Dance, dance, dance! I'm so excited to make this about dance! A passion you and I share, Alexa.
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Most people, when they think of dance, see ballerinas in tutus, dancing on their toes on stage, or tap dancers like Fred Astaire dancing on the set of a musical. Rarely do they picture the blood, sweat and tears that dance brings. They don't picture the hours upon hours of rehearsals, starting early and ending late. They don't feel the pain of doing the same pointe routine 20 times over while hearing the teacher lie through their teeth and say, "One more time everyone!"
Dance is rough, that's a guarantee. It's hard and requires every ounce of dedication if you want to advance, and that is why Alexa loved it. She loved coming home and wanting nothing more than to eat five whole chickens and then sleep for a week, she loved waking up stiff and sore, then having it all melt away in the shower. She loved, yet also hated, doing the same routine over and over because one person messed up. It wasn't the pain she loved, she wasn't a masochist, but she loved the feeling she got from it. When she danced, her stresses and worries melted away, her true feelings about everything came out. She was closer to her dance friends than she was to any of her other friends. When she performed, she had an entire team with her. And that team had vowed to each other to never let each other down. Dance gave her a family among friends, it gave her an emotional outlet, it gave her the ultimate endorphin.
Walking into the studio, dance bag slung across her shoulder, Alexa took a deep breath. Today was a very important day. She could finally get the chance to be recognized for her talent. She entered the change room, putting her stuff down and beginning to change. As she slipped on her ballet shoes she thought about the routine her teacher had put together for today. She ran over it in her head a bunch of times, before actually doing it in the small space of the change room. Fellow classmates came in and joined her, until soon the entire class was running over the routine and clearing up any confusion. It was important. Some local celebrities were coming to recruit dancers for a music video and possibly for some live appearances, and it was the biggest thing that had ever happened at the studio.
As the girls filed into the classroom to warm up, Alexa took notice of four guys standing in the back corner by the stereo. She knew them instantly, and she almost froze in her tracks. Shaking herself out a bit, she continued to her usual spot at the back barre to warm up alone. She ran through a quick ballet barre warm up, and began to do her stretching. She was finished warming up before anyone else, as she had warmed up a little before class too, so she practiced the routine a couple more times. As she was making her way through a pirouette, she thought she felt someone watching her and when she landed she looked in the mirror to see Josh watching her. The look on his face was pure awe. The poor guy probably just wished he could be a quarter as good as all of the girls here.
"Alright ladies," The instructor, Miss Elaina, called. "Get ready to run through the routine a couple times, and then we'll do one big continuous one."
All the girls ran to their places, Alexa for once was glad that she was taller and therefore in the back. It seemed like the four guys weren't moving from there, and they'd have a perfect view of the back row.
The routine, though not overly tiring, became very boring after running it six times through already. The class was run as a traditional audition, where you were tapped on the shoulder and were asked to go to the side until there was a designated number left that had made it. There were ten people, the guys wanted six, Alexa was still in. She was ecstatic too. Something about being in the top ten made her energy double and she no longer felt like collapsing on the floor. It wasn't until Josh started walking towards her that she began to panic. He smiled, flashing his white teeth at her while he gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
