Position One," Awut said, her voice graceful and fluid. Taking one step back, she tapped the floor with the cane, and Sarah lowered herself to her knees, in a clumsy way, moving unsteady like a filly skidding on ice. Awut stood with her slender tight-muscled legs parted, and tapped the inside of Sarah's knees with the thin wooden stick.

Sarah moved, spreading her knees to the width of her shoulders, spine straightening, Awut bent at the waist, and made Sarah rotate her hands to rest palm-up on her thighs. Another tap of the cane against her knees made her grunt softly as she pushed her knees further than forty-five degrees, almost automatically her body distributing her slender weight evenly. Awut with ease tapped Sarah's chin with her stick, which Sarah then lifted, but she then pointed at the floor and Sarah lowered her eyes. The shift from her natural insecure slump to this very precise posture, it felt like donning a new skin.