Dance Your Heart Away
“Sit up straight.”
“Don’t lean on your elbows.”
“Don’t bow your head.”
“Be quiet at all times.”
“Do as you’re told.”
“You must be the best, or else you are of no use.”
Mother’s words ran through my head as I stood just off stage getting ready for my queue. As it came I danced on stage, the music blaring its crescendo. As I twirled and leaped, dipped and glided the music slowed and calmed. I leaped forward as the final note sounded and executed the perfect landing, on point. The audience gasped and I heard a low cracking noise, as the curtains closed I received a standing ovation. The curtains shut and I stepped down off point, my fellow dancers joined me for our curtain call.
After the curtain closed for the final time I felt pain ripple up my fom my ankle and I fell. As I fell I heard mothers voice again.
“If you aren’t the best, you are of no use and will be disposed.”
I fell into the darkness as my fellow dancers shouted my name. I awoke in this place, this—hospital. My leg is braced and held still, my body is confined to a chair. Dance is…. Something I will never do again. Mother came last week.
“You might as well just stay here, your of no use to me out there. You will never dance again.”
Dance, it was my undoing. I will never leave this place.
After all, what is the point of my being in this world if not to dance?
