2019-09-09 - Barre Hopping

What do you do when you are a boxer with the world on our shoulders and everyone needs you for something? You dance that shit out. Yeah no, not the Firefly Club, and while he is the same guy Roxy would recognize from the Platinum Cabaret, it isn't that kind of dancing. No. Ballet mother fuckers. The last place people would think of finding the bruiser, but also the ideal past time for a serious boxer.

God blessed he looks angry and out of place.

The slender form of the amateur night breakout star at the Platinum Cabaret is just coming out of the dressing room when Joey is spotted. Roxy's dark hair has been pulled back off her face and neck into a tight bun, her bangs secured by a spangly comb that looks like a mini tiara. She is in a black leotard with a pale rose-hued wrap top over it, and a matching little gauzy short dance skirt. She has ballet shoes on, not her pointe shoes today. She looks different with her face scrubbed free of makeup and her hair so sedate, but there is no mistaking those vibrant blue eyes.

She had a bad night last night after a run in at her hotel's lounge with Javier. It shook her up and she decided she needed some time out of that place today. The internet directed her to a local dance studio, and she did not hesitate to sign up for membership to use the space for practice. She watches the angry man as she moves to the barre and begins to stretch. Wait, wasn't he at the club? One of those twins?

Cole is in the office at the moment, there not being any classes going on at the moment, just members using the space to practice, either on the gymnastics equipment or in the dance studio itself. The sound system plays whatever music those have come to practice have set on. He eventually comes wandering out, though, in his own practice clothes which consist of sweats, ballet slippers, and a long-sleeved white t-shirt. He makes his way out toward the floor, giving a nod to those others gathered there, "Anyone ahve any preferences on music?" he asks the pair before he makes his way over to the sound system.

Joey wades in and rubs he back of his neck with his hand and looks to Cole as the unexpected element. The voice sounds about as smooth as gravel and about warm. "Hey. Sup. Ummm..." He looks around shifting his weight from one foot to the other a bit a little out of his element. "Been a bit." He looks from Cole to Roxy curious, and not leering arching an eyebrow and lifting his fingers. "Shit, Anythin from this century."

Roxy breaks her questioning stare at Joey to look over at Cole. "Do you have 'Dance of the Rose Maidens' from Gayaneh?" she requests in a quiet tone, with an accent that sounds Scandinavian. Not exactly this century, but 1939. She sets her right foot up on the bar effortlessly, closing her rotation, and placing her weight on her straightened supporting leg. She rotates to turn to the side, and bends over, and her left arm comes over her head, to brush against her elevated foot. She has clearly had training.

"Hey," Cole says to Joey with a bit of a smile and a nod of his head when he suggests something from this century. But then Roxy makes a particular choice and he considers for a moment before nodding. He puts it into a search and finds it, putting the music on, then he turns and leans back against the cabinet in which it sits, making sure that the volume is sufficient so that it can be heard, and glances over toward Roxy to see if she approves with whatever starts playing. Once she's confirmed it's the right song, he asks, "Mind if I join you? Was going to come out and practice for a little bit."

Joey sighs and waves his hand, "Or that." Looking around he gestures for Cole, "Plenty of room. I don't need as much as she does, He stops himself dimpling a smirk chewing on his foot there. His fingers swirl in a circle, "I meant to move around a lot." He does defer a slightly apologetic look to Roxy. He offers a hand to Cole he asks, "You the new owner?" He knew the last one? "Joey. Or... Joe. Doesn't matter." He looks to Roxy and doesn't address her by stage name but squints and compliments, "Great work the other day."

Roxy gives Cole a faint smile and nods her approval of the music. "I do not mind." Her words are carefully chosen and spoken in that precise manner of a non-native speaker who learned English formally. She finishes her stretch and moves into the more open area of the floor. There is a slight coloring of her cheeks as Joey compliments her on her stripper routine. "Thank you. You were good as well." No he wasn't, but he was enthusiastic. "You dance?" she asks the guy who looks like he hasn't been ANYWHERE near ballet shoes, ever.

Cole wanders over toward Joey after the music is playing and Roxy has expressed her approval. He takes the offered hand and gives it a shake. He is leanly muscled, strong, a dancer's build, not nearly so thickly muscled as Joey, but there's strength in his grip. "You knew the previous owners?" he asks. "They decided to retire somewhere warm, so yeah, I decided to take over the place and teach. I teach ballet here, and kept on the other instructors for the other classes." He glances over toward Roxy then and smiles as she approaches, glancing from her to Joey, perhaps curious as to the answer to her question as well.

It was good for something. It was a damn good time but not dancing in any classical sense. There's that flare of challenge in his eyes for the briefest of moments but this ain't the fight he was looking to bring. There's a pause and he nods slowly. This is clearly not something he talks about and the truth of it comes up. "I was taking classes for a while with the old owners. It was tha or yoga." He pauses and very casually has to admit what the room knows, "Zen and I ain't friends."

Roxy begins to move to the music, remembering the choreographed steps of a ballet she performed in so many years ago. She moves with lightness and grace, arabesque, pirouettes, penche, developpe. They are not beginner movements, and she manages them well, but it is clear she is battling a body that is no longer 98 pounds of lean with not an ounce of fat. The ballerina stopped dancing somewhere along the line, and the puberty fairy finally came and gave her curves. The same happens to gymnasts who started training as very young children. In Roxy's case, she was four when she began ballet.

"Oh yeah?" Cole asks Joey and then says, "Well, if you want to continue lessons, let me know. I have plenty of openings for private lessons. You're also welcome to just practice if you like." He then turns to look over at Roxy, watching her as she moves through the steps of that ballet that she once performed. He smiles as he watches her movements, the practiced and light way that she moves across the floor. "Lovely," he says. Even if she is not at one hundred percent, her movements are practiced, and beautiful along with the music.

Joey arches an eyebrow and side tilts his head like he do with thought about agreement. "yeah, That'd be great. I got some things comin up and I need to get the flexibility back." He looks to Roxy pausing, "Not... that. not not that.... good lord." He comments to Cole, "I don't think she's got bones." He just watches tilting his head blinking, fingers flexing into a fist and etting it go murmring to Cole, "You do up evenings?"

Roxy's spins are elegant, her center of balance quite strong, her core fantastic. Had she not stopped when she was 18, she would have been a prima by now, no doubt. The bad things in bad places had other ideas for her though. She doesn't remember much about the Veiled Asylum, but she knows she did no dancing there. Or smiling. Or laughing. Anytime she thinks about it too hard, it flees from her, like her mind is trying to protect her from memories. She steps through the movements where she would have been lifted by a partner, ground-bound.

She plies and looks to the two men, hands clasped in front of her. "Are either of you skilled in partner work? I am very, what is the term..." she ponders "...rusty at it. But I would like to relearn lifts and such."

"I'm fairly certain taht she has bones," Cole reassures Joey with a grin sidelong as he watches Roxy's spins and balance. He gauges her performance with the eye of a professional. He had been a professional dancer, for a time. What brought him to Gray Harbor is anyone's guess, however. He smiles when she asks about partner work and dips his head, "I used to dance professionally. I'd be happy to work with you. I'm still recovering a bit, but if you don't mind taking it slow until I'm confident of my strength.." He then glances to Joey, "Unless you've done partner work before?" But he nods then and says "I have openings in the evenings, yes."

Joey points to Cole and says "I mean yous are better than I am. I worked with one for a while though." But the leg his back on the barre and tries to pull on that leg. Is he professional? Oh fuck lord no, but the boxer has clearly actually learned something that he's not admitted, or admitting. This guy really actually have training? Actually, some yes. He does, however, look like he can bench her without an issue. "Yeah I'm game to learn somethin new." He offers her a name and a hand. "Joey. You aaaaare?" N he's not calling her Echo off stage. There's a decorum to that sort of thing and some unspoken aninimity that he has some respect for.

"I will be slow as well. And I am not as slim as I once was," Roxy admits. Not that she's not model thin still. Just not ballerina thin. "So perhaps I could work with you both?" Wait, did she just ask to work with Joey too? "Who did you dance with," she asks Cole with interest, wanting to know the company. She holds up a finger and moves off to go get herself some water. Hydration is important!

"Boston Ballet," Cole says to Roxy when she asks who he danced with. It was a short stint, a promising career ended abruptly in a tragic car accident which was in the news when it occurred, but has since been forgotten, as these things often are. "Cole Danvers," he introduces himself to the pair with a warm, friendly smile. He gives a nod to Roxy and says, "Of course. Whatever you prefer." He then watches Joey as he moves, studying him, considering, and then giving a nod of his head as the boxer stretches a bit. He moves over to the barre as well and begins his own series of stretches and warmups. It's clear from the way that he moves that he is, or was, a professional. Clasically trained, and it's pretty clear that he still trains daily, even if there is no ballet here in little Gray Harbor for him to perform with.

Joey arches an eyebrow to Roxy, "Ummm, yeah. Sure." He tells Cole, "Joey Kelly. Boxing gym east end of town. Boston huh? You grow up there and shit?" You know what might be novel to some is while he's not got the chops they have his form is actually good. One thing they teach you in both boxing and football is your damn foot placement is essential. Looking where 'Echo' went he looks back to Cole with a wry dimpled grin, "If she doesn't give us a name she's just getting a new one every day."

Roxy returns, and it takes her a moment to process the name and ballet company information. "Sorry, I was very thirsty. I am Roxanne, but you may call me Roxy. I danced in Finland for a time, where I was born."

"Finland," Cole says with a smile, "Very cool. Nice to meet you, Roxy and Joey. Fellow dancers are always welcome here, and I'm happy to practice with either of you any time." He continues his own stretching. Then he moves out onto the floor and goes through a few steps. He uses whatever music is playing, not seeming to be going through any particular routine, just going through some turns, some leaps, and steps. To the very practiced eye, one might notice that his left side is weaker than his right, and that he tends to spend a bit more time working that side, perhaps in order to continue to build strength there.

Joey sighs, Damn. There's a name. "Finland? Like in Europe and shit?" He's not eloquent but he knows which continent the country is glued to and where to put his damn feet. "I take it whatever brought you to Gray Harbor is personal... or you lost a bet?" That is just left as an open question for the room. He brings arm up and over to meet his toe in that lean. "Well, nice t'meet you Roxy." He looks to Cole curiously, "How you get caught up in all this anyways?"

Roxy watches Cole and admires his technique. A professional for sure. She tries to quash the sorrow in her, that he is no longer dancing professionally. And her own sorrow that she is not. She notes the weakness of the left side and her mind is already calculating how to compensate for that in partner work with balance shifts.

She looks to Joey and tilts her head to one side. "Scandinavia, we prefer. Less 'Roman Empire' and more 'Vikings'. And yes, personal things brought me here." Personal as in this fucking town demanded she come.

"Caught up in what, exactly?" Cole asks as he comes to the end of one spin and stops neatly. He gives Joey a bit of a curious look, as though not sure exactly what he's referring to, not having met him before and not knowing what kind of 'all this' /he/ might be involved in. Though after a moment or two he does say, "I felt like I needed to be here." That's about the best way that he can describe it without going into too much information that makes ihm sound like a lunatic.

This look again. Cool. Joey looks to Roxy arching an eyebrow nodding. And we're learn something new. The nature of him is confrontation and the morning was decidedly sub optimal to that front do when the question comes back with that look there's something that clicks over in his head to try and shut off whatever might bree going on upstairs hard and fast falling quiet. He classifies, "... dancing. I didn't know guys could do that. " does he live in a box? Yes. On and off in a government issued 8x8 concrete one. The curiosity is guarded but honest.

"Dancing is part of one's soul," Roxy says quietly. "Either you dance, or you do not. Those that do, must keep doing to be happy. Even when they stop for a time, they come back to it again and again. Even if they are stopped, they teach, they watch, they experience."

Cole smiles over at Roxy, tilting his head to the side a little bit as he takes in her philosophy, nodding a bit in agreement. "It gets in your blood." Then he laughs a little at Joey, both brows raising, "You were taking ballet lessons and didn't think that guys could dance ballet?" He looks a little confused, as though the question itself doesn't make any sense to him, but he says, "Yeah. There are lots of male ballet dancers. Not quite as many as there are ladies, but then, that has something to do with the number of female versus male parts that there are choreographed."

Joey listens and pulls the other leg up to start stretching it and his lats out. "Well... yeah, man. I mean like professionally." He pauses and stands up with a sigh frustrated with himself. "Yeah, I've been taking classes, but I never seen anyone like... do this stuff on a stage that wasn't above the age of 12 or in a spy movie." He looks between then and hesitates before coming clean with, "Look I ain't throwing shade I didn't know. I mean... it's pretty bad ass you can do what you love doing." He nods to Roxy and mumbles some agreement weaving his hand in the air, "That's important. So...good."

"If you enjoy dancing, then dance, Joey. Joy is so hard to find these days, we need to take it where we can. And you don't have to do just ballet. Ballet is the core of what has become contemporary dance, and there are other styles that branch out to all tastes. Jazz, Ballroom, Hip Hop, Tap, and...what do they say...Krump?" Roxy smiles at him, and she looks far different with no makeup and her clothes on. Innocent even.

Cole smiles a little curiously at Joey but doesn't seem to have taken any offense at all. He says, "Yeah, there are a lot of professional male dancers in a lot of different styles." He grins a little as Roxy lists off some various types and adds, "Salsa, Flamenco, Belly Dancing.." He stretches a bit more, and then takes another turn across the floor, going through a series of steps and turns, with less height and leaping this time, more focus on footwork, and balance.

Joey has apparently never really thought about this as a correlation. It's not even a bad one but more of a realization of Oh, hey, shit, options. Huh! Tilting his head he processes that like Neo learning kung fu, "Guess you have a point. Never really put them in the same box together. I mean they're he same and not like MMA to boxing but... yeah." Looking between them he hesitates to ask, "Soooo... what nights this happen on? For the class. When would that be?" This is a buying question. For as uncertain as he might have been 10 min ago there's that curious interest from teh man being encouraged to actually give it a shot if he's enjoying it.

Roxy blushes slightly. "Well, I can't do most nights because I have to work," at the strip club. "But afternoons, and maybe a night a week I should be available just to dance. Do you do any choreography, Cole?" she asks.