LITMIR.BIZ

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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 you … yes. Anna, now look up and see if it is working … yes.”

      Jonathon laughed and imitated them on the side.

      “Look, even the one without a brain can be sexier than you, Alexandra! You must work baby, you really must work.”

      Alexandra bit her lip and nodded, trying to do it better.

      “All right boys … now we will work on the lifts, yes? All right, you enter, both boys carrying the girl … Anna, you try first. Leon downstage, Jonathon upstage … yes. Now, Anna, you come on sitting on their shoulders. Yes, arms like this. Leon, don’t drop the girl! Lower Anna down gently, she is your princess, you are a slave, do you want to be executed? Yes … now walk slowly down the centre … the corps are here, and here, ignore them, they are your slaves, they are like the furniture. Now Anna, the part we worked on last day … yes, hold the arabesque … now, Jonathon you pick her up like this … Leon, you stand here and present, be ready … Now start walking back Jonathon, Leon, take her hand … now lower her down. No, not like a sack of potatoes! She must stay in the arabesque, tilt her more forward. Anna, hold your stomach, baby. Alexandra! Are you paying attention? Because I will not be happy if I have to waste time going over this again. Now we will try it with the music.”

      He walked over and started to fiddle with the CD player. They heard the music for Spanish choreography, and the boys began dancing. Mr. Moretti swore and tried again, getting Chinese. Jonathon and Leon happily jumped the Chinese jumps.

      “Having fun?” Mr. Moretti called out angrily, not turning around. He swore again and began muttering in Italian. “Where did the Arabian music go? It was right in between here and here.”

      “Maybe Mr. Yu accidentally erased it?” Jonathon suggested.

      “Why would that man have done that? No, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.” Mr. Moretti tossed the CD case down on the table. “I believe you. Now you will just have to hear me singing. Have fun, children. From the beginning please, Anna still.”

      Alexandra tried to mark the choreography on the side, but it was hard to mark choreography that was mostly highly stylized pas de deux work. She smirked; Anna’s back was completely red from Leon and Jonathon sliding her down wrong. They all suddenly stopped, as they heard Mr. Yu yelling in the next room. Mr. Moretti glared furiously at the wall that divided the two studios. “Shall we try it again?”

      When the rehearsal was almost over, Mr. Moretti looked at his watch. There were two minutes left. “Alexandra, now you try,” he announced, smiling his Cheshire cat smile. Alexandra drew a deep breath and walked over to Jonathon and Leon, who were groaning in mock pain.

      “All right, from the beginning, with Alexandra.

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