A Mile A Minute

Chapter 2

"Scarlet! It's time to go!" Mom calls up the stairs and I'm zooming out of my room right as she starts to speak. Today is my second dance class! Yesterday was my first one and I had a lot of fun! I learned hop 1 2 3s and then when I came home I practiced them around the house! I think it was for like 2 hours because Ainsley and Wynter had watched Frozen while I was practicing.

I run outside and into the car and I'm buckled up ready to go before she even is outside. I hope we get to learn more stuff today!

We get to the studio and head inside like yesterday but today we're the first one here. Miss Roisin is in the studio with some other girl. There's some more weird music and she has some weird shoes that make loud noises on her feet. She's doing some dance and all these crazy moves.

"Come on Grace! Pick it up! You're dancing like you've never had a day of class in your life!" Miss Roisin yells as she dances. Some more kids come in and they start doing the same thing I am. The girl comes out, red faced, dripping with sweat...

"Okay kids, if you're ready you can come into the studio, Grace is going to be my helper today and she'll lead you through some stretches. I'm just going to talk to the moms quickly."

We all walk into the studio with Grace. She makes us rematch to our toes and stuff. Miss Roisin comes back in.

"So did any of you practice last night?" she asks. I raise my hand right away and slowly everyone else does.

"Now don't lie to me, Who practiced last night." and some kids put their hands down.

"I already asked all of your moms so just be truthful." And everyone but me put their hands down.

"I knew from the first time you all put your hands up that it was only Scarlet. Just be truthful, I don't expect that many of you would practice. So let's see those hop one two threes, Go in the corner and do them all the way to the other one diagonally." She tells us as we get up. She puts on the song mom said was a reel. We all do them from the corner 2 times.

"Okay Grace can you take Scarlet, Mia and Noah and I'll keep Sarah, Claire, Jamie and Amy." Miss Roisin says and then she says something to Grace.

She comes over to us. "Okay guys we're going to learn jumps and 7s. You 3 seem to pick up quickly so we can go a bit faster. So for the jump, you lift your front leg in the air, put it down, bring your back foot in front and then take a step with your now back foot and it looks like this when full speed." She says and does a really cool jump.

"Now lets do it slowly together. Lift up the leg, bring it down, back foot in front and step."

We all do it a couple times together.

"Okay now jump up when you go to bring the back foot forward, that's what gives it the name 'jumps"

That's a bit trickier... Mia and Noah seem to have gotten it and I feel like I'm holding them back...

"Almost there Scarlet!" Grace says while watching me. "Yes that was it!"

Once she says that I keep doing them.

"Okay now that you all have the hang of jumps we'll move onto 7s. They're pretty simple. You do a hop then step 2 back foot step 3 front foot 4 back foot 5 front foot 6 and back foot 7. Then jump two three jump two three jump 2 3 4 5 6 7 jump two three jump two three." She says as we dance it.

"Now try it own your own." And we all do it together. Miss Roisin comes over. "Now lets see those jumps and 7s. Comeback over with us. We're all going to do 7s two at a time. Mia and Noah go first."

Mia and Noah step out and they do the 7s and they look really good.

"Excellent both of you! Mia just work on having more of a diamond on the jumps. Everyone, that's how the 7s should look. Did you see how both of them were up on their toes? Everyone should be working on doing that. Claire and Sarah you two go next."

They step forward. They do the 7s but not the jumps. Then Amy and Jamie go and they don't do the jumps either.

"Okay now you Scarlet. Do you want Mia to go with you?" She asks.

"No I'll be fine." I say stepping forward to do them.

"Hop 2 3 4 5 6 7, Jump two three jump two three, Jump 2 3 4 5 6 7, jump two three jump two three." I think to myself, trying to focus on the turn out and making the diamond but also keeping my knees straight. I finish and I look up to Miss Roisin and she's silent... Oh no... It must have been awful.

"Scarlet could you do that again." She says after a few seconds. Oh no... It must have been really bad if I have to go again... Nobody else had to go twice...

I go again watching closely in the mirror to make sure I can always see the diamond and I try to go really high on my toes. I finish and I see that she was taping me on her phone.

"Okay that's all for today, Scarlet could you get your mom and the two of you come back in here." Miss Roisin says. I bet she's going to say that I'm not good enough to be a dancer and tell me not to come back... It always happens... I go to the waiting room.

"Mom she wants to talk to us but I swear I've been trying to be calm and not freak out I really have been!" I say to her.

"Scarlet I know, you're behavior here has been great. Maybe she just needs my email or something." Mom says trying to reassure me. We walk into the studio and Head over to where Miss Roisin is standing.

"Good you're here, I'd like to talk about Scarlet and her future here." Miss Roisin begins to say.

"We understand if you would like her to leave..." Mom says.

"No no no! Definitely not! I think she has great potential and could become very good. I was wondering if we could just stay and talk here or at the coffee shop down the road so I could explain about our crazy world."

"Could we stay here just because my youngest daughter, Wynter is sleeping right now."

"Yes of course. So in Irish dancing we have competitions called Feises, there are 7 levels of competition. Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Novice, Prizewinner, Preliminary Champion and Open Champion. After this new beginners camp is over I would like to move Scarlet into our Advanced beginner class and start her into Feises at that level."

"Scarlet would you like to do that?" Mom asks me and I nod.

"Great, Those classes are Saturday, Monday and Thursday but kids can schedule privates for more one on one time. I'll email you more detail later. If you do decide to Feis we have a beginner costume that's $100 for a new one but used ones range from $40-$75 depending on the age and condition. When's her birthday?"

"October 2nd, she's 8 right now."

"And you'll be turning nine? You would be in the under 9 age group at competitions. If you want to we can start her in the advanced beginner classes right away. They have a class tomorrow, 5:00-6:30. I also recommend you go to the Irish Butterfly sometime soon to get her some proper Irish dance shoes. The people there will help you get the right ones. The soft shoes are called ghilles and you might want to get some hard shoes while you're there Since I'm not sure when we'll start it with her. It could be tomorrow or in a month."

"Okay, Thank you so much Roisin!"

"Any time! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, she doesn't need to come to the beginner class tomorrow if she'll go to the advanced beginner one."

"Got it! See you then!" Mom says and we walk out of the studio.

"Scarlet isn't that exciting! There's a whole world to this we never knew! Let's go get your shoes now!"