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Day 9: A Song That You Can Dance To

Day 9: A Song That You Can Dance To

"Roundtable Rival" by Lindsey Stirling

“It’s been thirty minutes.  Did I not say to meet here at one thirty?!” Monique exclaims, checking her watch for the millionth time.

“Have you tried calling Carlos?” Iris suggests.

“Multiple times!”  Monique rubs her temples and I wonder if her hair is braided too tight.

I drum my fingers on the hood of the car I’m sitting on.

Suddenly, a car comes into view and thankfully I see Carlos at the wheel.  Maybe Monique will wait until after we film to skin them alive.

“Finally!  Where the heck were you?!” Monique practically yells at them when they climb out of the car.

“Jeez!  Calm down!  It’s not my fault I can’t control New York traffic!” Carlos exclaims, putting his hands up in surrender.  But I spy a twitch at the corner of his lips.

“Just get ready to dance.  We have a video to shoot!”  Monique marches off to talk to the duo of videographers we offered to pay to film a video of us two dance crews battling it out to submit to Dance Crew Battles, a new dance competition purely for dance crews.

The seven members of Illuminate7—Carlos, Prince, Andre, Michael, Jayden, Francis, and their newest member, Xander—begin mingling with us.  They are all dressed in similar clothes: black jeans, brightly colored t-shirts, darker colored hoodies, and an array of footwear.  Some guys added to it and also wear sunglasses or snapbacks.

Luckily it’s the middle of September or else the guys would be sweltering in their choice of clothing.

While their clothing screams “we just wanna have fun”, my dance crew’s outfits are a bit edgier and use darker colors such as royal blue, plum, maroon, black, forest green, and other dark colors.  Two out of the five girls of Rhythmic Diver5ity are wearing crop tops while the other three, I fall into this category, are wearing tank tops.  We all have high-waisted shorts on, those wearing tank tops have them tucked in, and combat boots.  The girls all add their own touch to it.  Some tie jackets around their waists while others wear big accessories: earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, you name it.  All of us, though, wear darker makeup.

We all really look somewhat dangerous if you ask me.

I quite like my outfit, since I never dress like this, as I’m a sweatpants and t-shirt kind of girl.  I’m wearing a plum tank top tucked into black shorts with black combat boots.  A forest green hoodie is tied around my waist.  I have thin silver rings on every finger except for my index finger on my right finger.  Instead, I have a black, chunky ring with a flower on it.  Also, I have huge (and fake) diamond stud earrings adorning my ears.  My makeup it light but dark.  The only thing Lily, the fashionista in our group, pressed was the plum lipstick that complements the color of my tank top.

“So, are you ready for this?” Xander asks as he waltzes up to me.

“Yeah.  It’s fun to dress up and dance… and beat your sorry butts,” I add on with a grin.

“You guys?  Beat us?  Ha!”  Xander throws back my unthreatening jab.

As being the newest recruits to our respective crews, Xander and I both have an understanding that the other dancers don’t.  In fact, both crew captions, Monique and Carlos, decided to give the both of us a sort of duet in the dance we are going to be filming soon.

I snort and shake my head.  “Whatever helps you sleep at night,” I joke.

“Alright!  Let’s get to it!” Monique yells while clapping her hands together to grab our attention.

I slid off the hood of the car and head over towards her as she begins telling us what to do.

“Just like how we’ve practiced before, except we’re outside and have the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge in the background.  Xander, Skylar, hope you remember your duet part.  Now, get lined up!”

We all head to our beginning positions, Illuminate7 lined up on one side and Rhythmic Diver5ity on the other, but all of us our out of the camera shot for now.  The cameraman yells out “action!” and the music starts.

Lindsey Stirling’s “Roundtable Rival” pierces the air and it just encourages you to dance to it.

As the music begins, both lines walk towards each other and into the camera’s view.  Each group looks at their respective members as if to say, who are they and what the heck do they think they’re doing?  There’s a higher pitch in the music and that’s when the girls and I begin dancing.  We dance and act like we’re showing off to the boys that we girls can also dance.  The boys look at each other and then back at us, as if to evaluate us and see whether if we’re any good.

We pause in different dance positions, not uncomfortable though, and look at the boys as they beginning their portion of dancing.  After their group solo, both crews begin dancing at the same time, like they’re trying to outdo the other group.

The music slightly changes and now the one-on-one battles begin, except two girls from my crew have to “battle” two guys each since they outnumber us by two.  This goes on for about half a minute and I have to say it’s one of my favorite parts of the dance.  As this part of the song went along, the music got faster and faster and made my heart pound.

The music shifts and the guys pause in their dancing as we girls continue.  Finally, the duet part arrives.  Everyone else by me and Xander freeze and we begin dancing, trying to show off our best moves while getting closer and closer to each other.  At the very end of our duet, on the last note, I shove Xander back and that seems to bring the Illuminate 7 crew back alive while I freeze by my girls.

At the end of the boys’ last solo part, there’s an especially high note played on the violin that “wakes” the girls and now it’s an all-out battle… for now.

The violin music almost becomes halting as the boys stop and the girls, one by one, begin dancing.  It’s like a domino effect.  Once one girl begins dancing, another one will join in until all of us are dancing.

Suddenly, there’s this pause, this silence for about four seconds.  And then with a beautiful, jarring note, the violin begins again and we dance until the end. 

Only at the very end do I realize I have the biggest grin on my face.