Broadway Dream

Chapter 3: Jealousy or Insecurities

"Point your foot more" I say watching my best friend Aylin do her arabesque. She was my age and came from Los Angeles. Her mother was our other choreographer when Maya had her days off. "Perfect" I compliment with a smile.

"You're such a great dancer" she compliments as I do my arabesque "You're so lucky to have Maya" she adds making me smile.

"You guys ready?" Maya asks as she walks into studio, a smirk playing on her lips, ready to see us suffer. "Yes" we all whine making her chuckle, "Did you all warm up?" She asks standing in front of the room, "Or did you all chat instead?" She quirks her brow, placing her hands on her hips. Before each class we have 20 minutes to get ready and stretch but sometimes we're too excited and end up talking and messing around. "No" we shake our heads making her smile, "Alright then, let's get starting" she claps her hands. "First were going to work on the bars" she instructs making all of us scurry to the bars, placing it in the middle of the room before positioning ourself.

~🎭~

"Put away the bars and line up" I instruct making them nod and do as I say. "We're going to work on arabesque first" I inform, "Aylin your first in line come here" she walks in front of me and does her arabesque on her pointe shoe. "Look forwards" I say lifting her chin up, "Good" I compliment taking a few steps back. "Watch as her leg is turned out and pointed" they all nod and I clap my hand. "Thank you Aylin" she nods and scurries to the other side of the room. I look at who's next and a smirk plays on my lips as Elli is next, she had such gorgeous leg which made her arabesque look beyond perfection. She walks towards me and positions herself before doing her arabesque. There isn't one thing I can correct, she's doing it perfectly not to mention how high she can lift her leg and keep it there.

"Now look at how Ellianna can hold her leg up, that requires a lot of strength. Thanks Elli" She smiles and walks over to Aylin. "How long have you been practising your arabesque?" I question turning to face her. "About 2 years" she shrugs making my eyes widen. Only? She was definitely born to dance, but I also know that when she means 2 years she means that she practised every day of those 2 years to do it right.

Each student does their arabesque and I make sure to correct them on a few mistakes and give them a few tips to get it better. "Spread out and go down to your splits. Elli come here to the front" everyone does as I say and Elli walks towards me. "Do yours here, you're going to be my 'model'" she nods and goes down to her splits. "Lean forwards grabbing your foot, making sure your nose touches your knee and stay there for 20 seconds" they all lean forwards and stay there. I can hear some students groaning in pain and others can't stay still as they try and let go of their foot to relieve some of the pain they feel in the muscle at the back of their knee.

"Good" I say making them all instantly let go. "We're going to do the same thing backwards. First bend your foot up, with both of your hands grabbing your foot before you slowly pull yourself down. If some of you can touch the back of your head to the back of your knee, that's fantastic, it means you're very flexible." I explain. "Go on try it and stay down for 20 seconds". I watch as they all do the exercise and I find myself shocked to see that only Ellianna and Aylin can touch their head to their knee.

"Very good Aylin" I compliment once they get back up. She was a strong dancer like Ellianna for their age but it didn't shock me, her mother was Missy, she's the one who takes over for me on my days off. "All against the wall" they scurry to the wall and lean against it, I walk towards Aylin and decide to use her as an example for this exercise. "You're all going to do your split on the wall, putting your bad leg against it" I motion for Aylin to do it. Once she's doing it I kneel down next to her, "Now your going to slide your good leg as far as you can keeping your bad leg against the wall" she nods and slides down all the way making everyone gaps and Elli cross her arms across her chest looking unimpressed. "This exercise will not only improve your flexibility on both of your legs but will help you for your split jump, making sure you have a gorgeous jump with straight legs" I explain.