Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,15
wore the same color. She had a dozen pairs of black slippers in various stages of their life cycle, from the trashy pair that she kept tucked away in her locker at school in case she and Michael found a few free minutes to the brand new pair that she wore for class. She had pink ones….
Somewhere.
Actually, now that she thought about it, Danni was fairly sure that her pink slippers were tucked into her closet back in the dorm. It wouldn’t be hard to dig them out; but she hadn’t even thought about it before.
Blushing furiously, she jerked them on and hurried to find a place at the barre. There wasn’t anything she could do about it now.
Madalyn stared down at the black shoes. “Those are pretty!” she told her, a faint hint of jealousy in her voice.
“What?” Danni glanced back at her. “Yeah, they’re also different from everyone else’s.” She wasn’t sure why she had found it necessary to say that aloud. The other girl was nice, but it wasn’t as though she had her best friend.
It wasn’t as though she was Michael.
“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Madalyn squeezed her hand quickly before returning her own to her place at the barre. “Trust me, give it a week, and everyone will be wearing them.”
Danni hoped so. Ballet slippers weren’t half as expensive as pointe shoes, but they weren’t cheap, either; and while she might have a pair of the pink, they wouldn’t last her very long, not as much time as she was going to be spending in class now that she was at the Academy.
Luckily, Mme Renault chose that moment to enter the room, so she didn’t have to place her insecurity on display for the benefit of her new friend. She just bowed to her teacher along with the rest of the students, then followed the familiar instructions as they went through the round of limbering exercises that every dancer performed daily.
Here at the Academy, they performed them more than once every single day.
Plié, relevé. Plié, relevé. Grande plié, relevé. Grand plié, relevé. Second position, and repeat. Mme Renault tapped out the rhythm, and Danni quickly found her body settling into the familiar movements. She could do this. Everything else in the world might be confusing, but when she danced, she knew that she was home.
Lord, thank you for this, she prayed silently. Thank you for reminding me that You are still here, in the silence. Do You dance right alongside me, Lord? It was a favorite theory of hers, and one that had given her many joyful mornings as she considered the possibility that on the occasions when she thought she was dancing alone, it was really a pas de deux of the most intimate type of all.
“All right, girls.” Mme Renault clapped her hands, calling them to the center of the floor. “I would like for you to rehearse the piece of your dance that we were going over last week. Remember, I want to see graceful snowflakes.” She looked over the gathered young ladies. “Danielle? May I see you for a moment?” She gestured.
Danni had no choice but to follow her.
“We are in need of someone to fill Helen’s position in the ballet,” Mme Renault said frankly. “Do you think you will be able to learn the steps in time?”
“Sure.” Danni shrugged. “Um…snowflakes, right? I’ve been one in The Nutcracker before.”
The older woman’s face tightened ever so slightly.
Danni winced, realizing her mistake. “I mean, I’m sure the choreography is completely different,” she said quickly. “And I, um…I look forward to learning it.”
“See that you do so with all due haste,” the older woman warned her. “Now, carry on.”
Danni nodded and hurried quickly back to the floor. She put herself at the back of the room, where she would be able to see the other girls, and allowed herself to simply watch for a few moments.
Lost in the choreography, for several minutes, she didn’t even look at faces. On the second repetition, she joined in, determinedly reproducing the movements exactly as she had seen them in spite of the fact that if she had been at home, she probably would have suggested a couple of changes.
That grand jeté is in the wrong place for most of those girls. I can land it, but they’re flubbing it right and left. She had just had the thought as she went into the jump; when she came down, it was right in front of….