Page 48 of Total Creative Control
Straightening, he blinked. He hadn’t expected that somehow.
“That was my welcome to you,” Hippolyta was saying now, even as she performed the same gesture again, pressing her hands to her heart and then stretching out her arms, though this time she spread them wide, encompassing everyone. “It was a physical expression of welcome. And each of you, whether you realised it or not, expressed something physically to me in return.” Her placid gaze travelled over them. “The language of movement is something we do all know—connect with—in some way, even if we’re not conscious of it.”
Lewis’s gaze flicked to Charlie, who was wearing a smug smile.
Ugh.
“We’re going to start with some body awareness exercises,” Hippolyta said. She began to pace and stretch, circling her arms. “For the next few minutes, I’d like you all to just move freely, breathing, and exploring the space around you.” She moved her head in a circular motion and twisted her shoulders. “Use all of your body but keep the movements simple. Build an awareness of your body in this space.”
Charlie was already swaying, eyes closed, arms raised.
Christ, he was punchable.
Milly was moving too, again with that dancer’s poise. In fact, she looked like shewasdancing, with the ease of practised movement. In Lewis’s book that was just cheating. If you looked good, you weren’t really suffering your way through this.
Slowly, reluctantly, everyone else began shuffling too.
“Explore the space in front of you and behind you,” Hippolyta cried, spinning in a circle. “And the space above you!”
Charlie whooped and jumped up, punching the air.
Aaron met Lewis’s gaze and rolled his eyes so hard Lewis was surprised they didn’t fall out of his head. He smothered a laugh.
“And now the ground,” Hippolyta said, dropping dramatically to the floor and beginning to roll around.
Bizarrely, that prompted Geoff to start doing a distressing version of the Caterpillar in what appeared to be a vain attempt to get his wife’s attention.
Lewis averted his gaze in pity, grimacing.
For what felt like hours, they did this, swaying and pacing and writhing and rolling while Hippolyta called out random instructions. Eventually, though, she called time on the warmup and sent them off to their mats.
“Now,” she said, “with your partners, I want you to explore the space on your mat by creating relationships based on movement. Let’s start with different forms of opposition. Begin with time. For the next few minutes, one of you will explore quick movement and the other slow movement. I want you to observe what you prefer—what feels most familiar to you, what bestexpressesyou. Remember, we’re trying to cultivate self-awareness here.”
Lewis wasn’t sure how flailing his arms around was supposed to achieve that, but he trudged off after Aaron—who so far had been possibly even more awkward than Lewis—to their mat.
Aaron took one end, sitting cross-legged, and Lewis took the other, facing him. He tried not to focus on Aaron’s bare legs or the little mole on the inside of his right knee.Kissable, his unhelpful brain supplied.
“I feel like a right idiot,” Aaron muttered, circling his wrists unenthusiastically. “This is me exploring slow movement, by the way.”
From where he was sitting, Lewis could see Charlie with his legs spread in a V and Milly wedged between them punching her little fists in front of her like a diminutive Rocky Balboa. Charlie, meanwhile, was swaying slowly from side to side, eyes closed like he was tripping. Maybe he was.
On their other side, Geoff was engaged in some aggressive squats, his face turning redder and redder. “Fifty a day,” he puffed at Toni, “keeps the doctor away.”
Lewis returned his attention to Aaron, shaking one hand vigorously, as if forcing feeling back into numb fingers. It made his sore shoulder twinge, and he grimaced. “I’m about to explore fast movement out the bloody door.”
Aaron grinned, ducking his head to hide the smile, making his hair fall over his forehead. Alarmingly cute. “I’m starving,” he muttered. “I hope we can eat soon.”
Lewis was hungry too, and he didn’t like the sensation. It made him feel anxious and out of control, which was odd and added to his general and growing sense of unease. His shoulder ached in sympathy with his growling stomach, and he reached up to rub the sore spot between shoulder and neck.
“Now, I want you to observe your partner,” Hippolyta droned from somewhere behind him. “Become aware of their movements and your own. Be aware of your differences and synchronicities. Notice their breathing, and your own. Their body, and your own.”
Lewis needed no prompting to be aware of Aaron’s body. He was already hyper-aware, especially after last night. He could still feel the warm slide of his hands on Aaron’s bare skin in the wildflower meadow. Aaron in his arms on the beach, his silver eyes brimming with laughter, then softening with something else.
Fuck.
He glanced at Aaron, who gave him a weak smile.
“Be aware of the space you’re creating around yourselves. Stretch out your arms to feel its edges, to your sides and now above. This is your space, your created space. It’s a soap bubble, a trust balloon, temporary and powerful. Within the bubble of acceptance that you have created with your partner, I want you to start exploring ways to communicate with each other without the use of your voice. Observe your partner, observe their movements, observe the pain points in their body.”