Dancer Girl

When James finally finished his horrible rapping, and the hip hop class took their final bow, the ensemble girls took their place on stage. I would come in later. James made his way to the other wing while the curtain was down. When it was a solo for me, it was a duet with him.

I did a few warm-up pirouettes. The stage hand waited for me to get back in the wings before he brought up the curtain.

The soft music started played. The ensemble walked across the stage in their pointe shoes. I walked much slower than them and met James, my partner, centre stage.

I got up on pointe on my good leg, did an adagio, then I changed the direction of my hips to face the audience. I leaned forward to make a better line, then James helped me into a releve. Then I had to change feet. I almost let out a cry, but I couldn't hide the little groan caused by the pain in my leg.

James looked at me weird. I tried to smile at him and kept going. Then I was lifted off the ground for a big jete. One that was even taller than my partner. He set me down as lightly as he could, and we ran to our respective corners.

We ran at each other, and again I was lifted higher than I thought possible. He brought me down and I landed en pointe. I tried to hold in the agonized moan that left my lips. Again he looked at me as if asking if I was okay. I nodded.

While I could still stand en pointe, he held my hands and I spun and spun. He tried to help keep most weight off my left foot, but, there was only so much he could do.

I barely noticed when the ensemble reappeared. They had a more complicated part this time, since it was the finale of this part of the dance. They twisted and turned with me, but I was still the only one with a partner.

After the little finale, I was left alone on stage to do my thing. My solo was slow moving until the end, when I had a huge quad pirouette.

I was all set to spin for my life. I bent my legs and used all my force to turn. I made it until the triple, wanting to cry out in pain because I was on my leg. I heard a crack, and I collapsed. Screaming. All I saw was red. The pain made it difficult to breathe.