Behind The Spotlight

Chapter 3 --Personal Story--

Davis and I enter studio 1 and smile at each other kind of awkward. I don't really know Davis yet. "So, what kind of dancer are you?", I ask her, trying to start a conversation. "I'm mostly a contemporary dancer, but I can do acro pretty well too", she answers me. I nod my head. "Can I ask you something?", she suddenly says. "Yeah, of course, ask away." "Your dancing is absolutely incredible! So, I was wondering how old you were." "I am 15 years old", I say, answering her question. "No! You're kidding right?", she says in disbelief. "No, I really am 15", I say, starting to laugh. "You're 15 and you can already dance like that? Wow, you are definitely going to be a star." "Well, you are good at exaggerating", I say back to her. "All of you are amazing!", I add. "Yeah but we weren't that amazing at the age of 15." "How old are you then?", I ask Davis. "I'm 18. I'm the oldest of the group. The rest of A-Troupe is 16 or 17. So, you are one of the youngest member ever to be on A-Troupe", she tells me. "Oh", is all I say back to her, looking down a little bit uncomfortable. "But don't worry about that because you dance like an 18-year-old, and you act so mature so I don't think anyone would be weird when they hear that you're only 15", Davis reassures me. "Okay", I say as I breathe a sigh of relief, a little smile appearing on my face again.

"So, any thoughts on our duet?", I ask Davis. "Uhm what about sisterhood? Since you are the youngers member of A-Troupe and I'm the oldest", she tells me before I look down at the ground. "I don't really think that's a good idea", I say back to her, almost in a whisper. "Why not? That would be such a cool storyline. We could easily be sisters", she says back to me, but as she says that, a tear escapes from my eye. "Hey, what's wrong?", I hear Davis ask me sweetly as she puts one hand under my chin and lifts up my head. "Nothing", I say back to her as I wipe that one tear away. "Come on. We're a family. You can tell me." "It's just... I lost my big sister two years ago", I tell her as more tears start rolling down my cheeks. "Oh sweetie", Davis says as she wraps me up in a big hug. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry", she says apologizing as she lets go of me. "It's okay. It's just hard to think about." "I get that, but maybe it's not such a bad thing if you dance about it. It is clearly something that you're not fully recovered from so maybe it will help you if you dance about it?", she says and it kind of makes sense. I dance about everything else. I dance to get through everything else. "Maybe you're right", I tell her as wipe my tears away. "You sure?" "Yes, I'm sure", I tell her and she walks over to the music installation and puts a beautiful song on. "What about this?", she asks me, "It's about going on when someone who was very important to you is gone." I listen to the song carefully and it is truly beautiful. "How did your sister pass away?", Davis asks me once the song is finished playing. "She was in a car accident", I say quietly. "Okay so what about we start our routine holding hands like this", she says as she grabs my left hand but as soon as she touches it, I flinch and pull it away. Davis looks puzzled, but I know what this means. "You can't touch it", I say firmly. "Why not?" "I was born with it. It's always been sensitive. Whenever people touch it, it feels like electricity is going through my body", I explain her. "Okay, I'll try to remember that", Davis says sweetly as she walks around me and grabs a hold of my right hand. "So we start holding hands", she continues, and we start choreographing from there.

"It's like two more counts of eight so we have to portray you losing me", Davis says but I look at the clock in the back of the studio and see that we've already been dancing for more than two and a half hours. "Uhm I think we're going to have to finish that tomorrow", I say back to her, pointing at the clock. "Oh shoot!", she screams as we both pick up our dance bags from the ground and run over to studio A. "Davis?", I ask while running. "Yes?" "Can you please not tell anyone about my sister?" "No of course not. We'll just say that it's a story we made up for our duet. Don't worry, you can trust me", Davis says back to me and gives me a sweet smile.
"Ah there you two are", Emily screams once we enter. "Sorry, we last track of time", I say, trying to catch my breath. "It's okay. Davis, you and Jacquie go to studio B and Blakely and Noah, you can stay here and use studio A", Michelle tells us. We all nod our heads before Davis and Jacquie exit studio A, and Michelle and Emily walk back over to their office.

"So, I get to dance with the dance captain", I say raising an eyebrow. "I'm just as equal as all of you", he says back to me. He's a gentleman, he's sweet, he's an amazing dancer and he's humble.

"I'm so happy that I got partnered with you because you are an amazing dancer and you are so easy to dance with", Noah tells me. "Oh thank you", is all I say back to him. "Okay so what about I just put some music on and we kind of improv together to get a better feeling from each other?", he asks me and I nod my head before Noah walks over to the music installation and puts some music on. We both start dancing and it doesn't take long before he's lifting me into the air. Just as the song finishes, I'm in his arms. I don't know why but his embrace feels really good and comfortable. He quickly spins me out of his embrace and looks at me sweetly. Our eyes meet and I don't know what's happening but I feel this weird and exciting feeling in my stomach. I quickly look down as I hear him say: "That was so easy. It's like we dance as one." I just look back up at him and smile, my cheeks bright red. "You can literally do everything. I put you in the air and you just get in", he tells me. "Okay, you can stop there because I'm not good with compliments", I say back to him, and I see him nodding his head understandingly. "Okay, let's just start with some contemporary choreo and then we can break it down with some hiphop", Noah tells me, kindly asking for my approval. "Sounds good!" "Aren't you going to take off your sweatshirt?", he asks me. "No, I get cold quite easily." Noah just nods his head and we start choreographing.

"Why don't we make it into a love story?", Noah suddenly screams out. "And why would we do that?", I ask him, slightly laughing at his idea. "Richelle and Piper told me that Jacquie is your girlfriend and that she gets jealous pretty quickly", I add. "Don't worry about Jacquie. I like her but she's so demanding all the time. I can't look at someone else, I can't talk with someone else and she definitely doesn't like me dancing with someone else, especially not if it's a pretty and talented girl like you", he tells me as our eyes meet again. "But you're just so much easier to dance with. You move with me instead of trying to control me. You are the best dancer I've ever danced with." "Thank you", I say, our eyes still locked, before he takes a step closer to me. He touches my arm and I can feel a thousand butterflies excitingly flying around in my stomach. He goes all the way down to my hand but once he touches it, I pull it away as fast as I can. "I'm sorry. It's just really sensitive, I was born with it. It's only the left one though", I explain him. "You're so special", he says, almost like a whisper. I look down shyly, a little smile forming on my face.

We continue choreographing our duet and I have to say that it looks pretty amazing. "I still can't believe you. You do things I have never seen anyone do. You do things I didn't even know were possible to do with your body", he tells me. "Thank you", is all I say as I take a step back. "No really, I mean it. You're so incredibly special Blakely", he says whilst taking a step closer to me. I just give him a little smile before we hear people entering studio A. "Hi guys!", Noah says to everyone as they all greet him back excitingly. Right at that moment, Michelle and Emily exit their office and come walking over to us. "Okay A-Troupe. It was a very productive day so go home, get some rest and come back at the same time tomorrow", Emily tells us and we all grab our dance bag and start heading home.