Disclaimer: I own nothing (life's just not fair!)
Chapter 8
January 30th
Katrina and the other dancers assembled in the main studio, cheeks and ears pink from the cold outside. Daniel Kline walked amongst them, stopping here and there to talk to a dancer and welcome them back from the holidays. When he reached the front he turned to face the group, arms spread wide like the messiah.
"Company!" he said in a ringing voice. "I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and rested well. You will need it. This season we are going to do something a little different, a little avant-garde. So, a fusion piece, a post-modern ballet for this industrial city but with a traditional story. Snow White, done to death I know but, not like this. We strip it down, make it visceral, real."
A frisson of excitement passed around the room, everyone whispering to each other the sound rising like a swarm of bees.
Daniel Klein's voice rose higher above the buzz.
"We use mostly the Angelin Preljocaj choreography, with a few of my own adjustments," more whispering ensued, louder this time. "Company!" Daniel Kline's voice rose above them again forcing silence. "I know it's unorthodox, different, but I think that is exactly what this city needs from us, so we take a risk. Soloists if you could accompany Madam B to the first studio we can begin work on audition pieces. The rest of you, to class!" He clapped his hands together and everybody bustled off, stripping off jumpers and coats, getting ready.
Katrina and Sonja made their way hurriedly to the soloist's dressing room to prepare.
"Exciting isn't it?" wondered Sonja aloud "I love Preljocaj's work, no pointe shoes, its so fluid and so romantic."
"I've never seen it but I heard its way hard." added Katrina, slipping on her leotard with a wriggle, "there's so much acting in it, I always hated that, I always get shy on stage if I'm in a character role."
"I'm sure you'll do just fine" Sonja reassured her with a smile, "maybe you'll be a sexy nymph in the forest, that'd be fun."
"Sexy nymph? I don't remember that part," asked Katrina non-plussed.
"Haven't you seen Snow White?" Sonja asked, slipping on her "lucky tights", when Katrina shook her head she continued, "you should, it's super sexy, there's even like lesbian action." She giggled.
"Lesbian action? This is a ballet!"
"A sexy ballet. God, I wish I could be Snow White, maybe Vlad could be my handsome prince?"
"I thought you two were on the outs?"
"Yeah, but he's still the one right? Sometimes I worry that we fight too much."
"You two definitely have the chemistry, what's romance without some sparks anyway. You'd be great together, but I wouldn't put it past you to get carried away on stage and offend the censors…"
They'd finished getting dressed by this point, except for pointe shoes, Karina fished her very last pair out of the back of her locker and sent a silent prayer up to heaven that they would last for the rest of the day.
There was a tense silence in the soloist's studio when Katrina entered. All the dancers were ranged against one wall whilst Madame B walked them through the audition pieces. The music poured out of the piano like honey and Madam B was thoroughly enjoying herself. The dance she demonstrated looked monstrously difficult to Katrina; it was the part of the ballet where Snow White had fallen into an enchanted sleep and her prince was desperately trying to wake her. The female dancer was required to slip and slide in absolute passivity whilst at the same time being lifted and turned at lighting speed.
"Do we actually have to dace it with our eyes shut?" Katrina asked Sonja in a whisper.
"I think so…" she replied, eyes glued to the demonstration.
The music ended and all the dancers applauded politely as Madame B took a deep curtsey and the male dancer who had been playing the part of the Prince, bowed.
The rest of the session was spent paired up and practicing for the auditions, pairs were random so as to be as fair as possible and Katrina found herself partnered to Vlad. This would have been great had not she felt Sonja's laser-beam stare digging into her spine. She winced at the stretch in her back as Vlad lifted her one-handed and she flopped backward as though in an enchanted sleep. Next moment she was on the floor with a thud.
"Ouch!" Katrina cried sitting up.
"Sorry sorry!" Vlad was kneeling beside her in a flash, "Are you hurt?" he asked, checking her for cuts and scrapes.
"No no, I'm fine" Katrina giggled as he lifted her to her feet and brushed her down like a small child. "Try it again?"
"Yeah. Again." They practiced, running the short routine again and again, Vlad bending her back until her head almost touched the ground and then pressing her close, every inch the heart broken prince.
"Careful," she warned him, after a particularly tight clinch, "if you make Sonja any more jealous she might kill me in the locker-room."
"Well, I hope to make her jealous, maybe find my way back into her affections?"
"Have you tried flowers and chocolates? Or any other plans which don't put my life so directly at risk?"
"ermm… no."
"Well I suggest you start there- I bet Sonja is a sucker for a teddy bear."
Vlad grinned, picking her up and twirling her around as they finished the routine yet again. "I will take your advice to heart my lovely Snow White. A teddy bear it is."
The day ended in a flurry of excitement, the dates of the auditions had been put up for exactly one week's time and everyone was trying to fit in extra practice time with their partners. Katrina jogged to catch up with Sonja as sped out of the changing room.
"Hey!" she called, tapping Sonja on the shoulder, the tiny red-head whirled around to face her, close up Katrina could see that her friend was on the verge of tears.
"What?" she asked.
"I was just wondering if you were okay? About me doing the duet with Vlad… I know you guys aren't speaking but-" Katrina was well aware of the minefield of emotions that surrounded the "on again/ off again" relationship.
"Yeah…" Sonja broke off and the two began to walk out towards the street. "I guess I just really miss him. I know it sounds stupid but seeing you dance with him kinda hit a nerve."
"I'm sorry, but, I it's any conciliation, I know he's desperate to get you back- asked me for advice and everything."
"Really?" Sonja's eyes shone with fresh tears.
"Hey hey hey-" Katrina dug in her handbag for a tissue, "no crying!"
"I'm sorry!" groaned Sonja, dabbing at her eyes, "I'm not usually like this, must be audition stress."
"I know what you mean, but I think you'll be amazing. You've got a great partner and it'll be fine."
"Well look at you- miss motivator." laughed Sonja wetly, tears abated. "To be honest I don't think it really matters how well any of us dance next week, Laruen only has to bat her eyelashes at Mr. Kline and she'll get the part." Katrina was surprised at the bitterness in her usually up-beat friend's tone.
"Has that been going on for a long time?" she asked, intrigued.
"Oh yes," Sonja looked around as though afraid that Lauren might be hiding behind a trashcan waiting to pounce. "For ages, even before Joanne left to have her baby. Daniel would single Lauren out, give her all the best roles… they even go out for lunch sometimes- I think he likes Lauren's ice-queen thing." She sighed.
"That must be so annoying for the rest of you,"
"Oh yes, and it'll only get worse now that she's taken Joanne's place."
The pair said their goodbyes as Katrina's bus pulled up at the stop, Sonja reminded her to stay after class on Wednesday so that they could practice for the team. Katrina promised to put it in her diary. As the bus pulled away Katrina spotted Sonja wiping her eyes again and hoped that Vlad would hurry up with that teddy bear.
The bus pulled up at Katrina's stop and she jerked out of a doze, only just managing to scramble off before the doors snapped shut. She trudged up the many flights of stairs to her apartment and once inside flopped straight down onto the couch. The room was still full of the empty boxes that she hadn't found the time or inclination to take down to the recycling depot a few streets away. Curling into a little ball on the couch Katrina let her eyes drift shut. Just five minutes rest she thought.
By the time she woke up night had fallen and the stars were just visible over the lights of Pittsburgh. She sat up, very stiff from being curled up for so long, and padded over to the kitchen for a glass of water. She checked her phone- three missed calls, two were from Casey and one from her mother. She sent Casey a quick text, filling her in on the events of the day, Snow White, the auditions and her moonlighting as a cheerleader. She knew Casey would get a kick out of that.
The two girls had been utterly inseparable at the Joffrey School and later in the company, often spending their holidays together and even sharing a flat. Katrina missed Casey like she was missing a limb, the other girl's confident, strident attitude had been the perfect antidote to Katrina's occasional shyness; saving her from bullying at school and helping her make friends later on. Now Katrina had to strike out on her own.
For her mother, Katrina left a voice mail, knowing that her mother never checked her texts. She tried to reassure her that she was eating enough, getting enough sleep, and otherwise being very healthy. Her mother lived in constant fear of Katrina falling ill whilst she was away from home and sent her constant reminders to wrap up warm against the cold Pittsburgh weather. She smiled, listening to one of her mother's more anxious voicemails, it felt nice to be fussed over, even if the parent dong the fussing was hundreds of miles away in Maine. She flipped through some of the pictures on her phone of her last visit home, her and her mother wrapped up against the cold having hot chocolate at a café in Rockland, the view on a clear day over the water to the mainland from her mother's tiny house on the island of North Haven. She sighed, flipping the phone shut, it had been too long since she had been at home.
Katrina had left her mother's house on North Haven when she was eleven years old, taking the overland train across state lines to Chicago to attend the Joffrey School. She'd hardly been back since, staying at school for the holidays or living with Casey as the years went by but she still missed the quiet of the island. She missed the sound of the waves against the shore, the occasional buzz of the water planes landing, the smell of salt in the air and the swishing of long grasses against her legs as she ran down to the edge of the water to greet the ferry. She pulled herself back to the present, opening her eyes and trying to push the sounds of her childhood out of her head before she got too emotional. She refused to be homesick but all the same she listened to her mother's message again, just to hear her voice.
Wednesday dawned cold and clear through Katrina's cheap net curtains. The first rim of pink was just visible over a horizon of trembling blue-green, like light shifting thorough the shallows of North Haven bay. Katrina rolled off her bed and headed straight for the shower- it was getting increasingly chilly in her apartment as another cold front moved inexorably across the eastern seaboard.
Getting dressed and packing her bag for the day she paused, thinking about what she might need for her first practice with Sonja's "dance team", she tried on few different combinations- booty shorts, a little skirt. In the end she packed a pair of black Lycra shorts and a black tank top into her bag along with jazz shoes and her lucky sequined scrunchie that she's worn to her first Joffrey audition.
It was a slow day, everyone was stressed about auditions, Madame B was shouting more than usual and Vlad kept on breaking off during their practices to go and talk to Sonja with whom he had finally made up. Apparently a very large teddy bear had been involved along with some jewelry. Katrina was pleased that he'd taken her advice and happy for her friends, but all the same- fifteen minutes of uninterrupted practice time would have been nice. Katrina's whole body ached from being picked up and tossed around over and over, they finally called it quits for the day when Vlad's arms all but gave out under her weight. He was sweating profusely, skin pale, and shining with the effort, his tattoos standing out like brands.
"I think it's time to go home don't you?" she asked after being deposited unceremoniously on the floor.
"Definitely" Vlad agreed, wiping his forehead and helping her up. "I was planning on going home with Sonja but you all have that dance team thing tonight don't you."
"Christ!" gasped Katrina, nearly flopping to the floor again, "I'd forgotten about that- it's my first time."
"Well I hope you have fun, we've watched the girls in action a few times, they did the half-time show at a few football games last year, even got in the papers."
"Wow, that's cool, bet you boys are jealous." Katrina joked, stretching out her cramping legs.
"Oh yes, especially about those cute uniforms."
"Oh, Sonja warned me about those, can you tell me more?" But Vlad just laughed archly and waved her goodbye, heading off towards the changing rooms.
The studio was now empty except for Lauren who was doing a few stretches at the barre; a look of utter concentration on her face. Whatever the others thought, Katrina had a feeling that Lauren worked very hard to earn her position at the company, in fact she wondered if it wasn't the extra pressure that made the girl so rude and bitchy, people always say it's lonely at the top. Katrina left her to it and hurried off to shower.
When Katrina looked up from lacing her jazz shoes she saw Sonja and Danni standing in front of her waiting.
"Coming?" Danni asked, tapping a foot impatiently.
"Yeah" she replied and straightened up to follow them.
When the trio entered the main studio Katrina saw that seven other dancers, all girls she recognized, stood about. Everyone was casually dressed, gone were the leotards and in there place were band t-shirts and booty shorts. Katrina breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't going to stick out from the crowd.
Sonja introduced her to Lacy, the tall dark girl who had thought of the team and was acting as their "Head Cheerleader". Lacy's southern accent was thick enough to cut with a butter knife as she shook Katrina's hand warmly and welcomed her to the team. Everyone took their positions in the center to start a warm up, Katrina stayed at the back, observing everyone's movements, they cycled though plies, tondous and drilled some more contemporary steps. Katrina had to concentrate extra hard on those, her body unused to the hip-hip style. They crumped, shuffled, twisted and charlestoned; the music moving seamlessly though genre after genre.
After half an hour they stopped for a break, Lacy being much less of a slave-driver than Madame B.
"What do you think?" asked Sonja, sidling up to Katrina.
"I love it," she confessed, taking a pull from her water bottle, "are we about to start the routine?"
"No, we do that on Fridays, I think Lacy wants to run some stunts first."
Stunts? Katrina wondered silently, but there wasn't time to ask, as the music started again and girls started to spread out along one wall. Katrina followed, leaning against the barre as she watched the other girls perform flip after flip.
"Wanna try?" asked Lacy noticing her.
"Umm, sure," Katrina had done plenty of tumbling in the past at the Joffrey but it ha been a long time since she'd used the skill.
"Its easy, come on."
And indeed it was, by the end of the practice Katrina was remembering everything she used to love about tumbling, flying through the air and landing as light as a cat. On and on they went; the heavy beat of the music giving new life to the tired dancers as they practiced combination after combination, pyramids, cascades, and lifts.
A/N: Hang in there guys, more juicy bits coming up xx AI