Behind The Spotlight

Chapter 2 --Duets--

I enter studio A and Piper immediately comes running up to me. "Hii", she says as she gives me a hug. "Hey Piper, why are you so excited?", I ask her straight away. "Michelle and Emily have a surprise for us today. That usually means something fun", she answers me and drags me over to the rest of the already present A-Troupe members. "Hi Blakely", everyone greets me. "You know, I don't know everyone's name yet", I say as I look towards a blond girl and two boys with a brown skin tone. One of them is standing up, and the other one is down on the bench with his nose in a book. I think the girl got my hint because she immediately says: "I'm Davis." "I'm Henry and this is Kingston", the boy who's standing up tells me. "And I'm Kenzie", a girl says as she walks in. "Well, I hope that I can remember all of that. Just give me a few days", I say and everyone starts laughing.

"Okay A-Troupe, come here for a minute", Emily says loudly. We all walk over to them, excited for what they're going to say. "You are going to do duets today, so you can bond more and learn to work together. It gives you the opportunity to work with another dancer more closely and it gives you the chance to develop a strong and beautiful friendship because you know what they say: 'Dance friends are friends for life'", Michelle tells us. "I have a little bag with coloured marbles, envelopes with a flower and a big envelope with little pieces of paper with a symbol on it. You all will pick a marble, an envelop and a piece of paper, without looking, and then you're going to find the people you match with. Understand?", Emily says and we all nod our heads before Emily walks over to us with a little bag filled with marbles. We all pick one and hold it in our hand, not looking at it yet. Then Michelle all hands us an envelope and lets us take a little piece of paper out of a bigger envelope. She steps back, and stands beside Emily before saying: "Okay open your hand and look at the colour of your marble." I open my hand and see a purple marble. I look around to find the person who has the same colour of marble as me and I see Piper holding a purple marble as well. I walk over to her and smile. "Looks like we got the same colour", I say to her as she hugs me very excitingly. "Yes, this is going to be the best duet ever!", she almost screams.

"Okay guys, now open your envelop and look inside to find you flower", Michelle says. We do as we're told and once I open my envelope, I can see a light purple lavender flower. I take it out and I see the blond girl from this morning walking up to me. "Davis right?", I ask a little bit uncertain. "Yep! This is going to be so much fun", she says back to me. Everyone is so open and positive about dancing with me. Because I can imagine having to dance with someone new can be quite annoying or uncomfortable.

"Now the last part", Emily says, "Unfold you piece of paper and find the person with the same symbol as you." I unfold my little piece of paper and see a star drawn on to it. I know this must just be a coincidence but purple is my favourite colour and I have a birthmark in the shape of a star. Maybe this is the universe telling me that I belong here... I look around and I see everyone pairing up, but Noah is still standing alone. So, I walk over to him and show him my piece of paper. "A star?", I ask him. He nods his head and I can see a smile forming on his face.

"Can I have everyone's attention for one more minute please?!", Michelle screams. We all shut up and turn our heads around to face her. "You start with your marble partner, then your flower partner and last your symbol partner. You get two and a half hours per duet today as well as tomorrow. After every two and a half hours you come back here and we will assign you your following rehearsal space. Your duets need to be ready by tomorrow evening, then we'll put a little showcase on. So, work hard but have fun and enjoy yourselves!", Emily tells us. "Just come by and we'll tell you were you can rehears", Michelle adds. Piper immediately grabs my arm and drags me over to Michelle and Emily. "Where can we go?", Piper asks them excited. "You and Blakely can use studio B", Michelle tells us and we immediately start walking over there. Once we arrive, Piper grabs my arms and has a very serious look on her face. "What's wrong?", I ask her confused because she was so excited a minute ago. "I've seen you dance and you're amazing at acro, but I certainly am not", she tells me. "Then we don't put any acro in our routine", I say back to her. "Are you sure?" "Yeah, there are so many other things we can do together." "Yes, you're right." "Uhm what about point? Michelle told me that you are a great ballet dancer", I ask Piper. "You can dance on point too?", she asks me shocked before I just nod my head. "Oh no way! Is there anything you can't do?", she asks me and we both start laughing. "I'm just very versatile", I say back to her as I shrug my shoulders. "I wish I could dance like you", Piper says, suddenly very serious. "Don't wish you could be like me because you are your own person and that is just enough. Honestly, it's just amazing when I get to meet new people and all their different personalities so you just keep doing you because you're amazing!", I tell her and I can see a big heart-warming smile forming on her face. "That's very sweet of you", is all she says back to me. "Okay so any ideas for our duet?", I ask her sweetly. "Uhm not really, I've never choreographed a dance on point before", she tells me. "Me neither but I'm sure we can come up with a killer duet together. What about we portray the queens of Alice in Wonderland? You're the White Queen and I'm the Red Queen. That would be so cool on point", I say as we both take our point shoes out of our dance bags. "Oh yeah", she says definitely approving my idea. So we put on our point shoes and start choreographing our duet.

"That was great", I say after a little more than two hours of rehearsing. "Yes, it looks really good so far", she says back to me as we both take off our point shoes and put them back into our dance bags. "Who's your next duet partner?", I ask Piper curious. "Finn", is all she says back as she rolls her eyes. "Isn't he fun to dance with?" "He's really fun to dance with, but he has had a crush on me for quite a while and every time we dance together he gets so close to me that I'm afraid I'm going to loose myself." "Loose yourself to him? Oh how cute. You like him too!", I almost scream, really happy and excited for her. "No I don't like him like that." "Yes you do!", I tease her. "No I don't! Now hurry up or we'll be too late for our next duet practice", she says as she's already by the door. I walk over to her and we both run to studio A.

"Ah Piper and Blakely, how did your rehearsal go?", Emily asks us once we enter the studio. "Good", we say in unison and we start laughing. "I'm glad. Okay uhm Piper and Finn, you can take studio D and Blakely and Davis, you two can go to studio 1", Emily tells us and off we go.