There was a cheer and everyone moved onto the floor, shedding extra clothing and taking last swigs from their water bottles. Alexandra grabbed Julian’s arm and led him to the centre. Tristan went to the very front, a bit to the left.
Leah interrupted the class twice to correct Julian’s placement. “See?” she said to the class, one hand pushing his back in, the other pushing his stomach in, and her head shoving his ribs to one side. “When Jules finds this position, he is in a much more stable place. This will really improve your ballet, too. You’ll really notice the difference in everything you do.”
She finally moved on to across the floor exercises. “And five, six, seven, eight, and slide-brush-in-breathe … and one! Feel your back curve, and up — and fall. Alexandra, suspend — yes, that’s right!” The class clapped and Alexandra grinned happily as she ran off. “Paul, you need to breathe, just fall. And jump! Five, six, and go —”
Julian grabbed his water bottle at the side of the room.
“So? Do you like it?” Tristan whispered excitedly. Julian nodded, choking on the water.
Alexandra ran over to them. “Jules! You’re really good at jazz. Come across the floor with me?”
“Sure,” Julian said, concentrating on not hiccupping. Tristan glared at him. “Why don’t we go as a three?”
“Sure,” said Alexandra, smiling and taking Julian’s arm. “Come on, we can go in the next group.” They joined with a girl in brightly coloured Lululemon tights, forcing Tristan to go in the group after.
“Good energy, Julian!” Leah called.
“I really like this class!” Julian whispered excitedly as they walked to the other corner. “I’m totally stoked to come again.”
“Yeah, let’s come again without Lexi.”
“What?” Julian was puzzled.
“Nothing. Come, quick — we can go in this group.” He shoved Julian ahead of him.
“Okay,” said Julian. They danced across the floor without Alexandra.
After class, they got changed quickly, so they wouldn’t be late for rehearsal. As soon as they’d left the changing room, Tristan walked quickly for the stairs, tossing a sunny “Bye-bye!” to the lady at the desk.
“Hey, Tristan,” Julian said, interrupting his chattering about how great the class had been for the first time. “Alexandra’s still getting changed.”
Tristan stopped walking. Alexandra came out a couple seconds later, and they all went downstairs together. Julian couldn’t stop talking about how cool Leah, in particular, and Harbour, in general, were, and Alexandra easily gushed about both of them with him. Tristan tolerated this for about two blocks, but then he’d had enough and interrupted them.
“I bet Leah would choreograph a solo for you for competition, if you asked her.”
Julian immediately stopped walking and turned to him. “Do you think so? That would be friggin’ awesome!”
“Yeah, sure. She’s done loads for me.”
“She did one for me last year,” Alexandra said. Julian did a happy little skippity hop.
“Okay, stop that,” Tristan said. They reached the academy and went to get changed. Tristan smirked at Alexandra as he followed Julian into the boys’ changing room. She rolled her eyes and went off to to the girls’.
“Dmitri’s coming to rehearsal today,” Grace announced to the washroom at large.
“Good,” Aiko said, smiling as she fixed her bun. “I am happy to finally rehearse with him! I was beginning to wonder if the first time would be on stage.”
Alexandra scooted in between the two of them to put her hair up.
“How come you’re so late?” Grace asked. Alexandra shrugged. “You should get here early. You know how much Mr. Moretti yelled at you last time. I just don’t want you to get yelled at again. You should probably go over his corrections before we go in. Do you want me to help you?”
Alexandra stuck hair pins in her mouth just before Grace finished speaking, and then mimed that she was too busy with her hair to answer.
“Okay, okay. I was just trying to help.” Grace left to go upstairs. And the rest of the girls quickly followed.
In the hallway, Dmitri was sitting on one of the chairs, everyone in a semi-circle around him. He was not tall, or skinny (in fact, he was a bit chubby for a dancer) and he was rather lazy. He was tolerated because he was strong, and also because the company was always short of male dancers. He rarely bathed, believing that body spray worked just as well as water, and laughed if anyone complained (he also thought that not bathing proved he was straight). And he was scary to do pas with, since he liked to threaten to drop girls as they were in the air. Dmitri also liked to amuse himself by waiting until the very last second to catch his partner and experimenting with using only one or no hands to partner. Nobody really wanted to work with him, but he was in the company, so they all tried to, just for the status of it.
“I like to dance balls out,” Dmitri was saying as Alexandra came and joined them.
“So — no dance belt?” Anna joked.
Dmitri looked at her. “You think you’d like it if I dance with no dance belt?” Anna shook her head, but Dmitri ignored her. “Okay, maybe you’d like it like this?”He stood up and swung his hips all around. “I have no problem with that.”
“I don’t think that it’s that large,” Grace said drily, making sure that Dmitri couldn’t hear her. Alexandra grimaced. Dmitri was wearing white knit tights that were so old that they were completely see-through. He always wore them over nothing but his skin coloured dance belt. To complete the effect, he would roll the tights and the dance belt together, down over his hips, so you could see way more of his butt than anyone wanted. Not to mention that his white shirt was too short for him, and stopped quite a bit before his tights, giving everyone a good view of his belly. He, of course, was under the impression that this made him irresistible. No one seemed to agree.
Mr. Yu came out and called Grace, Dmitri, Tristan, and Aiko into the studio. He slapped Dmitri on the back fondly as he entered the studio. “No drunk today?
Anna, Alexandra, Leon, and Jonathon were left waiting for Mr. Moretti in silence. Just when Alexandra thought she couldn’t stand the quiet anymore, Mr. Moretti called them in. Alexandra tried to avoid eye contact with Mr. Moretti.
“Today will be good for you, boys,” Mr. Moretti said. Leon and Jonathon groaned.
“Now, babies,” Mr. Moretti continued, ignoring Leon and Jonathon. “This must be sexy. I mean it, babies. If it is not sexy, I will kick you out. Go to your room, close the door, and practice in front of the mirror. It must have fire, passion.” He taught them the first bit. “No, no! Alexandra, you move like you are very, very shy. It must be sexy, baby. Practice in front of the mirror, look at yourself. No, no, now you just move your hipses. You are not doing hip hop, you must be slow, controlled. And move, and move … like honey, molasses. You think you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Now you hide your face, but not because you are shy. Because you still know that the man is watching
