Le Cygne
Chapter Four
MADAME Giry woke the dancers at 5 o'clock in the morning. Lara went to the bathroom on the floor below to wash her face in icy water then changed into her loose white rehearsal dress. As they walked to the studios together, Lara noticed that thankfully Elsbeth was too tired to talk much.
Once in the studio, Madame Giry immediately told the dancers to warm up while she went to speak with a Monsieur Beauchamp.
"Who is Monsieur Beauchamp?" Lara asked Elsbeth as soon as the Dance Mistress left the room. They were standing at the barre doing stretches.
"He teaches the male dancers in the studio below ours." Elsbeth said, stifling a yawn.
"Madame Giry likes to keep the dancers separate for as long as possible until she has no choice but to complete the chorography together." a pretty blond girl behind Lara said, "Hello, my name is Angelique." she offered her hand and Lara shook it.
"Why does she want to keep the dancers separate?" Lara placed her left ankle upon the barre and straightened her leg, enjoying the feeling of her muscles stretching and loosening.
"I expect she thinks if she keeps us apart as much as possible then we won't have any opportunity to engage in any hanky-panky." Angelique snorted. Lara laughed, she liked Angelique already.
"My sweetheart is one of the dancers." Angelique added, staring to Plié .
"And I suppose you get up to all sorts of hanky-panky?" Lara said, smiling.
Angelique laughed loudly, "No, Luc is lovely. When they come, look for the handsomest dancer, that's my Luc."
"Marie has had her eye on him for some time." Elsbeth butted in. Angelique gave her an irritated look then explained for Lara's benefit.
"Do you see the girl behind you at the end of the barre?" she said, nodding her head somewhere over Lara's left shoulder. Lara looked; the girl in question reminded her very much of a fox, with a thin face with angular features, narrow eyes and titian red hair.
"Marie Rossier is the reason that Madame Giry keeps the boys and girls separate."
"Claire Debrosse says she and Monsieur Firmin were good friends. Very good friends." Elsbeth said.
"How old is she?" Lara asked.
"Twenty."
"Last year she was sure she had an accident. Gave everyone a right scare! Madame Giry was all for making her leave but Monsieur Firmin stepped in, of course. Anyway, as it turned out, it was all a mistake but Firmin hasn't touched her since then. So now she's sniffing around the male dancers."
"Oh, Elsbeth, that was just a rumour! You mustn't say things which may not be true!" Angelique scolded, though Lara noticed that she still looked at Marie Rossier with some malice, as though it was not completely unlikely that she may be trying to ingratiate herself with the male dancers.
At that moment, the studio door opened and Madame Giry entered with a man who was presumably Monsieur Beauchamp and the male dancers trooping in after them in a line. Lara spotted Luc with ease, Angelique had not exaggerated, he was indeed the most handsome boy in the class, with his copper coloured hair and clear blue eyes; also the fact that he gave a shy little wave to Angelique when he was sure the two dance teachers were too deep in conversation to notice helped Lara to identify him.
"Silence!" Madame Giry shouted, rapping her cane upon the floor, "Take your positions with your usual partners!" There was a rush of activity as the dancers found their partners and a place on the floor. Lara went to stand beside Madame Giry.
"Monsieur Beauchamp, this is Lara Schuschnigg, a new addition to my class as of yesterday. Are there any dancers in your class she may be partnered with?" the Dance Mistress said.
Monsieur Beauchamp, a handsome man in his mid-forties, stepped forward to scrutinise Lara carefully, "No," he said finally, "The two groups are perfectly matched in numbers, remember?"
"What about one of the older boys?"
Monsieur Beauchamp sighed thoughtfully, "No, they're all working on the new Tchaikovsky ballet." he shrugged helplessly.
"What about Montandon?" Madame Giry said after some thought.
"Montandon! The boy's a drunk!" Monsieur Beauchamp exclaimed, "You swore we'd never let him dance another step after what happened last time!"
"Last time?" Lara blurted, unsure of whether she really wanted to be involved in this particular dance if it meant her partner would be a drunken troublemaker.
"Montandon has a habit of sneaking out at nighttimes - I can't for the life of me figure out how he does it," Monsieur Beauchamp explained, scratching his head in puzzlement, "Last week he snuck out again but didn't return until two days later. He stumbled drunk through the dormitories and climbed into bed; the only problem was that he'd somehow found his way into the female dormitories instead of the males' and had climbed into bed with Mademoiselle Perin," Monsieur Beauchamp nodded in the direction of a dainty brunette who was chatting animatedly with her partner, "Mademoiselle Perin awoke and, finding her bed had gained an occupant, woke the rest of the dormitory with her screams. The other young ladies also began screaming at the sight of a young man in their room, waking Montandon who, startled and confused, stumbled from the room and fell down several flights of stairs. We found him lying at the bottom of a stairway, uninjured and snoring loudly - can you believe it? After all that the young rouge had the nerve to fall asleep!"
"And were is he now?" Madame Giry asked.
"In his dormitory - I haven't allowed him to set foot inside my studio. I sent a letter to his parents telling them we refuse to have him any longer. I'm waiting for a reply to see what they want to do with him."
"Well, he does show great promise, if only he'd apply himself." Madame Giry said, "I am sure Mademoiselle Schuschnigg will be able to cope with him. We'll give it a try."
Lara felt sick, she'd only just been accepted as part of the troupe and her position was still a little dubious, now she must struggle to do well with an outrageous loafer for a partner. Monsieur Beauchamp left to fetch the infamous dancer.
"Don't worry, Lara." Madame Giry said, seeing the look of alarm on her face, "If he continues with his shameful ways then you don't have to dance with him."
Lara noticed that Elsbeth and Angelique were looking at her questioningly. She went to stand next to them.
"Lara, this is Luc." Angelique said, squeezing the arm of her partner.
"How do you do?" Luc said, showing two rows of straight white teeth when he smiled.
"Whatever's the matter?" Elsbeth said, "You looked terribly angry when you were speaking to Madame Giry and Monsieur Beauchamp."
Lara grimaced, "My soon to be partner is an utter cad apparently." Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Lara turned around to find a gangly youth with hair as yellow as a lemon towering over her.
"Good morning, my name is Thomas Montandon." he said brightly.
"Oh, erm…hello. I'm Lara. Lara Schuschnigg." Lara said shyly. She noticed that most of the other girls in the room were glaring at him with mistrust; they were probably still indignant over the whole drunken bed incident.
"Teach Mademoiselle Schuschnigg the lifts while the rest of the class work through the entire dance." Madame Giry instructed. The pair went to the other end of the long room out of the way of the other dancers.
Thomas Montandon busied himself warming up while Lara, unsure of what to say, leaned awkwardly against the barre waiting for him to finish.
"By the way, thank you so much for agreeing to dance with me!" the young man said as he did a series of Fouetté en tournants, "You really saved my life!"
"Well, I desperately needed a partner so you're the one doing me the favour." she decided not to mention the fact that she really had no choice in the matter and was hardly happy about the situation.
"Right, so the first lift in the routine is an overhead lift." he moved to stand behind her, placing his hands upon her waist, "You are en pointe," Lara moved onto her toes, "Good. Un, Deux, Trois…" Lara bent her knees and jumped as he lifted, she glided easily upwards until he stopped, holding her horizontally above his head, his arms straight and steady. Slowly, he lowered her to the floor.
"Bloody hell, that was easy!" he grinned, "You're as light as a feather! Do you actually eat anything? How much do you weigh?"
"That is none of your business." Lara said primly.
Montandon laughed, "Okay, shall we try it again? This time, arch your back as much as you can and stretch your arms above your head instead of placing them upon my hands." Lara did as she was instructed, they practiced the lift once more then moved onto an Arabesque lift, Sissonnes and a difficult Swallow pose.
"Montandon!" Monsieur Beauchamp shouted then, in a much softer tone of voice, "Mademoiselle Schuschnigg, the dancers are going to practice on the stage, please be so kind as to follow us."
The dancers and their teachers left the studios and made their way to the stage, walking through the backstage area with Lara and Thomas Montandon bringing up the rear. Lara noticed that though his posture was always perfectly upright when he danced, when Montandon walked he was rather round shouldered and slumped, with his hands dug deep into the pockets of his trousers; really, his walk was more of a casual stroll, as if he had not a care in the world and nowhere really important to be and thus could see no point in hurrying.
"You are from Austria?" he said. His eyes were rather bloodshot and there was a self-deprecating irony to his crooked smile - which was really no more than a flick of a corner of his mouth.
"Yes, Vienna."
"How long were you at the Court Opera?"
"My mother began my tuition when I was six, and I was accepted on the children's troupe at the age of ten. I left last month."
"And how old are you?"
"Sixteen."
When they reached the stage, they stood in the wings watching as the dancers took their staring positions and Madame Giry fussed around them, making them stand correctly or swap places. After a while, Montandon wandered away to speak with a friend of his, leaving Lara alone.
Suddenly she became aware that someone was standing close behind her, she turned around and found herself looking up at a tall young man of about nineteen or so, standing close behind her right shoulder, watching Madame Giry arrange the dancers. He smiled absentmindedly down at her for a moment then turned his attention back to what was happening on the stage. Lara did the same.
After a few minutes of silence, he spoke quite suddenly, startling Lara, "She's like a drill sergeant, isn't she?" he said, speaking of Madame Giry.
"She expects everyone to perform at the best of their ability at all times and does not tolerate lethargy." Lara said, carefully choosing words which would not sound as though she was speaking ill of her new teacher should anything she said find its way to her ears.
"The woman terrifies me." the boy muttered, causing her to splutter with laughter.
"I don't suppose you remember me, do you?" he asked quite abruptly.
Lara turned to look at him; his hair was dark brown - the colour of ground coffee - and combed neatly with a straight side parting; his eyes were large and a curious shade of dark green, they sparkled with mischief and humour. As far as she could tell, she had never seen him before in her life.
"I played the violin for your audition." he said, seeing that she was struggling to place him.
"The acrobat?" she said in surprise, "I didn't recognise you without your white clothes."
Indeed the boy was dressed differently, on the day of her audition - though she hadn't paid much attention to his face - Lara vaguely remembered that he had been wearing a baggy white shirt and white breeches; today he was dressed a little more normally in a shirt and tie with a brown waistcoat and brown trousers. The clothes were a little worse for wear though and covered in a thin sprinkling of chalk - in the Opera House ballet dancers rubbed their shoes in chalk to give them a better grip on the floor, acrobats not only coated their shoes, but also rubbed it on their hands. The boy noticed her looking at the chalk and began to surreptitiously brush it away.
"Yes, I only wear those when I'm practicing. I don't dress like that all the time."
"I didn't get a chance to thank you for offering to play for my audition, if it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't be standing here - I'd probably be scouring the streets for a job and a place to live."
"Not at all, Mam'selle, it was the least I could do," he said, waving away her thanks, "Could I just ask, if you could be any animal in the world, what would you pick?" Lara was taken aback by such an odd question, she blinked in confusion for a moment.
"Erm…a cat I suppose."
"Why?"
"Because you'd get to lie in the sunshine all day. I like cats, they're smart and independent."
"I see…" the young man frowned and seemed to ponder this, after a moment he smiled brightly, "How rude of me, I haven't introduced myself! My name is Henri-"
"Cornet! What are you doing bothering my dancer? Go away you stupid boy!" The pair turned, startled, to find Madame Giry glowering in their direction. The young acrobat made a face of mock terror before scampering away.
