#8 Dancing for All the Right Reasons
It was a perfect July morning in San Fransokyo with the cloud cover above providing enough shade for those below. Scattered throughout Torii Gate Park, they were having the annual Mid-Summer Festival and providing various games, food and special live entertainment.
For food, they had popular eateries like Benito's and Yaki Taco set up, but they also had many local food businesses like Kielpasta, Blintz Burgers and Lassoothies. For games, they had events like paddle boat races around Ichigo Hill, inflatable obstacle courses for the kids and a scavenger hunt for those willing to walk all over the park. For live entertainment, it was setup in Kendo Stadium for all to enjoy and they had five acts for each of the three days, ending with a fireworks display. The organization committee had lined up two indie bands (Take It All and Warp Drive), a trained-dog act, and a motorcycle stunt performance; for the fifth act, to many people's delight, was the mother-daughter duo High Voltage doing their dance routine as part of their community service. The two women had previously been working their prison sentence off as instructors in various dance studios and were both giddy at this opportunity.
For obvious reasons, they weren't allowed to use their electricity technology for the dance, so they needed another name to perform under instead of "High Voltage;" after a brief brainstorming session, the two went with "Life Line." Also, although their original outfits were '80s fabulous, they were given the chance to wear new ones to go with their new name and decided to try them out.
They wanted the design to have similar colors to their old ones (purple, blue, pink, and black), but have the key difference be they'd have stacked heartbeat signals instead of lightning bolts. Juniper's uniform had her wearing calf-high black pants with a pink, blue and purple stripe along the outside of the legs. She also had a V-shaped violet skirt with a pink belt. For the top, it was black with the tri-colored stripe making the characteristic heartbeat shape across the chest and pink sleeves that went from her forearms to her biceps. As for Barb's design, she had the same style of pants as her daughter's, but instead of a skirt, she had a large pink sash that was tied to the side of her waist; her top was like Juniper's too, but with violet for the midsection and sleeves. They felt this look would be a mix of old and new to signify their transition from bad to good all while still being awesome at what they do. Now the moment was here and the two dancers were both backstage getting ready while the motorcycle stunt was just about over.
"Mama, do you think my hair's okay?" Juniper asked her mom and hoping it wasn't too messy. Barb was getting ready herself, but she still turned around to ease her daughter's worry.
"You look absolutely lovely sweetie. Here. Let me put one final touch and I think you're ready," the dancing mom answered as she pulled out a small makeup kit. She then applied some rouge to her daughter's cheeks and gave her a hug. "There. That'll help everyone see the sweetest smile that ever did cross a face."
Juniper smiled upon hearing her mom's words and turned back towards the mirror. "Are you sure I don't need to fix my hair?" she asked again while trying to make sure it was in place.
Barb gave a small chuckle and responded, "It's perfect; besides, the way we'll be moving out there tonight, they won't even notice a little hairdo problem. Ooo, I almost forgot." The big-haired mom then opened one of the drawers in the vanity dresser and pulled out a small, dark blue box. She opened it up and there were two pairs of red heart-shaped earrings.
"Wow Mama, they're beautiful!"
"Well, don't wait for permission from me. Try them on." Both women proceeded to take their earrings and put them on before admiring them in the mirror; now they were ready for the show. They could hear the rev of the motorcycle engines and the cheering from the crowd begin to die down as they performed the last of the flips and jumps.
About 20 minutes later, a young woman in a green blouse, black pants and wearing a headset came into their dressing room. "They're getting setup now if you'll just follow me," the stagehand informed them. Barb and Juniper obeyed and shared an excited expression between themselves. After walking through the long corridors filled with props from the previous acts, the former crime dancers were greeted to bright stadium lights as they made their way to the platform at the center of the field.
The sky was fairly dark now, but that made it all the better for the fireworks to come. The murmur of the crowd on the other side of the curtain was loud as they waited in anticipation for the final performance. Barb and Juniper made their way up the steps and stood behind the black curtain, waiting for their cue. The two then turned towards each other and nodded in acknowledgement that they were both ready.
Suddenly, a loud speaker came on and announced: LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! NOW, FOR YOUR LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST PERFORMANCE. YOU LOVED THEM WHEN THEY DANCED THEIR WAY INTO YOUR HEART AS "HIGH VOLTAGE," WELL THEY'RE BACK AND HERE TO GIVE YOUR HEARTS A NEW BEAT AS "LIFE LINE!" The crowd cheered as purple and pink smoke clouds then sprang forth on stage and the two dancers walked out to greet them.
"ARE YOU READY SAN FRANSOKYO?" Barb shouted to the audience and getting a resounding "YES" in response.
"THEN HIT IT!" Juniper called out as she pointed to the operators off stage.
The characteristic sound of electric and bass guitars with a drum backing loudly began to play as the duo synchronized: Both arms out, pump forward, right side dip, and spin.
Here at the start
I felt this spark glow
Juniper proceeded to back flip away to stage left as Barb continued to spin, until it became a leg sweeping motion with her right leg extended as she lowered herself to the floor. She then tucked her leg in and quickly leaned back as she performed a kip-up to be standing upright again. The younger dancer was now working her way back to Barb as she'd slide to one side, spin, and slide to the other side until she was only 15 ft away.
Gave you my heart
Safe now from below
When Juniper was almost to Barb, she then slid in a long streak right past her, where her mom grabbed her arms to pull her back up. She gently swung her daughter around three times as they both smiled happily at each other. After the third spin, Barb set her daughter down to her right with their backs towards the audience.
What's this I feel
Not your normal groove
The two women clapped their hands together overhead before turning their backs to one another. They then began to shuffle their arms like they did when they were powering up as High Voltage. They also synchronized with hip swings as they started to take a couple steps away in opposite directions. Once they were 20 ft away again, Juniper and Barb spun into the air and landed into a split as they faced each other.
Our rhythm's real
Together we move
They then quickly picked themselves up as they both flipped back to center stage as they were beside each other again. While rocking their shoulders to the beat, the duo proceeded to lean back and forth opposite of the other's actions, creating a smooth rippling motion between the two of them. Afterwards, Barb rapidly moved to be facing away from the audience before lying down and positioning her legs with her feet flat up. Taking the cue, Juniper jumped onto her mom's feet and laid flat on her stomach as she was raised into the air. Once on top, she crossed her legs, winked, made a heart with her hands, and finally, blew several kisses to the crowd; this garnered a wave of cheers for the dancing ladies.
Got to make it
For our job's not done
The daughter then took her mom's hands and with a little extra push, flipped over her to land standing upright. Barb quickly did another kip-up to get up before joining with Juniper. Together, the two of them synchronized again as they shuffled left and right, all while their arms were pop & locking up-down-left-right (pretty much every direction at some point or another). They also managed to get in a couple stomps to help emphasize the loud beat.
We can take it
Until all is won
Barb then took Juniper's hand as they simultaneously backflipped three times. The two dancers turned to face each other as they proceeded to cartwheel together until they were back where they started. The mom then began spinning her daughter rapidly in place and moving her from one side to the other. They proceeded to swap positions as Juniper now spun Barb around just like she had been spinning a moment prior. Once this move was complete, they smoothly danced away from each other again while rocking their hips and shoulders to the beat.
Won't quit on you
Though life can be tough
As Juniper was beginning her series of sideways flips and a final pirouette back to her mom, Barb was quickly removing her sash and securing it on her wrist. Once her daughter was in front of her, the reformed dancing mom looped the thick pink ribbon over Juniper's arm and swiveled themselves back to center stage. The younger dancer then took the reins as she took hold of the sash and like a yo-yo, maneuvered her mom left, right and in front. When the sash was taut during the moves, Barb would do a swinging kick, followed by skillfully spinning/sliding to her next position without getting tangled by her own accessory.
That may be true
But you're strong enough
After the last yo-yo move, Juniper pulled her mom back in close as together, after dramatically tossing the sash out of the way, they started to synchronize one last set of moves. They shuffled their arms and rocked their hips hard left to right as they stepped closer to the edge of the stage. Then, they clasped their adjoining hands, carried a wave from Barb to Juniper and back again, and did three back flips before gracefully landing into a split. In their final pose, they each made half of a heart with their clasped hands and each blew a kiss to the audience. With the perfectly timed ending of the song, the stadium lights dimmed and overhead the fireworks started to shower their rainbow of colors; their explosions were almost inaudible because of the roar of applause for the mother-daughter duo.
As everywhere was bathed in shades of orange, blue, purple, and white, Barb and Juniper hugged each other tightly and squealed with glee, still full of adrenaline despite the workout they just had.
"That was so much fun Mama!" Juniper exclaimed with a big smile across her face.
"It sure was, and didn't I tell you the audience would be too into our moves to care about anything else," Barb replied with a wink. The dancers then turned towards the sky, letting this sense of accomplishment and pride wash over them like the burst of gold and red lights that now stretched across the festival.
"I can't wait for our next performance," Juniper excitedly remarked.
Barb gave a tender smile and simply said, "Neither can I sweetie. Neither can I."
NOTES
I hope you liked the redesigned for High Voltage's costumes as if they can't use their electricity powers, they might gear away from that theme. I also hope you enjoyed the song and dance moves, even though I'm sure it was fairly obvious I'm not a professional on either matter. It was a lot of fun coming up with the blended food venders too as we know a lot of fusion happens in this world. ;) In addition, Juniper and Barb are just too good of dancers to not get to perform in front of a large crowd (and it be legal too ;) ).
Well, after 8 stories, this seems like a good place to break so I can post my 5-chapter story "Not Your Normal Anniversary," where Felony Carl and Globby are celebrating it being one year since Dibs became Globby. ^_^
When I resume "Cutscenes" though, the next story will show how Orso Knox got turned into a monster. O_O