"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale." -- D. H. Lawrence


He's an inspired soloist, challenging his seniors for featured roles, but to be king of the variations is to be damned with faint praise and he knows it. Impatient to improve, he wishes his teacher wouldn't pair him with his fellow beginners, who titter and trip no matter what he does. His support becomes assertion: he pulls each hesitant girl into the proper attitudes, hurrying her tardy feet across the floor. "Enough!" the teacher exclaims, one ear flicking impatiently. "Before you partner another, you must learn to trust yourself. Sit!"

He sits, brows lowered, disdaining comfort and concealing his confusion.