The Performance

by ~LyraAlluse

The Performance

Part One: Three’s company

Kathy looked over at her two dance partners who were to accompany her in the next performance, and felt her knees knock together like the legs of a flamingo standing in a cold river. “Why did madam have to pair me with these two?” She moaned under her breath, as madam freeman begun playing the piano, and the class started their routine warm-ups. Kathy did knee bends to the music, and felt her heart sink when she caught sight of one of her dance partners doing moves and turns that a Broadway actress would be envious of.

Her name was Rita Evenson, and not only was she a world class dancer with fourteen dance academies playing tug-o-war among them selves to see which one would be lucky enough to have her in their school, but she was at best, the star dancer of Madam Freeman’s School for the Ballet Arts. With her skinny legs that would make a swan jealous, her curly brown hair, and thin physique she was, without contest, the prettiest girl in the class; and she wasn’t afraid to tell you about it.

Kathy recalled a time when she had first joined the academy, and was being introduced to her fellow dancers. Rita had taken her “under her wing,” for the first few weeks, showing her the ways of the academy, and what was to be done each day. Kathy hadn’t thought she was too bad, until she overheard her telling her friends that the only reason she had taken her around, was to earn brownie points with madam. The next thing she heard, however, is what sent her over the deep end.

With a smirk on her face, Rita had ordered one of her lackeys to retrieve a jogger’s weight from her dance bag, and when it was placed in her hands she said, “Look at me! I’m Kathy, the body builder! I want to be a dancer, but my muscles are just too bulky. I sure hope this is the weight lifting room; I would be so embarrassed to find out that it was really a prodigious dance academy!”

It was at the moment that Kathy realized two things; One, Rita and she were not going to be friends and two, she had a very slim chance of ever making any progress in the class, without Rita having something to say about it. This didn’t dampen her spirits, however. Kathy knew if she could just keep trying her hardest, eventually Rita would be put in her place, and she would get an opportunity to succeed.

Of course, this didn’t mean she couldn’t do all she could to show Rita the “error of her ways,” so the next day she came to class sporting the same outfit Rita always wore and had begun dancing off beat with the piano. When Rita asked her what she was doing, Kathy just smiled and replied; “I decided to dress up just like you and mimic your moves, so I’ll be as a “prodigious” dancer as you are!” The whole class laughed, and Rita stomped out of the room with face so red, it could have belonged to a tomato.

Ever since that day, Rita had not made fun of her, but she made it her sworn duty to make Kathy look like a fool in everything she did; which is why she dreaded being partners with her. Kathy had no doubt that Rita had something planned for the big dance recital coming up, and having to be within the same area of her dance radius did not improve the situation.

To make things worse, she had not only had to worry about keeping up with Rita, but then there was her second dance partner, who not only made her look like a crocodile trying to be graceful comparatively, but was to put it lightly, a bit creepy. She had joined madam’s dance academy two weeks before, and as much as Rita thought Kathy was better suited for being a heavy weight wrestler, Kathy believed this girl was better suited to be a vampire.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like her. After all, she was the only person who was nice to her in the whole academy. It was just that, well, she was a bit out there for even her tastes. Every day, she would come to class dressed completely in black, with a painted white face that seemed to mask every one of her emotions, and would dance on her own, refusing to talk to any other girl but Kathy.

Madam explained that the new girl, or “Gina,’ as she was called, though that was not her real name, had come from a very prestigious dancing family in Cuba, and was with us now because her grandmother had paid a great sum of money to come to the United States to learn “The American,” way of dancing. When Madam had tried to explain more about why Gina had come, she covered her mouth and said in a rather creepy voice; “Don’t ask don’t tell; there are some things that should not be revealed.”

That incident had pretty much isolated her from the other girls, who were so intimidated by her that they did not even dare try to make fun of her. “If we tease her, she will turn us all into headless kittens! Everyone keep away from the new girl; I have a feeling that she came from somewhere other than Cuba!” Rita had warned the class, after the first day she arrived, and though Kathy did not believe anything Rita said about her, she still had the feeling that it was best to steer clear of her when she could help it.

Between “The Dancing Queen,” and “The Queen of The Damned,” Kathy couldn’t help but wonder what her performance would be like…and if she would ever live to tell the tale.

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Part Two:

The Graceful Crocodile

Two months had passed since the first day Kathy had been assigned to dance with the “Swan Princess,” and the “Gothic ballerina,” and things couldn’t have gone any worse. Between Rita complaining that she was a menace to the dancing society every time she accidentally danced off beat and Gina refusing to wear anything with color until Madam Freeman had somehow convinced her that it would help enhance the “tragedy” of the performance, it was a wonder that she was still sane. On the bright side, Kathy only had to live through the final performance, which was scheduled to be the following night, and focusing on the ultimate goal helped her get through the first half hour of the rehearsal, she was attending presently.

“All I have to do is get through the next scene, and I can go home…” she thought to herself, as the green fairies from the last scene exited the stage, and left herself, Rita, and Gina alone between a pair wooden painted trees, that were placed on either side of them to make it appear like they were dancing through a forest. Kathy winced as she held her position beside Rita, and one of the thorns from Gina’s “rose,” costume dug into her side. “Well, here goes another unique performance from the three stooges…” she muttered under her breath, as she caught sight of Rita giving her an evil grin.

As soon as madam begun playing a fast paced song by Romanoff on the piano, Rita and Gina begun leaping around the stage, and Kathy alternated dancing behind the two of them, making it appear as if she was a butterfly, pollinating a rose and a sunflower. When the song was half way over, Kathy couldn’t help but sigh a breath of relief. “Now it’s down to the final position; please catch me this time…” she begged to Rita under her breath, as she prepared for the jump, and Gina took her position beside one of the trees.

Kathy should have seen what was coming next, but she was so excited about getting through a performance without messing up once, that she leaped through the air without thinking twice…and two seconds later came crashing down into one of the trees, when Rita “conveniently,” turned away to sneeze.

This caused her to slide into madam, who tripped over her piano bench, and grabbed onto a near by curtain to help regain her balance, but in doing so, caused the complete line of pixie dancers standing in front of it, to come toppling over one another, onto the stage only a couple feet away from Kathy. Madam sighed when she caught sight of the jumbled pile of dancers who looked more like they had tackled a football, and then finished a performance, after she had regained her balance, and calmly asked Kathy to approach her. Kathy picked herself off the floor, and blushed as she faced madam freeman, who peered in her eyes with one of her eyebrows raised.

“Kathy, I realize this wasn’t your fault, but you have to learn how to work through the imperfections of a performance. Now, what are we going to do next time?” Kathy bowed once and pointed toward one of the trees she had toppled over. “I am going to pick myself up and keep dancing, without causing my fellow dancers to fall over around me. I am sorry; I will do better next time.” Madam smiled, and gestured for the other dancers to join her in the center of the stage. “This set us back a little bit, but no real harm was done. Tomorrow we will come in early to practice before our final performance so we can work out the final bugs. I’ll see you all then class.” The dancers acknowledged madam, and then stared at Kathy with fire in their eyes as they gathered their belongings and stuffed them in their gym bags.

Kathy ignored them and packed up her own dancing supplies, as she saw madam pull Rita to the side and talk about something she couldn’t clearly make out. “I wonder what that was about…” Kathy asked herself, as she finished putting the final item in her bag and walked out the front door of the academy. Before she left, Gina pulled her to the side and gave her note written in red ink. With a creepy voice, she pointed to the red letters and said; “I know what she has planned for tomorrow, but don’t worry; I have something planed too,” before looking once behind her shoulder, and hurrying down the street. Kathy’s eyes followed Gina until she disappeared into a dark ally way and then focused on the letter that she had given her moments before. The letter read;

Dear Kathy,

Rita has something horrible planned for the performance. I heard her talking about “an accident” with her lackeys before she left. We strange folk have to stick together, so I am going to give those little suck up dance queens a run for their money. Don’t worry; I’ll take care of everything. I just wanted you to know what those girls were up to. I’ll see you at tomorrow’s performance. It should prove to be a scream.

Sincerely,
Gina

After reading the note, Kathy wasn’t sure if she feel flattered that one of the girls actually was going to stand up for her or a bit creped out that Gina thought she was as strange as she was. At any rate, one thing was for sure; tomorrow’s performance was certainly going to live up to its advertised slogan which proclaimed it as “a dance experience that the audience will never forget.” Placing the note in her pocket, Kathy made her way home and after saying a quick greeting to her mother, ran to her upstairs room.

Once inside, she wrote the days events in her journal and placed the note Gina had written to her at the back of the journal. When she was finished, she began practiced her dance moves and thought of the days events. “I don’t know what you have planned Gina, but I hope it’s not hazardous to anyone’s health…” she groaned miserably as she finished her dance routine, changed into her night clothes, and climbed in bed.

Before Kathy turned in for the night, she retrieved a lucky rabbit’s foot from the top drawer of the mahogany night stand that rested by her bed frame and placed it under her pillow. “It looks like I’m going to need a lot of luck for tomorrow’s performance…and I hope this does the trick.” Kathy thought to herself before turning off her bed room light and drifting into a deep state of slumber.

To be continued...