To Become A Star

Chapter 6: Dying to Dance

"I wanna talk about this upcoming weekend," Abby says, pointing out the writing on the pyramid. I was happy to see my face at the top, I had done more numbers than the other girls and had been scouted for a new tv show so it makes sense I was on the top.

"It's Regionals week. Everybody knows how important that is. We are going to be attending Starpower, you all know that's one of the toughest competitions out there. This is what's gonna happen this weekend," she said, and I got excited. While Starpower was a tough competition, it always made Abby give me more technically challenging dances. 

"Maddie, new solo. Brooke, new solo. Chloe, new solo. Kianna, I'm bringing your sister on the team this week for a new duet and there are little to no tricks in it so the technique needs to be flawless. Now the age categories are a little different, so we want to make sure that your dances reflect you as a dancer now and not at the beginning of the season."

At Starpower, the junior age category is 9-11, which means that I'd be handing out a trophy to Chloe if she wins. Since I was their junior national Miss Starpower, they asked me in advance if I could hand out trophies at their regional competition.

"We are doing a new group routine, and everybody's in it, the entire cast. It is called, 'Where Have All the Children Gone.' This is a routine about children who have gone missing. You've all seen the children's faces on the milk carton. It's contemporary, it's mature, and it is very dark. You have to be great actresses to pull it off," Abby looked over at our moms.

"They're all in white like they're angels. I don't want any discrepancies; I don't want any opinions. Moms, I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss you know, we have a lot of work to do. Girls, let's get moving; let's get moving. Come on."

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"My sister is 7, and she's on Abby's Hot Shots dance competition team," I tell the camera. "She's a really technical dancer, and she wins whenever she competes."

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"Come in close, listen to me," Abby says as we dance to our music. The group routine was a dark theme, and while I usually have no problem with doing dark routines, this dance was unsettling. I got up from my spot on the floor, Abby had made me pretend as if I were choking Mackenzie.

As we walked over to her, she began to speak, "Alright, you're dancing, you're doing the steps, you're trying to listen to the words. You're not interrupting the story correctly."

I nodded as I listened to her words, we were still only just learning the dance and gaining a grasp on the story so our emotional execution wouldn't be perfect and we were only around 1 minute into the dance, so we haven't even heard the entire piece of music yet.

"And this is very serious because maybe people in the audience have had a child that's been missing, so you're gonna touch somebody's heart. So this has to be a very serious routine. And right now, you're just doing the steps, and we need to get past that, and we need to perform," she paused her speech to look at Vivi Anne and Mackenzie, the youngest of our competition team.

I think this dance is a bit too mature for them, I could already see the nightmares they might have about this dance. I could already see the nightmares I would have about this dance.

"Do you two understand? It's very serious," she asked the two, both nodding even if they didn't really understand what she was saying. "Alright, so Kianna, when you choke Mackenzie you need to look really vicious. Mackenzie, you need everyone to believe that you can't breathe." As I turned to begin the dance again, I caught a glimpse of the observatory through the corner of my eye.