Tête-à-Tête

2. Side by Side

Montmarte, Paris – June 1870
(13 years earlier)

"Wow... this is- I've never seen Paris like this. It's incredible."

"I'm still amazed you've never been up here, Odette."

"I know- pathetic, isn't it? But I've just never had a reason to come before now, and I've never had much free time."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to tease."

"It's fine. I'm glad I came today. Although I'm surprised the others are taking so long."

"Weren't they right behind us?"

"I'm sure they're... Oh- Mérante, look! There's people dancing, down there. You see them? Just over there, towards the left. Not that far, no- just past the trees, if you... now you're not even trying. Look, if you just follow my hand and-"

"Oh, I see them now. Just past the trees, right... It looks like a guinguette. Listen... I can hear a violin."

"I hear it, and I think they're playing a musette, too... It sounds fun."

"You'd like to go join them, wouldn't you?"

"No, it's- I'm fine."

"Really? Because you look about ready to run off."

"Well, I- it'd be fun, I admit. But I don't know how to dance. Stop! Before you make that face, I know what you're going to say. And yes, I admit I can do ballet well enough but I've never been to a social dance."

"I'm sure you'd do fine. We were doing the mazurka in rehearsal just this Thursday. Have you really never danced a waltz?"

"Never. I've seen it though, it doesn't look all that hard."

"It's easy. You could do it drunk and blindfolded. I know- I've seen lesser dancers than you do just that."

"Why am I not surprised. By any chance were you one of those drunk, blind dancers?"

"I don't think I want to answer that... Oh sure, go ahead and laugh."

"Sorry, I'm picturing you spinning about and staggering on stage."

"Well you're not far off."

"Mérante, if anyone I'm sure you'd still manage to make it look graceful."

"'Eye of the beholder', as they say. I'm trying to remember how Eugénie described it, but graceful wasn't the word. Huh, maybe we should go down and join them, we could get some drinks and you can judge for yourself."

"God, let's not!"

"You said you wanted to dance."

"No I didn't. Although... all right it's true. Would you actually want to go dance? I mean, even if I wasn't here?"

"Possibly. I don't think I'd ever have seen them though, without your help."

"Mérante, can I ask you a personal question?"

"What's that?"

"Why do you dance? I mean, I'd heard you grew up with it, you've been dancing all your life it sounds like. But do you actually, I don't know, enjoy dancing?"

"Why do I dance? Dance is, well... it's infuriating. And exhausting. And sometimes I don't know why we bother. I'm always trying to be better, to be perfect and the truth is I'll never reach it. One bad injury and it'd be all for nothing. Dance drives me crazy. And yet, I don't know what I would do without it. It's my life. I've never really thought about it, actually... I do have a reason, why I dance... It's just... I can feel it, I know it... I just don't have the words to say it."

"I didn't mean to pry-"

"You didn't. Though it's not a very good answer."

"Not at all. I think it carries the truth of it."

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"Why do you dance, Odette?"

"... Please don't laugh."

"I won't."

"Without dance... I honestly think I would have died a long time ago. I know that sounds pathetic, and maybe it is. But's the only thing that's ever made me happy, the only time I don't have to... to be me. Or maybe it's the only time I truly can be myself. I don't know. It's saved me so often, without it... If I couldn't dance, I don't know what I'd do."

"Odette..."

"That's depressing, sorry. Although you know, it's funny- I can't remember a time I was ever this happy. It's only now I have the closest thing to a home I've ever known. I get to dance on the stage of the Opéra de Paris. I'm here with friends, with people I care about. I never thought my life could be like this. I... I truly never thought I could be this happy."

"I'm glad. I'm really, truly glad you're here with us, Odette."

"...Oh, why not. If it's not asking too much, would you care to dance with me, Mérante?"

"With all my heart."

~~~

Historical Notes:
Montmartre- a large hill in Paris, although in 1870 was still a quiet, rural get-away from city life.
Guinguette- popular drinking places/restaurants that sometimes served as dance venues- a bit like a small cabaret.
Musette- an instrument like a small accordion, standard Parisian dance music (that stereotypical Parisian café music? That's a musette)
Muzurka- a Polish folk dance that was a popular social dance along with the polka and waltz. It's also one of the dances in the ballet Coppélia that premiered in 1870.

The third and final chapter will be coming soon!