Wednesday, 21 September 20XX, Evening
Yongen-Jaya Dance Studio
After a full, hard week of sleuthing work to find both Morgana and a target for their next big change of heart, Futaba and Ann were looking forward to their first belly dance lesson with Maiko. In order to make time for them, they needed to ensure they would not be headed to the Metaverse on the same days as their lessons, or else they would be in no shape to do both in one night. However, they still weren't confident enough to share their true intentions with the other Phantom Thieves. Instead, Ann just said that she had modelling work to take care of on Wednesdays and Fridays. As the leader of the Phantom Thieves, Ren consented, but warned that if it got too close to the deadline, he would need them above all other priorities.
In between their thieving exploits and practising to keep their dancing skills honed, they managed to find time to shop for new workout wear. Ann took Futaba out to a large sporting goods store just off of Shibuya's Central Street. Within the depths of its tightly-packed fitness section, one particular set captured Futaba's interest: a sports bra and capri-length yoga pants, both off-black with bright green lines stitched along the sides. It reminded her of her Metaverse costume, a fact which she had to remind herself not to mention aloud. But similarities aside, the outfit was tight, but in an exciting way, as if just putting it on had awakened a hitherto dormant side of her, a wild, athletic side. In terms of experiences she was actually familiar with, it felt like awakening to a brand-new Persona.
With their apparel ready and their leave secured, Ann met Futaba at her house at a quarter to seven the following evening. She wore her short-skirted school uniform and had a duffel bag slung over her shoulder, presumably containing her workout clothes. This time around, Futaba was prepared to meet her, and came outside with her own workout clothes already underneath her everyday outfit. Together, they found their way to the dance studio, navigating considerably more confidently than last time, went up to the fifth floor, changed in the locker room, and stepped into the studio itself.
The studio was well-equipped to handle multiple styles of dance, and several non-dance activities as well. Its wooden floor was laminated and buffed to a near-reflective sheen, but not quite as much so as the floor-to-ceiling mirrors lining two of the walls, bisected by a continuous balance barre broken only by the door to the hallway. One wall was bare, with mats and other equipment piled alongside, and one was filled out by darkened windows. Luckily, the building across the street wasn't tall enough for anyone there to get a good look inside, even if the windows weren't tinted as such.
Standing in the centre of the room were Maiko and the other four students. The girls, talking amongst themselves, were all dressed in similar workout clothes as Futaba and Ann, along with hip scarves adorned with gilded plastic coins and coloured in unique semi-transparent hues. Unlike the younger students, Maiko chose not to bare her midriff, instead wearing a tight black t-shirt, soft flared pants, and a red hip scarf. She was the first to recognise Futaba and Ann as they approached the group. "Good evening, everyone!" she said with a bow. "My name is Maiko, and for the next six weeks, I will instruct you in the art of raqs baladi, or, what you would call belly dancing. First, let's go around the room, to introduce each other, and share what got you interested in baladi to begin with."
Maiko motioned to the young woman on her right side. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, easily the oldest of the students on hand. "Hello," she said with a cautious bow, "My name's Atsuko Saito." Her tall, busty, and sensuous figure was similar to Ann's, albeit with a more sharply-toned stomach. She was the only one present wearing a purple coin scarf, which indicated her seniority and skill. Despite her status, she played with her copper-coloured ponytail in a pose implying a lack of confidence. "This is my third class with Maiko-sensei. I want to become a professional baladi dancer in order to help people understand that it's not just… you know… entertainment for men."
"That's very noble of you, Atsuko-san," Maiko said in encouragement.
Hearing Atsuko's name triggered a recollection in Ann. "She was in this class with me last year," she whispered to Futaba. When she sensed a break in Atsuko's speech, she gave her a friendly wave.
"Oh! Ann-chan!" Atsuko smiled coyly.
"Ah, forgive me for butting in. I'm Ann Takamaki, and I'm a part-time model." This statement elicited a few oohs and ahs from the other girls. "I've taken one of these classes before, to help me out with modelling, but my friend here," she indicated to Futaba, "also got into belly dance herself, so I thought I'd join in with her." She patted Futaba on the shoulder, prompting her to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Futaba Sakura. Believe it or not, I've taught myself belly dance over the past year or so. I was interested in ancient Egypt since I was little, but later on I found out how baladi also came out of Egypt, and thought it would be good for me to try." She felt it prudent to leave out the part about how it also helped her cope with the loss of her mother.
The remaining three girls introduced themselves after Futaba. All three of them looked to be closer to Ann's age, and all three wore blue hip scarves. The first, named Ayame, had black, pixie-cut hair, and a taut, athletic figure, with a faint six-pack chiseled into exposed stomach. She said she was an aspiring track athlete, and was seeking out new forms of exercise to spice up her training regimen. Ann wondered if Ryuji might be interested in meeting her.
Next up was Yuki, who had long, straight, brown hair, and a figure that was somewhat more plump than the other girls. She said she was studying Arabic literature and culture in university, and wanted to take up belly dancing to gain more first-hand insight on her field of study. Futaba considered her as a potential friend prospect of her own.
Finally was Honoka, a bubbly high school student, just barely taller than Futaba, with dyed-blonde hair asymmetrically tied up in a single ponytail on her left side. Despite her apparent personality, she was less garrulous than the other girls, and simply said she thought belly dance looked fun.
"Thank you, Honoka-san. Those are all wonderful reasons for getting into baladi, everyone, and I hope you all get what you want out of it. My name is, of course, Maiko, and I've trained and performed as a professional dancer for twenty years while living in Egypt. When I finally moved back to Japan, I decided to share my experiences by teaching classes like this one." Atsuko smiled again, her mind brightened by the thought of doing something similar someday.
"Now," Maiko continued, "who here has taken one of my classes before?" Atsuko and Ann were the only ones who raised their hand. For the majority of beginners among the students, she went on to describe the class structure as she had done for Futaba during their sign-up meeting. After explaining her system of hip-scarf-based ranking, she bestowed Ann with a white scarf and Futaba with a blue one. Futaba was disappointed that her prior experience didn't qualify her for a higher rank, but she thought better of complaining for the moment. She would just have to demonstrate her talent for the teacher, she reasoned.
With everybody introduced, Maiko began the lesson with some stretches. These started with simple warm-ups for the neck, arms, and shoulders, before leading into more intense torso and leg stretches. Besides the teacher, Atsuko and Ayame exhibited the best flexibility among all the students, both able to achieve perfect middle splits with their chests lying flat on the floor. Futaba, not so much. "Wow, you think you'd be more flexible," teased Ann, "since you like to sit with your knees hunched up to your chest."
"Of course you'd say that," Futaba snarked in response, "since you keep bending forward all the time in… you-know-where,"
"Ixnay on the anther-Pay", Ann softly warned. Despite their shortcomings in flexibility, no one else mocked them for it, and all the stretching even felt good once the initial pain reflex wore off.
Once everybody finished their stretches, the lesson began in earnest. "The key talent of the belly dancer," Maiko described, "is to be able to control all parts of the body separately from each other. In order to do that, however, we should start with the basic movements." To that effect, she demonstrated a few motions, and explained the steps that went into each of them. Bending the knee to do a hip lift or drop. Wiggling the knees forward and back in rapid succession to do a hip shimmy. Sliding the chest forward, up, back, and down in sequence to do an undulation.
From there, Maiko went on to explain different types of steps, arm motions, and hand positions that were common in baladi. "Combinations of these elements, even the basic ones, are what make each person's dance unique." To demonstrate this concept, she introduced hip steps, in which the twisting motion of the dancer's hips put her front leg in position to step forward. A sequence of these could allow the dancer to cover ground across the stage without breaking the flow of her dance. "You've got a whole stage to work with, after all," Maiko joked, "so don't let it go to waste!"
The students all followed along to the best of their abilities. Even to the more advanced students, this proved to be a valuable warm-up, especially for Ann, who had not done any dancing to speak of in months. Along the way, Maiko went over to anyone who seemed to be struggling, and gave them some hands-on course correction. This approach helped to keep everybody on an even pace. For example, whenever Futaba tried undulations before, she had not been able to watch and correct herself; she just got them to a point where they "felt" right. But somehow, the order in which she made her individual motions made it look like she was doing them completely backwards, like her belly was rolling upwards instead of down. Maiko seemed to exhibit saint-like patience as she pointed out what they were doing wrong and how they could correct themselves. It wasn't enough to completely fix their mistakes by the lesson's end, but they were in a good place to start working on them later.
When the lesson was over for the day, Maiko invited everyone who wished to participate in the recital to stay afterwards and plan their routines. All of the students raised their hand to indicate their interest, except for one… Atsuko. Everyone was surprised most of all when she stated so. "Are you sure?" Maiko inquired. "Not to put down anyone else, but you're one of our most talented dancers."
But Atsuko merely gave an apologetic bow and responded, "I'm sorry, but I have… other commitments."
"Oh, that's too bad," Maiko said sympathetically. "I understand if you're unable to join, but let me know if you change your mind. I'd be happy to have you perform with us."
"I would, too…" she answered, before leaving the room, her expression falling morose.
"Well…" Maiko said to no one in particular, "it can't be helped. Don't worry about them, though. I have other professional performers I can book as well, so even if none of you wished to join, I'd still be able to put on a decent show. But for now, we'll start with you, Futaba-chan. Did you have something you wanted to show me?"
Ann gave Futaba a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Yes, Maiko-sensei. Are you ready to see the routine I made?"
"Go ahead."
"Great! Just let me get something from my locker." Futaba dashed out of the room, and came back a minute later, clutching her smartphone. "I've been putting this baby together for the past couple of months. The routine, I mean." Although as far as Ann knew, the little tech wizard could have been talking about building her own phone from scratch instead.
"Wonderful! And you have your own music, too?"
"Yup!" Futaba glanced over to a wireless speaker set resting on a small table. "Could I use that?"
"Of course."
Futaba strode over to the speakers. She didn't want to hook it up her phone wirelessly, whether because of time-consuming frustration which could occur when setting up this sort of thing, or security fears about letting her devices connect to those of a stranger's. Fortunately, there was also an auxiliary cable hooked up to the speakers, which she plugged in to her phone's headphone jack before setting up her song and performing her routine. When she finished, her teacher and classmates applauded in unison. "That was beautiful, Futaba-chan!" Maiko praised.
"Thank you, Maiko-sensei," Futaba responded, bowing politely.
"You know, that's not the first time someone's used music from that game in a performance. In fact, I believe Ann-san did so for her first recital."
Futaba gasped in awe. "Really?"
Ann recalled that fact instantly. "That's right!"
"We've gotta track down that video of your show!"
Now that someone had broken the ice about her dancing history, she finally felt comfortable revisiting her past. "Sure thing, Futaba-chan!"
Returning to the subject at hand, Maiko gave some gentle criticisms about Futaba's demonstration. "Now, Futaba, your routine was kind of repetitive, and there were bits where your arms moved along with the rest of your body. But don't worry, those are things we can work on together. I think you've got a good framework for your routine, and the fact that you came up with it all by yourself is amazing!"
Addressing the other students, Maiko asked if anyone else had their own routines to demonstrate. No one else indicated that they had. "That's no problem," she responded, "just look for a video of a performance you think you might be able to recreate, and we can go over it one-on-one. Have it ready for our next class on Tuesday. In the meantime, be sure to practise what we went over tonight, so we can hit the ground running next time. I'm sure we all had fun, but six weeks will be over sooner than you know it!"
Maiko was right about one thing. The girls under her tutelage were, indeed, having fun.