A Beauteous Flower

Chapter 7 - The Ballerina

In her professional capacity Ms. Selene was closely involved with the selection of the dance team members and Mrs. Selene cut a striking figure when she dramatically materialized at the first try out.

"Good afternoon, my little ladies," Mrs. Selene had chimed in musical tones, her hourglass silhouette framed by the door. It might have been condescension from another person, but when Mrs. Selene's spoke her greeting in her clear melodic alto, it sounded like an endearment. All activity in the large room stopped and everyone automatically paid attention and posed for Mrs. Selene.

After her greeting, Mrs. Selene clicked brightly into the room and as she emerged from the backlight, Mrs. Selene resolved into her full glory. She was a slender woman, and while Madison had always considered herself taller than the average woman, in her heels and her perfectly erect posture, Mrs. Selene towered like an immaculate goddess. Every eye in the room positively gaped at her statuesque presence with a mixture of awe and envy. It was immediately evident that Mrs. Selene was the epitome of style and social graces, with a body and skin that would never require the attention of a plastic surgeon.

Mrs. Selene must have been close to sixty years old, but she was the unquestioned pretty powerhouse in the room, dressed for that day's business in a soft pink blouse with a neckline that plunged dramatically to reveal a generous amount of her ample breasts and knee length pencil skirt that highlighted her tanned and toned legs. Her brunette hair was a shoulder length wolf cut and her brows arched exquisitely over a pair of opal eyes. Everywhere Mrs. Selene looked, eyes automatically averted themselves, and then returned to stare at her as she turned her gaze in another direction.

Truly, Mrs. Selene had the poised and presence of a woman who knew she was world-class pretty and that made every other woman in the room fidget uncertainly. Even Deva, who Madison thought extremely pretty, tugged self-consciously at the waistband of her tights as Mrs. Selene clicked past in a swirl her light flora perfume.

Her entry well made, Mrs. Selene paused in the exact middle of the room and surveyed the hopeful crowd of almost two hundred and fifty Lycra clad dancers. After she dragged the silence out for a few more moments to be sure she commanded the room, Mrs. Selene nodded in satisfaction.

"My, what a collection of pretty little ones we have today," Mrs. Selene observed in a tone that hinted at satisfaction and appreciation. Again, from anyone else those words might have been taken as a mild insult of the kind that someone would bestow on some inferior being they encountered in the ladies' room, but when Mrs. Selene said it, everyone took it as a compliment.

"Well, we have a lot to do, I see. Is everyone fully stretched and sufficiently warmed up? Excellent! Shall we get down to business then?" she chimed genially and even though her voice lilted up at the end of her sentence like a question, everyone knew it was a firm but gentle command. Mrs. Selene gracefully settled with a ladylike cross of her delicate ankles in the exact middle of the judges table flanked by the other five judges, three women and two men. She allowed the other judges to be seated after her and then nodded for the auditions to begin.

Each dancer had been issued a number and the choreographer lined them all up according to those numbers then divided them into groups of ten. Then she briefly taught them all a short dance routine that blended energetic hip hop and jazz steps. At two claps and a count of "and five and six, and five, six, seven, eight" from the choreographer, music with a heavy, quick down beat pumped out of the speakers and the first group did their level best to repeat the routine.

In turn each group of ten gyrated and posed as fiercely as they could before the judges' table, all of whom except Mrs. Selene made notes. For her part, Mrs. Selene gave each group her undivided attention and inspected each effort carefully, but whatever assessments she made she kept to herself and allowed the other judges to make the first cut without her input. After each group danced one of the male judges announced the numbers of the dancers who would be asked back to present their solo routines in the afternoon. By the end of the morning a group of forty-six hopefuls remained to continue to audition for one of the twenty-three open places on the dance team.