Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (8 page)

“Nervous?” Letitia hissed in her ear.

Elena practically jumped out of her seat to see Letitia cackling as she strutted down the aisle, adorned with two faithful sidekicks, both dressed the same as her, desperately trying to mimic her every move, but not achieving the same effect. When she stopped, they stopped. When she said something, they agreed. It was like seeing Letitia in triplicate.

Elena leaned back against the chair and tried to regain her focus. “Focus on you, not your competitors,” she said to herself.

Letitia grinned churlishly at Sebastien as she passed him, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Elena clenched her teeth. What
was
her obsession with Sebastien? Why
did Elena
care anyway? Four other boys turned their heads as Letitia brushed past them. Ugh!

Elena turned her head to the right where she heard Frankie laughing loudly, flirting outrageously with three of the male students while Leon sat quietly in a corner, focused.

Mr. Harding entered the auditorium. “Frankie and Leon, want to come through please?”

Elena crossed her fingers at them in encouragement as they went in for their audition. Elena hated the waiting. She bit her nails furiously, listening in while other students practiced. Letitia rested against the back of chair, her elbows leaning against the top, chatting with her sidekicks.

Minutes later, Frankie and Leon returned.

“Sebastien,” Mr. Harding said, “
w
ould you mind auditioning the duologue with Letitia?”

Elena stood instantly. “But Mr. Harding, Sebastien’s my partner!”

“It’s OK, Elena. We’re short a couple of guys. You can come in straight after Letitia, and Sebastien will be there.” Letitia turned to Elena and smiled smugly.

Elena crossed her arms and frowned while Sebastien rose to audition with Letitia.

“See you soon,” he whispered.

Elena started pacing down the aisle. “Unbelievable. Of all the guys in class, she had to audition with Sebastien,” she muttered to herself. Instead of going over her lines, all she could think of was Letitia playing the flirty girl with Sebastien, flicking her hair and dazzling the teachers.

Letitia came back a few minutes later.  “I’m done now. He’s all yours.”

Elena really wanted to shove her down the stairs. Instead she gritted her teeth and walked brusquely to the audition room. This was not the state she needed to be in. She closed her eyes tightly to refocus her energy but the anger was still festering when she entered.

Sebastien smiled at her encouragingly but it didn’t help.

“Ready, Elena?” Mr. Harding asked.

Elena took two long deep breaths and nodded her head. She did what Sebastien suggested and imagined she was chatting with Frankie, excited and bubbly. She knew Sebastien was giving her everything he could, but she could feel her body and her speech was too abrupt instead of being slow and flirt
atious
.

“Thank you, Elena. Sebastien
,
you are free to go also. Thanks for your help.”

Elena dragged herself outside. “What a disaster!”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“How was Letitia?”

Sebastien paused.

“You can tell me the truth,” Elena said.

“Not too bad, actually, though she doesn’t do subtle flirting very well.”

“Don’t we know
it!
”

“There’s still Shakespeare and you were on fire yesterday.”

Elena nodded. That was her real goal.

They headed back to the auditorium to wait for the next audition. Frankie was waiting for them. “Letitia’s already gone in for her Juliet audition with Leon, seeing as I didn’t want to do it.”

Elena was relieved. At least she didn’t have to give up Sebastien for that!

“Did you kill it?” Frankie asked.

“Seb was great, but I know I totally
messed
it
up
.”

“Sebastien, Elena?” Ms. Worthington called out.

“We’re up!” Elena said, pumping herself up for a better performance.

This time, Elena forgot about Letitia, or Sebastien or anyone else, but searched for the emotion she needed
-
the frustration of falling for someone that her family considered their enemy. How could she choose?

   She turned to h
er audience as if they were Romeo, her face contorted by torment, her eyes showing pain:

             
“
O Romeo, Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo
?
             
“
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
“
Or, if thou wilt not,
be but sworn my love
,
             
“
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

“
'Tis
but
thy name that is my enemy…”

At the end, Ms. Worthington applauded.

“Very nice, Elena.”

Sebastien’s turn.
He stood, with the paper in his hand
:

“
’Tis
torture, and not mercy: heaven is here,

“Where Juliet lives…”

He paused and looked down at the script.

“
A
nd every cat and dog

“And little mouse, and…

“And…” He gave up and kept the script up, near his face.

“And every unworthy thing…”

Oh Sebastien
! W
hy
hadn’t he
learn
ed
his
lines?

He looked at Elena apologetically but Elena only smiled encouragingly. They would make it up in
their next scene.

She was relieved that he
’
d learned his duologue
,
so that their interaction was seamless. Elena could not resist Sebastien’s eye contact as he held her hand and spoke his lines.

”Have not saints lips, and holy
palmers
too?”
he asked, as Romeo.

“Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.” Elena looked at Sebastien and then away.

“
O, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do
.
They pray:
Grant thou
,
lest
faith turn to despair.” He pulled her in closer, ready for the kiss.
             

“
Saints do not move, though
grant for prayers' sake
.
” She returned her gaze steadily
to Sebastien, leaning in. They stayed that way while Ms. Worthington applauded.  

“I must say, I am very impressed with the both of you! Great work!”

Elena restrained her desire to jump, biting her lip and clasping Sebastien’s hand tightly.

As they left the room, Elena squealed. “Did you hear that? We were impressive!”

“Easy
,
tiger.
We’ll have to wait and see. The monologue was a bit of a disaster for me.”

Elena gave him an I
-
told
-
you
-
so look. “But you were awesome in our duologue!”

“Hmm.”

“I wonder how Letitia was as Juliet
,
” Elena said.

“Not long to wait. Think you can sleep
’
til then?”

“I’m coming
past your place
early on Wednesday to check the results.”

“I would have expected nothing less, El.”

Eight

The next day, the only dance class Elena had
was
hip hop
.
Her world at last.

“So Seb, are we feeling the hip hop today?” Elena asked, swaying in a gangster sort of way.

“Oh yeah,” he replied faking a rapper style hand gesture.

“You’re actually not too bad you know.”

“Oh thanks, genius
.”

“I mean for someone who’s not that into dancing.”

“I like dancing, I just don’t want do it all the time and I definitely don’t want to wear tights. Hip hop is cool. I can handle it.”

“Auditions today for the advanced group, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m happy to stay in the intermediate group.”

“You know the advanced group train for the World Hip Hop championships?  Now that would be awesome!”

“One mountain at a time, Elena.”

They parted ways to their separate changing rooms and returned in a few minutes later in their dance gear. Elena inspected Sebastien closely and smiled.

“What?”

“You look like such a kid!” she said as she ruffled his hair under his hat.

“Get away from me before you ruin my tough guy image,” he said and shoved her jokingly.

A young man of around thirty walked into the studio, wearing baggy black track pants and a red vest top. His hair was
blond
and his pale face revealed
a
light
stubble. Without his air of authority, Elena would have guessed he was a college boy dressing street.

“
All right
everyone. My name is Samuel. This is hip hop, so everything is casual including my name. But don’t be deceived into thinking you can slack off.”

Elena looked at her teacher eagerly, hands on hips, ready to go.

“Today’s class will be like a mini-audition so we can determine if anyone can move up to the advanced class. It’s rare for freshmen to do so, but hey, we don’t discriminate in hip hop.”

There were cheers and wolf whistles from the students.

“Deshaw over here will be watching. He takes the advanced group and will let me know if he thinks any of you are ready.” A large African American
man
in baggy jeans, a large blue sweater and cap stood in the corner of the room with an impassive look on his face and waved.

“Let’s go!”

Everyone stepped onto the floor, eager to start dancing. In contrast to her contemporary class, Elena enjoyed this warm up which was mainly grooving to the music and stretching main muscle groups. However, it also meant sit-ups and push-ups.

“God I hate these things,” Elena complained quietly to Sebastien as they were powering through.

With the warm-up complete, Elena stood with the other students around the dance floor for the next stage.

“
Okay
, two choreographies today
—
one lyrical hip hop and one hip hop
gangsta
style, just to see what you can do. Everybody find your space. Lyrical is a song by Neyo.”

“I love his style,” Elena said to Sebastien as the teacher demonstrated the choreography.

“Me too.”

After spending the first half hour learning the choreography, they had to perform in groups of four.

“Once with me, once without me,” Samuel shouted.

Elena was in one of the first groups. The first time through, she made sure she was imitating the moves correctly, comparing her shapes with the teacher’s. On the second run through, Elena focused on performance. She made sure she was smooth from one move to another and her steps were clean and sharp, matching them with the lyrics.

“Nice work,” Seb said to her. It felt good. Sebastien was up next. He missed a couple of steps but recovered nicely. He had a great sense of rhythm and was actually pretty smooth.

“Not bad at all,” she said when he finished.

“Yeah, I thought so too,” he said leaning back against
the
wall.

Elena rolled her eyes. Confidence was one thing Sebastien would never lack. “Check this guy out,” Elena said, pointing. “The one with the blue track pants. He’s amazing!” Sebastien nodded in agreement.

Elena watched all groups carefully, assessing who her main competitors were. There were only three other girls
,
but they didn’t seem that strong. There were quite a few guys
who
were extremely talented, though
,
and she knew she would have to be better to move into advanced.

“Now I want you to find the anger and aggression in you and put it in the dance,” Samuel said when it was time for the second routine. At the end of this choreography, you’ve got eight counts to freestyle. Let’s do it.”

“Think of Letitia, and I’m sure you’ll get the right feeling,” Sebastien said.

“Very funny.
At least I’m not the object of her affection,” she retorted.