Mikhail Ivanovich Ostrakov drew a deep breath. He looked around at the two equines and two canines that were sitting at the table in his office.
“We have some strategic decisions to make. It will make a change in how we organize things here.”
“Is there a problem dad?” Irina looked at her father with concern visible in her eyes. “The studio’s doing ok isn’t it? Or is it grandma?”
“Yes and no, Irina. Tasha, you tell them. I am not good at this.”
“Misha you are fine at it but no matter. Terrence and Danette, we must get you qualified for the professional circuit. You have sufficient wins to meet that requirement, as do you, Irina. What we must arrange is professional status, and the easiest way to do that is to employ you as professionals. So. What we will do is easy in your case Terrence. You have been working here since the studio opened as a part-time teacher. When you graduate you intend to take a gap year and work here full-time. We will sign a formal employment contract and it will include your union dues. You will be a full Equity member. Danette, you have been effectively a teacher here for the last month and you, Irina have been working as a choreographer. Both of you without pay as part of your studies. We propose to change that. We intend to give you those roles ‘officially’ – like what we intend for Terrence we will include union dues in those contracts, qualifying you for that status by treating the time you have already spent in those roles as an internship. They will be part-time for all of you until Terrence graduates and then he will be transferred to a full-time contract. But all of you will qualify for union membership and be officially ‘professional dancers’. You will be able to qualify for and compete in competitions at the highest level. There is money here. Terrence, you are well on your way to completing that college fund you planned are you not?”
“I am, Natalia, yes.”
“If you can succeed in professional competition, Terrence, then your partner will also be in that position within a year. I understand you wish to attend college together so perhaps this will make it easier. Irina, the choreographer prizes are not so lucrative unless they win really big but it will help for you also.”
Danette drew a breath.
“Madame Ostrakova – forgive the formality but it seems appropriate – is this meeting a job interview?”
“Nyet. It is a job offer. You three are jewels, my dear. You shall be the kavalerya and you shall take the world of dance by storm. If you wish it. We employ you as professional dancers and cover the union paperwork, we offset your training fees here against your pay, thus making you professional dancers, officially, and therefore eligible to compete on the professional circuit.”
“So long as we can do it together, I think I speak for all three of us in saying we do want it, although if I’ve picked up enough Russian from hanging around the pair of you I’d have to say that I’m sure only two of us would qualify as cavalry.”
Everybody at the table laughed before Mikhail spoke up again.
“Then I must set you homework like a nasty teacher. Each of you must fill in these forms and return them to me here.”
-----=====-----
“Letter for you Netty!”
Danette ran down from her bedroom. She found it easier to get up on mornings when Tom hadn’t stayed over the night, or she hadn’t stayed with him. By mutual agreement they had kept at least half of each week when they slept apart. They still spent almost all those evenings connected digitally of course but they had to admit their parents were right. It wasn’t that they wanted to shirk their studies it was just that the physical presence of the other provided a powerful distraction from them.
Taking the plain brown envelope from her father she pulled it open and unfolded the letter inside.
“Dad, I think you’ll like this.”
“Oh?”
“You remember telling me about the way your dad made such a big deal about you getting your first union card?”
“Yeah, threw a big family party for ‘his boy becoming a man’ – thought it was a bit overblown but I could see where he was coming from.”
Danette peeled a plastic rectangle away from the letter and held it up.
“Here’s mine.”
“Carry it with pride, Sweetheart. Just like I always have my own. Proud of you.”
“One of only five members of this particular union in this town, I think, assuming Irina and Tom got their letters this morning too.”
“Only need a few more to apply to start a local.”
“You are such a dinosaur, Dad, and I love you.”
“So, they are paying you proper rates for teaching at that studio now?”
Danette grinned and waved the card. “They don’t have a choice. I’m with the union.”
Father and daughter both cracked up laughing.
-----=====-----
After hearing that all three cards had been received and that the paperwork was complete, Natalia called all three into her office.
“These are the rules for three upcoming regional competitions. You will be busy, Irina. You must plan routines that suit all three events. You may re-use routines from one competition to another but it is best if no two competitions have the exact same set of routines planned. They will be competing in all three. Terrence and Danette, you need not win – although I know you shall try, but for the first time you will be competing against dancers with many years more experience – but you must place well in at least two. These are qualifiers for national events.”
“We do have to keep working with Brandy and Mike for prom, too. I get what you said earlier to Tom about teaching making the teacher a better dancer too.”
“If you need the time to work on these competition routines, tell me. I will take over their teaching. All three of these events will require travel. I will arrange this. I will also have the correct forms to give your schools so that they can treat these competitions as sporting events, not absences.”
“That’s pretty efficient, Natalia.”
“I have done this before. Not all at the same time for a single couple of competitors but each thing several times. Easiest to do it all at once. I will teach you about it later, you will need it if you start a studio of your own someday. All school boards do it a little different but there are shortcuts once you get used to the differences. Most of your students will still be in school and half of the rest older couples wanting to finally learn, just like here. They pay for running the studio so you can coach the competitive ones. Even those mostly stick to the junior and amateur events. Few have the talent to go professional as you three are doing, but it means that you must learn the rest of the professional business too. So Misha and I will help you learn it early and learn it right.”
-----=====-----
“Seventeenth place. I honestly thought we’d done well enough to place higher than that, Tom.”
“Natalia wasn’t kidding about the higher standard but I think we should have been at least one or two higher. I’m sure we made fewer mistakes than those two couples at least.”
Natalia turned around from the passenger seat of the minibus Mikhail had hired to drive to the event.
“Seventeenth of fifty couples, in your first professional event, is actually very good.” She nodded. “Yes, you were technically superior to the two couples above you, but not by much. They made up the difference with better interpretation, storytelling, connection. Things that are not simple technique. Irina is sat there saying nothing and staring out of the window. She has also learned a lot and is already thinking of slight changes to her choreography, I am sure. The top ten couples were all technically perfect, it was these other factors that divided them.”
“It’s not high enough to qualify for the nationals though, is it?”
“Seventeenth of fifty puts you in the top thirty four percent. If you take a medal in any regional competition you will be invited to the nationals. Once all invitations are accepted or not, other couples can apply. Those applications will be accepted on the basis of their average ranking in regional events until all places are filled. Top third is not enough to be sure of a place, no, but it is not impossible to apply successfully from that position. However there are two more regional events before selection begins for the nationals. You simply need to take a medal or raise your average ranking. You have joined the regional circuit in the middle of the dance year. This is both good and bad. Bad because you have fewer competitions to establish a high average. Good because you have not been competing all year, do not have injuries or other worries to consider. Be very sure, there were couples at that contest who will now be watching you closely, because you have become a threat to their hopes of a place in the nationals.”
Irina’s attention returned to the inside of the minibus and her eyes seemed to refocus.
“More of a threat by the time of the next event. We’re going to have to rework a few sections of the routines you were working on for it. I’ve got a better feel for what the judges will pick up on now. Plus, I think we’re going to have to grab the main studio for some of your rehearsals. I need to see how they look under show lighting a few times, complete with cue changes. I’ll get Frank in to run the board for us.”
-----=====-----
Guys, check your emails right now. I’ve just sent you a link.
Tom and Danette looked at each other and immediately crossed the room to where Danette’s computer sat.
“What’s up, Irina?” Tom asked, as Danette started waking her computer up.
Oh, nothing much. Just one of the guys on the selection committee for the nationals was in the audience at that regional we just went to and get this… He mentioned us in an article he wrote about it!
Danette was already pulling up the link.
Sure enough, partway down the article, she found this…
…One of the more interesting parts of the evening was a surprisingly strong showing by a couple new to the professional dance circuit. Mr. Marks and Ms. Clarke achieved a remarkable place in the top twenty on their first professional outing as a partnership. If I was to be hypercritical I would say that minor technical lapses and some choreographic elements that perhaps should not have been juxtaposed were indeed a factor in their performance however I do not believe a hypercritical approach is appropriate for this column. I was there as a spectator and not as a judge. As a spectator I found this couple completely captivating. To say they were easy to watch would be an understatement. I do not refer to this equine couple’s mere physical appearance although Mr Marks’ classically handsome Arabian profile was perfectly offset by the unassuming yet radiant beauty of his partner. I refer instead to the synchronicity and sense of intimacy that they displayed when dancing together, both in and out of hold.
Their showing at this event prompted me to do a little research. Long-time readers of my column will recall my expression of regret when Ostrakov and Ostrakova retired from competition. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is they who have the coaching of this new couple in hand. Indeed, I discovered that until quite recently Mr. Marks had been a regular competitor on the amateur circuit partnered by none other than the daughter of that illustrious couple. I understand that young lady has accompanied this new pairing into our professional ranks as their regular choreographer. It may be presumptuous of me to say so on a single viewing but I do firmly believe that this team is one to watch. In fact, I feel quite confident that they will shortly show themselves as rising stars in the firmament of our Ballroom and Latin dancing world. I, for one, would happily sit and watch them dance for hours, and it appears I shall have that opportunity. They are also entered in the next two regional events and I shall be there to observe their performances before I must sequester myself from all the dancers and from you, my readers, during the nationals selection process…
“Holy shit.” Danette was shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe it.
I know, right? Irina was still on the phone. I am so printing that out. Our first press clipping, guys! What the heck… Uh oh… Guys?
“What’s up Irina?”
I sent the link to Frank too, and he’s posted it to your school’s message board. Folks are going nuts.
Tom and Danette looked at each other as both their phones went electronically insane, vibrating and beeping.
-----=====-----
“I am going to kill that pooch.” At the lunch table, Tom sank his face in his hands.
“You can’t.” Next to him, Danette looked almost as worried. “If you did, Irina would have your balls for breakfast.”
“Look on the bright side, you two.” This was Brandy, sitting in the corner. “All this kerfuffle is distracting everyone from working out the surprise that Mike and I are going to pull at Prom.”
“Just give it a day or two to die down, dude.” Mike was grinning. “It’s no worse than when Coach Nichols posted that write-up about the ‘surprise wins’ Ian and I pulled off when we first joined the Gym team. ‘Course, when it happened to me, all those girls, I didn’t have exactly the same problem.”
“Right, you’re a notorious tomcat and you just went ahead and had ‘em. I’m spoken for dammit.”
“At least they aren’t so blatant about it when I’m around, Tom.” Danette sighed. “And trust me I am sticking by your side as much as possible if only to keep the buzzing swarm off me!”
“’unassuming yet radiant beauty’ I believe the article said?” Brandy chuckled. “Get used to it, lady, because you are a rather beautiful woman, no matter what you believe. And the picture with that article did make the two of you look really good. If you two have the slightest trace of shyness left, though, you’d better lose it. A little birdie whispered to me that somebody has already nominated the pair of you for prom royalty, and the committee didn’t reject it out of hand.”
Danette looked even more panicked. “They can’t. I’m only a junior and will only be a guest at prom this year. Queen has to be a senior.”
“That might be the only reason you escape it. You might be dancing with the king though.”
Tom raised his head and glared across the table.
“Absolutely not. King has to lead out the first dance with the queen and I will refuse to dance with anyone but Danette.”
“You say so. Just listen for falling sandbags. Curveballs a-plenty have come out of that committee in the past.”
-----=====-----
On a rare Saturday afternoon when teaching and rehearsing had, by mutual consent, been suspended, three couples were lounging in chairs, on a couch or on the floor in a room above the dance studio. The window was open and the breeze was cool but comfortable. A couple of discarded pizza boxes spoke to the reason for the general lassitude.
“Tell ya, it’s gonna happen.” Frank was addressing Tom and Danette, Brandy and Mike, from one end of the couch as his fingers idly caressed Irina stretched out in his lap. “I aint supposed to say anything of course but they give the lighting crew a shortlist of the folks to track so that we can bring up the spots on the right people when the results are announced. We aint supposed to know more than ‘it’s likely to be two of these folks’ but the guy who passed out the list is a buddy and he gave me the current numbers. Odds are way low it could be anyone except you two.”
“Doesn’t make sense to me.” Irina looked up at him from his lap. “How does that even work?”
“I’m a bit weirded out as well, to be honest,” remarked Brandy from the far side of the room. “I can see Tom in there, but me?”
“It is a bit weird,” Frank agreed, “but it does make a weird sort of sense if you think about it. In our school the senior boys vote for the queen, the senior girls for the king. Everybody gets two votes. Every senior couple tends to vote their first for their own date so those votes basically don’t count. None of ‘em will get enough to matter and it all evens out anyway. The ones who are single or their dates aren’t Cole Valley seniors still have to vote for two different people so we can basically discount one vote from everybody. With me so far?”
The others nodded.
“So, now we get to the interesting bit. Having done ‘the honourable thing’ by voting for their own date, the girls are casting their second vote for Tom because they all want to be queen and dance with him. He’s pretty much a slam-dunk to be voted king.”
“I won’t take it.” grumbled the equine man.
“The moment they call your name you’ll have a spotlight on you and way too much pressure to accept. You won’t have a chance to say no – heck, no chance to say anything – until you’re up on stage anyway and by that time they’ve plonked the crown on your head and everyone’s applauding.”
“Ok,” said Mike looking over Brandy’s shoulder and softly rubbing the side of his face against hers as he spoke,
“but that doesn’t explain Brandy.”
“This reason’s not so nice. The rumours that Tom’s going to be king are all over the school and there’s enough boys reckon that if they vote a girl with Brandy’s rep as queen she’ll make a serious play for Tom. The reason they want that is because it could leave their way clear to make a move on the lovely Miss Danette.”
“That’s so slimy.” Brandy’s expression was disgusted. “Everybody knows he’s off-limits for me anyway since he’s so firmly taken.”
“Brandy,” Frank looked straight at her. “I never said their plans were going to work, only that if I’ve got my finger on the pulse of all the talk and rumours that’s the way it’s going.”
“You know…” Irina had a slightly distracted tone in her voice. “We could turn this around on them completely with the right strategy.”
Frank looked down at her.
“Last time I heard you all ‘thoughtful’ like that my balls were shrivelled like raisins for a week.”
“Yep.” Irina smiled up at him. “Because everything that used to be in ‘em was in me instead. My plan worked, didn’t it?”
“Geez,” Brandy grumbled, “I thought I was the queen of TMI around here. What have you in mind, Irina?”
“I write you a dance. Something sweet and elegant that all four of you could master and memorize in a week. The significant part of it, however, is that Tom and Brandy dance a couple of measures together but then their real partners step in and the rest of it is written for two couples dancing in sync. It’s not like you two haven’t danced together in training often enough, just like Mike has with Danette and all of you have with me.” She looked up at Frank again. “I still need to find a new regular male partner, Frank. I’m not going to stop asking the man I love.”
“And I’m not going stop telling you that I wish I could but I’ve got a bum knee. When that rig came down in my sophomore year it did a pretty good number on it darlin’”
“Hey, Frank,” This was Brandy looking at them curiously. “Did you ever tell her why you were where it could hit you?”
“No, and you’re not going to either. You gave me your word and I’m going to ask you to keep it.”
Danette raised her head from Tom’s lap.
“I never said any such thing and I think she should know.”
Frank sighed. “All right. Better she hear it when I’m around to correct the lies.”
Irina sat up.
“Ok, now I’m really curious. What happened, Danette?”
“In his freshman year, Frank was not only a full-on theatre nerd, he was also a damn good football player. The following year I was a freshman, he was a sophomore and Coach Nichols was thinking of pulling him into the varsity squad as a linebacker because he was big and fast and could think on his feet. Unheard of to have a sophomore on varsity but he was thinking about it. There was a rehearsal going on in the theatre in the old building. The one we don’t use for anything anymore. This is why we don’t use that theatre – one of the beams cracked and part of the rig came down right on the stage. It was all properly safety-chained but when a whole piece of the rig falls, along with the bit of the room that it’s supposed to be fixed to, the fact that it’s all chained together aint going to help. This crazy fool of yours saw it start to happen and charged three girls on the stage out if its way. Almost made it out from underneath it himself too – but only almost. I know it embarrasses you when anyone mentions it, Frank, but thank you for making sure that I didn’t have to go to the funerals of two of my friends that year.”
Irina turned to look back at Frank. The Labrador was looking down and even his black fur could not hide the fact that he was blushing furiously. Irina’s voice was very quiet.
“Wow.”
“No, love, don’t make anything big of it. Anyone standing where I was and seeing what I did would have tried.”
“Frank Wilson, I fell for you before I knew anything about this so please excuse me if I’m a little gobsmacked when it turns out that the man I love, the one who’s always been a hero to me really is one.”
“Hero is just another word for ‘too stupid to run away’, Irina. It’s no big deal. If Tom had been standing there that day, or Mike, they’d have done no different.”
“Like to think you’re right, bro.” This was Mike. “Thing is, I wasn’t there so I’ll never know. You were and you could have jumped the other way and been fine. But getting off all the embarrassing stuff, you’re moving on that leg a hell of a lot easier this year than you were last. Maybe just give it a try. Wouldn’t you like to dance something besides the horizontal mambo with that girl in your lap? Maybe it’s not as permanently trashed as folks initially thought.”
“I’ll think about it, ok? But, Irina?”
“Hmm?”
“Make this dance plan of yours work. I want to see half the senior class with faces like curdled milk when it does.”
