punished, same for milk. He ate some toast, the weird four flavours on bread that Remus came up with at some point in school during lunch. He never wanted to admit this but it was a masterpiece, absolutely delicious. He took his time, enjoying each bite of his food.
Prongs figured that given the plenty of hours he will be spending at ballet today, starting with 4PM, it would be best if he did not work at all, and rather spend the rest of his time until then by making himself some lunch, packed up in a nice container for later. He cooked some rice, added a bit of vegetables (which he wasn't a fan of) and pan fried some frozen nuggets to heat them up a little. He placed them all nicely in a box and drizzled some ketchup on top, just enough to not get his hands dirty whenever he eats.
Today James wanted to wear something cute and effortless, he landed on a plain white baggy t- shirt that he used to wear back in his gym-obsessed days and a pair of shorts from Adidas that he absolutely swore by. He left his flat somewhere around 3:45, a pretty reasonable time. He arrived just on time, going into the room Regulus showed him last time they passed by. Inside he was already waiting, doing a bit of stretching.
James was quite shocked at the sight of how Regulus was dressed today, or more specifically how he wasn't dressed. No t-shirt, no long pants like he would normally wear, nothing besides a suspiciously short pair of tight leggings and his flats. Regulus soon noticed James coming in, he turned around giving him a smile:
“Hey there!! I've got to rehearse my variation a few more times, warm up or something while I finish” he said while pointing to a spot where James could set down his things. “Can you start the music for me?” Regulus handed the phone to James.
He did as he asked, taking a seat somewhere to watch him and starting his music once Regulus said he was ready. Regulus ran from one side of the room to the other, jumping and pointing a bit before jumping again, doing a ton of moves James did not recognise. He kept running from corner to corner, looking devastated, then Regulus began turning, jumping up and falling all the way down, rolling on the floor and crying. As the variation continued, he sort of kept doing the same things, only better and better. Turning more aggressively than falling on the floor and crying, only to get up again to jump some more. Overall it was a devastating part, and although James did not recognise the variation Regulus danced, he did really enjoy it.
When Regulus finished dancing he laid flat on the floor, lifting his legs up and breathing heavily.
“I fucking hate this role. We’ll be doing Romeo and Juliet soon. This part is so hard, I hate having to fall like that on the floor all the time, it exhausts me to my core too. And when I do those jumps I can barely turn enough, I've been working on them for weeks. I hate this” he said gasping for air, giving James a defeated look.
“Oh! So that's the variation! You did good though, I could really feel what you were trying to express.” James said, trying his best to comfort Regulus.
“Your eye is not trained enough to spot mistakes just yet, speaking of, let's start teaching you. Take your shirt off.” he said.
“What?”
“I won't let any mistake slide James, shirt off I need to see everything.” Regulus kept his face serious, not moving a muscle. It was sort of intimidating so James just obeyed, not having a choice.
“Do you want to do a short barre before we start just to warm up? I can just make up a few harder exercises on the spot, we'll skip a few.”
“Okay, sure.” James said, not knowing exactly what he was supposed to do.
“Hm, okay plie , same thing from class. I'll do it with you,I like plie. C’mon.” Regulus showed him where to sit and placed himself in front of James, so he could follow along if he needed to. Then he played the music. “Shoulders down when you port de bras James, okay pretty nice. Now, plie.” Regulus said while following his hand around with his head, looking at his palm. “Good, plie again now, don't lift your heels” James glanced down at Regulus’ feet, trying to remember little details for him to correct later.
“How can you even tell what i'm doing wrong, you're in front of me.” he asked during the grand plie.
“Focus, James. I just know.” Regulus answered calmly, looking sort of annoyed. “Now second position, keep your weight stable, don't drift away from the barre.”
Eventually they finished plie, it was sort of awkward, looking at the mirrors in big empty room with only the two of them dancing.
“Okay now, let's do rond. I won't do it, I want to watch you. Preparation from fifth then eight ronds, leg up, passe, leg up again in the back then eight ronds from the back. Close legs in fifth then cambre front, cambre back and penche. Got it?” He practically rapped the combination. James understood it fairly well until the last move, which he never heard of before.
“What's a penche?”he asked.
“Oh right I never told you the name before! Look, you just go up in arabesque then lean forward like this.” Regulus demonstrated, his back leg going up forming a perfect 180 degree angle.
“Okay sure, looks pretty silly.” he said while Regulus started the music.
James did the preparation, letting Regulus come close and touch his hips while he did the ronds, making sure he wouldn't move them. While he lifted his legs up Regulus helped him turnout, showing him better ways to make it easier to hold them up.
“Remind me to correct something after you finish this one, now, cambre front.” Regulus said while James bent over, keeping his knees perfectly straight while trying not to react to the insane pain in his hamstrings. Just then Regulus tapped his back, pushing his head even closer to his knees.
“Shit.” James was in pain. “Hurts like crazy dude.” he said while leaning backwards.
“Yeah, tell me about it. Don't move your weight when you cambre in the back.” he said while touching James’ lower abdomen to move his hips slightly.
Then, it was time for the penche, which James hated. He lifted his leg up in arabesque, then leaned forward, letting his leg lift up a little. Sadly, he was not flexible enough to lift it anywhere near how high Regulus had, so he just stood there looking silly. Regulus touched his leg, bringing it a bit higher, clicking his tongue to show he wasn't pleased at all. After the exercise finished Regulus began showing James the correction he had in mind earlier.
“Okay, when I say shoulders down, how do you do it?” Regulus asked, looking at James’ back as he lowered his shoulders. “You're sinking in your chest, you have to bring your shoulders back slightly, to sort of use your back to its full potential.” he said, pulling James by his shoulders to show him how he's supposed to properly hold them, tracing around his bones with his fingers. “Got it?”
“Yeah! Thanks, I'll try.” James said while looking at himself in the mirror to make sure to remember what Regulus said.
“Okay enough barre you will get warmer later, now lets do some sautes, they're basically just tiny jumps.” Regulus said while doing a few in first position to show James what he meant. “Do 16 in first, 16 in second, then 32 changement, that's when you switch your legs in the air in fifth position, right leg in the front then left leg. This is a lot of jumping so try to push through, it will be hard.” Regulus played the music and began jumping along with James, looking at him in the mirror.
The first 16 jumps in first were easy enough, for second position he started to get a bit tired, but he figured he would get used to it. Halfway through the 32 changements he was already dying, his muscles burning up. James could barely lift up a few centimeters from the floor.
“C’mon pull through this is easy stuff” Regulus grinned at him, still jumping as high as he did when he started.
As soon as the exercise ended James was fully out of breath, shaking his legs desperately to get his calves to stop burning like crazy.
“You are so evil” James said, panting “you're lucky I still try my best.”
“I mean, you did alright for the first time. There's still a few things to work on. How's your flexibility work going? Your penche didn't look great so I'm assuming you didn't get your splits yet?” Regulus asked, eyeing James closely.
“Yeah, I didn't.” he replied, sort of embarrassed.
“Perfect! I'll rehearse my variation again. Meanwhile, you take this chair and put your right leg up on it. No hands to hold yourself, just push through while I dance.” Regulus said while grabbing a black chair from the corner of the room and bringing it to James.
“Wait, I need to do what? Sorry?” He was super confused.
Instead of explaining, Regulus decided to show off, sitting in the splits with his right leg up, fully touching the floor. It was an insane sight. Regulus looked James in the eyes, dead serious, standing back up and inviting him to it.
“But like, what is the point if I don't even have the regular splits yet?” James hesitated…
“Dunno, my teacher made us do this when I was little so you have to do it too. C'mon already I want to arrange your hips before I start so you don't injure yourself.”
James sat down, in horrible pain. At first he just tried to use his hands for support but his hamstring hurt either way and Regulus said he's not allowed, so James accepted his fate and sat in incredible pain until Regulus finished dancing. Two minutes after (the longest minutes ever) Regulus rushed to drink some water and he allowed James a break too.
While checking his phone on instinct he saw two missed calls from Sirius. He shot Regulus a glance, who noticed something was wrong and decided to tell him he had to call Padfoot.
“Shit, Sirius called me twice now, mind if I answer?” he asked, not wanting to make Regulus uncomfortable.
“Yeah go ahead.”
James called Sirius, waiting for him to pick up.
“Prongs that the hell took you so long to answer? Look, Moony couldn't wait so we came back today, anyway, why aren't you at your flat? I want us to talk. I have so many things to tell you! When are you coming back?”
“Got some work stuff, couldn't answer. Anyway,what's this about? I don't want you to do anything impulsive.” James said while pacing around the room, looking at Regulus, he was stretching trying to give off an unbothered impression but it was clear he wanted to listen. “Oh and I finish ballet at 8, won't be home until then.”
“Okay good im picking you up after and we’re going for drinks, no excuses.”
“Well, sure I guess. Whatever you want” James said.
“Okay okay, got to go now Remus wants us to find a place to get drinks sometime this week. See ya!” Sirius hung up hastily.
“Okay done. Sirius just wanted to tell me he will be picking me up and all” James gave Regulus a smile.
“Right. If that's all, let's get back to our stuff” Regulus smiled, turning around and signaling James to follow. “Okay, let's work on your pirouettes. We came to the conclusion that you're naturally good at turning not too long ago, so, let's see what you can do. Starting in fifth with your right leg forward you will plie, leg up then put it in the back and close fourth position. Now, you turn to the right and close the leg in the back, same thing over again and turn to the left. Push for as many turns as possible, I will tell you when to stop, got it?” Regulus said while circling around James to show him exactly how to place his feet and hands before turning.
“Sure!”
James did as Regulus asked, trying his best to remember every correction , then it was time to actually do the turn.
“And one, now up” Regulus said while James went up on demi-pointe to try turning to the right, landing a decent double. “Good, try to close fifth tighter after you land, now let's see how you can handle turning to the left.” Regulus took a few steps back and let James do his thing, he landed a triple.
“Left felt a bit better” he said while doing the preparation again.
“Yeah I noticed, try a few more and I'll correct a few things after.”
And James did. He turned three more times for each side, doing decent triples and doubles.
“Okay now, when you turn you have to be really careful about your foot not turning in. When you start the turn the leg that you balance on sort of closes instead of remaining turned-out like when you did the preparation. And also your turnout is pretty bad in general. You need to work on that a lot, though mostly it's all about time and practice.” Regulus was gesticulating with his hands, trying to make James understand what he was doing wrong. “Also, you tend to lift your right shoulder a bit, I can't figure out why. Try to put a bit more pressure on it.”
James just watched in silence and rushed to do a turn afterwards.
“That's a bit better, good. Now the variation I showed you has quite a lot of kneeling down, except when you're supposed to kneel you actually go in sort of a lunge. Strength-wise I'm sure you'll be able to handle it, your quads look pretty strong, but it'll be quite the impact on your tendons. Going from a high jump in the air to a deep lunge takes quite a bit of flexibility. Look try one.” Regulus said while showing James what to do. He spun in the air (reaching an insane high with his jump too!) Then he kneeled down, his back leg nearly fully touching the floor. “It's like, even though your front leg is bent, the one in the back should touch the ground almost entirely. And you need to be able to do this on both legs, which means working on your left splits just as much as you work on your right ones.”
“Okay sure, will do. Anything else you wanted to show me?”
“No, I don't think so. Overall the variation has a bunch of turns and these sort of lunges. You can take a break while I rehearse a bit more and if you want I can show you some other terminology after.” Regulus said.
James nodded his head and went to grab his lunchbox. He offered Regulus some but he politely declined, so James just sat down and ate a bit (less than usual) while gazing at Regulus’ dancing. He just sort of flew, whenever he opened his legs in a jump not only did he catch insane height but his flexibility was incredible. His facial expressions too, James was convinced Regulus could embody basically every single character.
After a bit of time James was called in center again, around 5PM.
“Okay, we've got one more hour on our hands, do you want to learn something new or work on a few things? I was thinking about correcting your arabesque.” Regulus asked, holding his hands on his hips being fully out of breath from how much he danced just now.
“Let's do that then, I'd rather do a few things correctly for now.” James assured him.
“Good. Then turn to the mirror. I wont have you do it next to the barre because I want you to see yourself from afar, it's pretty important. Here, take my hand and demi pointe in fifth.” Regulus said, holding out his hand for James to take.
Prongs did as he asked, a bit awkwardly at that.
“Now, develope and hold your other arm to the side.” Regulus was making sure James wouldn't fall, having to grip his hand a little tighter. “Okay now look at yourself in the mirror. In an attempt to lift your back leg higher you sort of arch your back. It's like instead of bringing the leg to yourself you bring yourself to the leg. You have to keep your back straight, and if you're really feeling hopeless just lean forward a bit, just enough to not lose balance.” Regulus said while touching Prongs’ chest, to have him adjust everything. “Yes good, now see your back foot? Its turned in-”
Just then someone interrupted them, entering the room. James tried to ignore it, staying up in arabesque since Regulus did not draw his hand away. Just then, he spoke:
“Sorry Severus, I'm in this room on Fridays. The one down the hall is free if you want to take it.” Regulus said in a harsh tone.
“My my and who might that be hm?” James tried not to twitch at those words, knowing that the conversation is shifting towards him “Got yourself a boyfriend Reggie? Dancing together, how intimate!” the man mocked.
“That's none of your business, and I'd appreciate you not calling me that. Stop wasting my time now.” Regulus responded, not moving a muscle, still holding James’ hand as if to show he wasn’t bothered.
James tried not to lower his leg while balancing, his calves were burning up.
“Your arabesque’s rubbish.” Severus said, just before leaving and slamming the door behind him.
“Sorry about that! You can lower your leg now you did good.” Regulus said. “This dude, he joined our company a few months ago, during nutcracker season. He’s been hating me ever since, spreading rumours and shit. Everyone thinks he's trying to get the director to replace me with well..him. He’s got no friends around here.”
“It's alright, people are mean sometimes. Don't let him get in your head I guess” James said while trying to avoid eye contact, given how awkward things were.
For a short while they stayed in silence while James tried to catch his breath. Regulus paced around the room a few times as if he was thinking about something.
“Can you do a bridge?” Regulus asked.
“A what? Is it like that thing kids run around doing” James said while trying to explain what he was thinking of.
“Yes! Can you do that? It doesn't have to be while standing, just like if you can lift yourself up from the floor.”
“I dunno, never tried. Let's find out” James grinned.
“Okay okay, I'll try to help just in case you can't lift yourself a lot.” Regulus said while walking a little closer to James, waiting for him to attempt the bridge.
James laid out flat on his black, placing his hands next to his hand and letting Regulus arrange them just a bit. Then, he pushed himself with his hands. He did manage to go up, not a lot but still pretty decent. Just when he felt like his glasses were about to fall he lowered himself back to the floor.
“I'll have you do these more often, maybe consider buying contacts. Anyway, your goal should be being able to fully straighten your knees like so” Regulus said while turning on his hand to do a bridge (which looked spectacular) . He straightened his knees fully, his back arching so much that James sort of felt eerie. “Back flexibility is pretty important, especially if you want a pretty arabesque.”
James nodded to show he will try to work on it, then he proceeded to check the time.
“Its 5:30.” He told Regulus, who was still sitting down. An evil smile suddenly appeared on his face.
“Want to try partnering? It will be fun I swear!” Regulus’ smile grew even larger as he watched James trying to figure out what he meant. “Talked to the director yesterday, he said I should teach some partnering in class but I won't bother since no one besides you and well Alice is trying. You still need to learn though so I figured we could try now, nothing serious though just having fun.” he said, almost giggling.
“So like, what does that mean?” James answered, still a bit confused.
“You will try to lift me!” Regulus laughed a bit while standing up.
“What if I drop you? I don't do this often y’know.” James hesitated.
“You won't , also I know how to fall safely.” Regulus gave James a cheeky smile, trying to convince him.
“Okay sure” he caved.
“Yay! So based on my experience, and I have plenty, the easiest one would be from an arabesque.” He said while lifting his left leg behind him to sort of make James understand what he needs to do. “So you're supposed to grab my thigh just around here, slightly over the knee, and then your other hand goes here just right under my ribs. Got it?” Regulus looked at James in the mirror.
“Yeah sure. I used to be obsessed with lifting at the gym so I should theoretically be able to manage right?” James said, still sort of frightened.
“I'm not sure, I guess we'll have to try and find out!” Regulus said while taking a few steps closer to James. “You ready?”
James nodded and Regulus lifted his leg up in arabesque, balancing on demi-pointe. James put one hand on his waist, just under his ribs and the other on his thigh.
“Placement is good! Now when you’re ready!” Regulus said.
James did a small plie to be able to grab Regulus a bit better, then he actually managed to do it. He fully straightened his arms, holding him up for a while, then he lowered him slowly. James came to the realisation that Regulus was a lot less heavy than he expected.
“That was really good, James!” Regulus smiled, running a hand through his curly hair.
“Dude how much do you weigh? You're so light I didnt even struggle! I really didn't expect to get it the first try!” James was pretty happy with the outcome.
“See! I told you it would be fun! Now let's head to class it's almost time and I don't want us to be late like last time” Regulus winked before going to pack up his stuff while James did the same. He put on his t-shirt and packed everything up all nicely before they headed out together and walked down the corridor that led to the other practice room.
“Good day everyone!” Regulus nodded as he opened the door. Then, he leaned in to whisper something in James’ ear: “Sit at that barre” he pointed in a way that nobody would notice “It's easier for me to look at you if you sit there”
James nodded, doing as he asked, placing his things down right under the spot he wanted. Everyone around began preparing for the first exercise.
“Very good James, I can tell you're really paying attention to those corrections I gave you” Regulus said at some point during plies, while tapping James on the back to remind him not to sink in with his shoulders.
At some point during ronds Regulus placed himself behind James, turning his head to the mirror to have him look at himself. Regulus’ cold hands touching his face made him shiver, his silver rings were freezing.
“See how you tend to sickle a bit during the rond? Think about your feet a bit more.”
*
*
*
After class James waited for Regulus to finish packing up and they left together. Just in front of the theater he found Sirius, waiting for James outside his car. Prongs said a quick goodbye to Regulus who tried not to look at Sirius at all. James ran towards the car, it was freezing outside.
“Hey there!” He smiled at Sirius, who looked a lot better, brighter in a way.
“Heya” he grinned, while showing James his hand, having him look at the ring.
“Oh my it’s gorgeous! Very you I must say! Cmon lets go in i'm cold” he said, pulling on Sirius’ sleeve to get him to walk faster.
“Okay okay! Here you should drive” Sirius threw the keys at James, who was just quick enough to catch them.
“So…where to?” Prongs asked.
“Lily’s! Remus is already there, they're all getting ready together!” Sirius responded.
“I need a change of clothes. I can't go anywhere looking like this!” James said, quickly realising they would be going straight to the club afterwards.
“Moony took care of that! He took some clothes from your flat!” Sirius grinned, stretching his legs out in the passenger seat.
“Alright…let’s see what this night has in store for us” James said, feeling exhausted but happy to spend time with his friends. He started getting used to this new routine, and although his body could definitely feel the impact of it, Prongs really enjoyed it!