BALANCE-

When turning her head sideways didn't help her understand the painting, she tried looking at it while upside down. Even though she looked ridiculous, she was determined to understand the chaos of the painting. The rest of her class had long since moved on, almost bored with the abstract. She found it interesting, but confusing as well.

After fifteen minutes of studying the painting every which way she could think of, she sighed in defeat and moved on, bypassing many works of art to catch up with her class. Maybe art aesthetics just wasn't her thing.

Ahiru's class ended up spending four hours at the art museum, and by one in the afternoon, they were back at the Academy, just in time for their last two classes. She didn't take too many classes so she had a free period and then ballet class. Once the bell chimed to signal the students to go to their next class, the redhead made her way to the changing rooms, her mind still stuck on the abstract painting.

Why was it considered art, and how could the teacher tell it was balanced? It looked completely out of whack, (much of the gallery did).

So lost in thought, the young duck-girl changed automatically, her eyes glued to the floor, her mind visualizing the paintings. Slipping her leotard over her body, she sighed once more. It may have been a good idea to ask the teacher about it before she left. With a growing sense of defeat, she walked out of the changing room and into the barre room. Paintings didn't make sense, but dancing did. Without hesitation she went to the barre, other students now arriving to change. Holding onto the barre for support, she began the warm up routines.

She knew by the way he said her name that Fakir knew something was upsetting her.

"Ahiru," she tensed for a second before turning, "what's wrong."

There was no point in hiding it; the worried gaze told her that much. "Art."

Brows knitting together, Fakir frowned deeply, "art?" he mimed, "and what do you have against art?" It wasn't an accusing question, merely curious.

Scrunching her brows and frowning, she scratched her head, "well, it doesn't make sense. The teacher went on about balance and space and all this other stuff, but none of what we looked at had any of it! The paintings were crowded and lop-sided, and some even had a person's eye where the mouth should have been! How is that balanced?"

An expression of understanding crossed his face, and as it did he held out his hand, "I think I can help."

Once she took his hand, he pulled her towards his body and slowly leaned her back over his arm, "you agree that we are balanced?"

"Yes."

"Alone, you couldn't hold this pose indefinitely."

"No."

"Apart we have no balance but together we support each other. Those paintings are the same." He gently guided her into a lift, "we have balance here as well. Your form and my stance create a balanced posture and an appealing picture." Setting her down, he knelt and guided her form so it leaned in towards him, her left leg lifting and her arms winding around his neck, "to every art piece there is form, space, shape, balance. In order to achieve it, one has a lot to consider: Negative and positive space, color, perspective. Think about the painting with the messed up face, for every surprising placement, did it not have something to balance it out? A shape or maybe a color?"

Thinking hard about it, Ahiru realized there was, "yeah, the whole face was still there, it was just switched around." Her face contorted in thought, so even though it was like that it was still balanced?"

"Yes. What others did you see?"

"Black and white paintings with circles, triangles, and squares. Oh, there was a painting that looked like someone just dumped paint on it, but it was still pretty, in a way."

"The first used positive and negative space and the second used complementary and secondary colors to create unity and balance."

A thoughtful expression crossed her face and after a minute she smiled, "thanks, I think I understand it a bit more. You sure know a lot about art, Fakir."

Chucking, he stood them both upright then went to the barre, "I took the same class last semester. It took some time, but it really isn't difficult to understand the art of balance."

Smiling in return, Ahiru held onto the barre once more, "yeah, you're right."

Unfortunately for Ahiru, the balance and imbalances of art were still a bit of a mystery. However, the balance required in ballet was definitely improving, day by day with Fakir's help.