II. Tapping the Light Fantastic (Troy)
Britta kept her dancing under wraps after the recital fiasco. Well, that's about as true as could be when she went to the Valentine's dance and did the electric slide with Troy. She also went to the Tranny Dance, but there was no dancing involved then. She still wanted to know who nominated her. That would perhaps always be a mystery. Maybe it was one of those jealous girls who wanted to torture her just like they did in high school.
The lure of the dance still held sway over her, and that's why Britta Perry found herself in downtown Denver one summer afternoon at a local athletic shop. She was finding better tap shoes, but she was also looking into other dance wear. Rounding the racks of clothing, she found Troy Barnes standing and talking with one of the sales people.
Troy was standing with the erect dancer's posture, trying to tell the man why this particular set of break-away pants just would not do.
Watching him be so deadly serious, Britta couldn't help herself. She laughed. The sound broke his concentration, and he turned to look at her.
"Britta" he said, his voice rising guiltily. "I'm just here to see Savion Glover later."
Troy said it like he was being macho and authoritative. She did not know for sure if he was telling the truth, but she decided to go with it.
"Savion Glover? Is he related to your cousin Donald?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
He smiled his disarming smile. "Nah. People get them confused all the time. Donald gets mistaken for Danny Glover all the time, too, and they're nothing alike. Just because they're black. Can you believe that?"
"Well, he was good in those Lethal Weapon movies, but he's probably getting too old for this," she said before putting her hand to her head like she had a headache. "Whoah. Is this what Abed feels like when he's making a movie reference?"
Troy smiled at her with no good answer. Besides, even if she was talking about Lethal Weapon, nothing would beat the awesomeness that is the Kickpuncher movies. Awesomely bad!
"So is Savion Glover really in town, or are you just trying to save face?" she asked. Then before he could be offended, she rushed on to say, "If he is, I'd really like to see him. He's one of the best tappers around.
Troy sighed, "Yes, he is, but I wasn't going to see him. I came up with my dad, and he wants to turn around and get home to his girlfriend."
"That's okay, Troy. I can drive you back!" she said, excited to share this dancing event with him.
"Okay," he enthused. "Let me just have him buy these break-aways. They're his latest guilt present. Then I'll go with you."
"Awesome," Britta said, feeling quite pleased for the first time in a long time.
When they'd wrapped up at the athletic store, the pair went driving the streets of Denver in hopes to find the venue where Savion was dancing. He had come for a fund-raising event for a children's charity. He wanted to show them the way of dance instead of being on the streets.
"How are we going to get in?" Troy worried.
She looked at the venue and back at him. As she twisted her hair up on her head, she said, "We'll have to sneak in. Have you ever served anything before?"
"Sure, at my grandmother's..." he said before realizing that she wanted him to act like a waiter. "Hey, that's racist!"
"Not if I'm doing it, too," she said, widening her eyes at him. "You don't really think I'm racist, do you?"
He looked unsurely at her. "I've already had this conversation with Jeff."
"About if I'm racist?" she asked, intrigued.
"No, about if I'm racist," he said, frowning and scrunching his nose.
"Well, conversation's over. Do you want to get in there, or not?" she asked, looking pleased with her quick hair conversion.
"Let's do it!" he said, so easily coaxed into a new adventure.
They snuck in the service entrance, and lifted platters of drinks. Luckily, one of the organizers was giving directions for who to pass which items where and how to give refills. They walked confidently into the ballroom looking as if they had a right to be there, and each acted the role of waiter or waitress until a few minutes later, Britta tapped Troy on the shoulder.
"Put that down," she said. "He's on next."
Troy put down the drink platter he had been carrying and managed to avoid any other real employees while he made it back to the wings with her.
Britta was practically shaking with excitement as Savion took the stage. He was a complete master of his craft, and both she and Troy couldn't help themselves from trying to emulate his moves from the side. If she thought of it later, she might have compared it to a musician singing along with the radio.
But this was real, and she was there watching him. Her heart just swelled with happiness to be able to see him and share it with Troy. At one point in Savion's routine, she was so impressed, that she couldn't help but squeal and reach out to take Troy's hand.
He looked at her, his eyebrows sky high and said, "I know!" His smile was huge, and he never let her hand go.
Being that it was a fundraiser for a children's charity, he stopped at one point to do some basic lessons and talk about the place dance has in a life. "Normally, I would take a volunteer from the audience, but as a few of you are still enjoying your drinks, I have a couple waiting in the wings."
Then he pointed to Britta and Troy standing side by side. The happy hand-holding that they had been doing at seeing their hero dance changed to the hand-holding of complete fear.
"Did he just say..." Britta began.
"He wants us to dance with him," Troy concluded.
Britta then said a very unladylike word before plastering her big Tranny Queen smile back on her face.
Savion said something else to the audience before turning to the couple briefly.
"I can't believe you saw us," Britta managed to say in a whisper.
"I did, and don't screw up," he said. Louder to the audience, he said, "Watch closely and do everything I do."
From there, he modeled the dance he wanted the pair to follow, and they managed to do it quite well. They had a few mishaps, but Troy tried to turn things in a humorous direction when he did it. Britta made prissy, mocking faces as her way of joking whenever he did it so that the others could be in on the laugh.
At the end of the segment, Glover had them bow and they walked off stage into the wings. They were so giggly they stayed behind, this time trying to keep their dancing impulses under control.
When he was done, Glover bowed and looked like he was going to walk off stage on the opposite side from where Troy and Britta were still hiding, but it seemed at last minute he decided to come over to them.
"That was so awesome. Thank you!" Britta said, shaking his hand. She'd only ever felt Radiohead was as cool as Savion Glover in that moment.
"You're so dope," Troy said.
Glover spoke to them a short while, but before he was about to go away to mingle with the rest of the guests, Troy had one more thought. "Hey, man, would you sign my tap shoes?"
"Do you have them with you?" Savion asked politely.
"All our dance things are in my car," Britta said, already in motion.
She returned a few minutes later, having moved faster than a wide receiver in a football game. She had both her and Troy's purchases from the athletic supply shop.
"Troy, you didn't buy dance shoes," she said, looking up from their bags.
"No, but you did," he said, taking the tap shoes and handing them to Glover as Britta handed the master dancer a permanent marker.
Her smile broke out wide at Troy's kindness and thinking of her, so that she started hopping up and down excitedly at the prospect that Savion Glover would personally autograph her new tap shoes. Without thinking too much about it, she gave her friend a big, happy kiss on the mouth.
"Thank you, Troy!" she said breathlessly
"Wow," he said, sounding out of breath himself.
By that time, Glover was done signing her shoes, and he handed them back to Britta with the comment that they made a cute couple.
"Oh, we're not..." she said, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Could have fooled me," he said, giving them a nod before walking away.
"Wow," she said quietly, turning back to him. "What do you think about that?"
"He's clearly crazy," Troy said with an unsure laugh. Then he looked at her like he was considering it.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence passed, Britta said, "So, are you ready to go home?"
"Yeah, let's hit it," Troy replied.
As they walked out the door and into the Colorado night, he had his hand gently at the small of her back as if they were still dancing across a stage.