All she wants to do is dance

Posted on Tue Jun 5th, 2018 @ 3:58pm by Lieutenant Galatea Polaris & Captain Taliserra Tigran

1,548 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Misson 1 - Rebirth
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: February 6th 2395

ON:

Galatea stared at the control panel outside the holodeck as if it would give her super powers. She looked at the closed door and then again at the control pad. She sighed. Dixie had given her this program back on Earth. She'd always wanted to learn ballroom dance but never had she had the time. Truth be told she had been procrastinating. She was a good dancer but the Ballroom style always had her stumped. It had been a goal of her to learn.

Knowing that she had only an hour on the holodeck she hit the enter button and the doors whooshed open.

This was it. She took a deep breath and entered. She was immediately drawn to the deep cherry wood floors and the wall mirrors. The windows of what looked like a dance studio shop were clear as the crystal oceans of Betazed. Each step she took echoed through the room and suddenly she felt like tap dancing. She smiled and suppressed the urge to laugh. She looked around wondering why the dance instructor was missing. She'd been just about to call the computer when....

"Good afternoon Miss." Came the voice of a hologram that appeared in a flash behind Galatea.

Galatea turned around somewhat startled, "Oh! There you are. Hello. I'm Galatea. You are the dance instructor?" She asked the question that was obvious to her but not to the hologram. The man standing in front of her was tall well built with raven hair and intense ice blue eyes. He had long dancers legs and was dressed in dress pants, impeccably shiny shoes and a while shirt with a black vest. She had always been partial to men who took to wearing vests.

"That I am." The hologram gave an elegant bow. "Andreas Martel at your service."

Galatea gave a nod. "Doctor Polaris. I came to learn to dance. I have dance experience in Tap, jazz, and a few other forms. Not ballroom."

"And so you have come to me to learn the art of the ballroom. The foxtrot, the waltz and perhaps even the cha cha cha?" Andreas asked.

"Sure. I'll give it my best. How about we start with something easy...waltz?" She had her doubts about that but still she wanted to try.

"There is much elegance in the simplicity of the Waltz." Andreas said. "First we should get you some more appropriate footwear, you cannot dance well in those lead weights you have around your feet."

Galatea looked down at her feet. It had been years since she was in heels. "Alright..." She looked around and saw a bunch of shoes by the wall. She walked over and picked the appropriate size a red pair of size 8 heels that were 2 inches high. She sighed and changed into the heels. "Alright." She said standing. "Let's get this show on the road." She headed to him wobbling slightly.

"Ok, now the first part is getting our positions correct." Andreas stepped up to Galatea and took her right hand in his left. "This hand stays up with mine, your left goes at my right shoulder and my other hand goes here." He put his hand against the small of her back.

Galatea never was one for physical contact but this was how the Waltz was done. She signed to try and relax her tense muscles and then set about memorizing the hand positions. This part had always been fine for her. It was the dancing that was not. "Alright. What's next." she said with a deceptive calm.

"The basics of the Waltz is the 'box step', as I move you mirror me, so I step forward you step back and so on. First step I move forward with my left." Andread began to step forwards.

Not processing the words from her nervous energy she too stepped forward with her left foot causing both to step on one another's feet simultaneously. She yelped at the pain. "Ouch!"

Andreas was glad he'd developed a thick skin over the years or the heels would have hurt a hell of a lot more than they already did. "Are you ok?"

She dropped the stance and stepped back rubbing the bridge of her nose, her frustration obvious. "Yeah. I just need a minute." She sighed. "Alright let's try again."

"Do not worry, it can take time to get used to doing the opposite of what you think you should do." Andreas said as she took Galatea's hand again. "ready.. and step one." he took a step forward with his left.

This time she followed correctly keeping her eyes on their feet which caused her stance to widen. She muttered under her breath trying to find a pattern to the steps.

"Now the second step, just as you put your foot down for step one we step almost diagonally with the other leg, step three is simply bringing them together, so." Slowly Andreas guided her through the steps counting them as he went.

This one she did quite well. "Okay I think I got that one," the relief was evident in her voice.

"A couple more times for good measure then we'll move on." Andreas said then quickly stepped forward again.

She followed allowing a sense of pride rising in her.

"Much better." Andreas smiled. "Now to complete the box, we do exactly the same steps, but in the opposite direction, so I step backwards instead and we end where we started the box."

In theory that sounded nice but when she stepped backwards the heel of her shoe snapped with a loud pop and she fell backwards in the process kicking up and catching her dance teacher in the knee with the heel of her other shoe.

Andreas hear the snap and tried to hold Galatea up to stop her from falling but was almost pulled down on top of her, then her heel caught him in the knee and he lost his already precarious balance and fell over himself, only just managing not to fall on her. "I hope this didn't happen when you did jazz and tap."

She let out a frustrated sigh as she slowly got up. "Alright, this isn't working. I can do tap. I can do jazz. I can't do ballroom." She let out a frustrated throaty sigh. "Why can I get complex things but not simple things!" She rubbed her hip as she stood. That would bruise. She kicked off the other heel and headed for the bench to get her towel.

Picking himself up and straightening his shirt Andreas walked over to join Galatea. "I beleive you're thinking too much. If you're used to more complex steps you're constantly thinking about where you have to go next, where you have to place your feet, any stance changes and what not. You need to relax and let your mind wander and just follow where I lead."

She stared at him as if he'd just asked her to walk out into space without a suite. "What on earth will a wandering mind do? Steps are there to guide us and we have to think steps again. I do not overthink things." She said defensively although she knew he was right." She sighed. "Alright fine! What other dances did you say you knew."

"Are you giving up on the waltz already?" Andreas asked. "You do not strike me as someone who would give up so easily."

She sighed, "Normally I wouldn't but I just had the day from hell." She sat down and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "How long have you been dancing?" She asked trying to delay the dancing part until she figured if she would go on or now. The Chief today had worn her out. He'd been stubborn and she'd had to transport him to his quarters. The day had gone downhill from there. She had hoped for a restful night and a bath but things hadn't worked out that way. She had, in the end, had a brilliant idea to try and dance off her frustrations of the day and that wasn't doing any good.

"Nearly 12 years now, 5 of them teaching people how to dance ballroom." Andreas replied.

She smiled, "Guess I'm your first hard case. I couldn't ballroom dance to save my life."

"You were doing ok." Andreas told her. "Till your shoe snapped."

She chuckled, "And until I stepped all over you, you mean."

"That too." Andreas chuckled a little as well. "How is your foot?"

"Sore. I think I might have to end my dancing career here," she said. She found it odd talking to a hologram.

"Well, I will still be here if you change your mind Doctor Polaris." Andreas said with a smile.

She smiled back, "I will probably be back when my pride and foot heal." She chuckled lightly as she grabbed her towel and slipped out of her holo shoes and into the Starfleet issue ones.

"I await your next visit, please do not make the gap between too long." Andreas said and gave an elegant bow.

Galatea smiled and gave a nod hobbling towards the exit.

OFF

Lt. Galatea Polaris
Chief Medical Officer/Counselor
USS Wolff

&

Andeas Martel
Dance Teacher
Holodeck - USS Wolff
NPC - Taliserra Tigran

 

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