SHOWTIME

By

Jacquimac

Part Two

Over the weekend Brian and me watched the video we had been given, it was called " Can Can" and was about the dance. It was amazing watching those dancers perform all those acrobatics in their long billowy dresses with layer upon layer of lace underskirts. We did a search of the internet to see what else we could find out and were surprised that it actually had it's beginnings in the 1830's although it was later in 1890's that it started to become the dance we know today.

When it was first performed it was usually performed by individuals in France and it wasn't until came to the UK and USA that it choreographed and line ups were used. Usually it was failed ballet dancers that did the Can Can and I could see why when I saw some of positions used. WE definitely weren't looking forward to performing that especially if we had to wear heels.

If mum hadn't paid our tuition for the year and if we hadn't promised to perform without being told what we were doing we might have stopped going to the dancing but dancing was something we were good at and enjoyed despite the number of times we ended up in dresses. When it came to the ballet performance in the summer we both ended up in tutus doing Swan Lake because they short of girls. they were always short of girls or so it seemed to us.

We had just started to watch the film for the second time when both our mums came back from shopping, for some reason they didn’t want us with them this time. They told us stop the film and they would make lunch and we could all watch it together, we of course had to unload the car and take the bags of clothes to mums room and the groceries to the kitchen.

Because our two houses were next door to each other and we had 6 bedrooms in ours, Brian and his mum were going to rent their home and move in with us over the next few weeks. Both mums were business partners though what they did we didn't know but they weren’t short financially.

After lunch we all went back into the living room and watched the film, Brian’s mum said "I can't wait to see you two in Can Can dresses with all those frills" and both women started giggling. Just before 5pm the dance teachers arrived, once again they had been invited for a meal, mum told them we had watched the film and all five of them started giggling. I was beginning to get embarrassed and annoyed with all their scheming and signaling to Brian stormed out of the room.

We were talking in my bedroom when we were called down to eat an hour later, when we arrived in the kitchen nobody said a word, this had me worried a bit. They were always making remarks or giggling just lately but tonight we all sat and ate in silence.

Mrs Hendricks who usually took us for ballet told that our ballet lessons would be changed so that we could practice some of the more extreme moves in the Can Can, boy oh boy we could hardly wait some of those moves looked like forms of torture. Mrs Dickens told us that she didn’t think we would much trouble learning the dance and Ms Blake said nothing just sat there smiling in a world of her own.

Before they left they gave us a folder and told us to start on the exercises shown in the photographs, I thanked them for the folder and promised we would start the next morning, they all smiled and left for their homes. The mums had gone upstairs and were starting to sort out the bags we took up for them earlier, we were put to start getting two of the empty rooms ready for new beds and furniture that were arriving on Monday afternoon.

Sunday morning we had a light breakfast instead of our usually greasy spoon offerings, as soon as Brian came round we went down into the basement which had been turned into a practice room for us and had a look at the first exercise. The first exercise started with the splits as normal but slowly progressing until we able to do the splits up a wall, it didn’t help that we kept falling over at first but we got to a stage were we could manage it. God it wasn’t an easy exercise to perform, and one I'd never seem before we were a bit bruised and battered and after a couple of hours decided to call it a day as far exercising went.

We arrived at school on Monday and were immediately surrounded by boys who attended the dance classes wanting to know what was happening, all I could tell them was that I only knew what everyone else had been told on Friday. A lot of them were threatening to quit but I had a feeling their parents wouldn’t let them, not after paying for a years tuition.

At least we getting picked on today and classes went pretty quietly for a change, even the teachers were a bit worried with the subdued atmosphere.
At break I had to go to the Headmasters office were he asked me if I knew why everyone in our year was so quiet so I told him what had happened at Fridays dance class and he started laughing " I must get tickets for that show" he said as I left. He passed word to the teachers what was going on and the giggling and laughter started and the bullies didn’t like that one bit.

When we went to dance class that night quite a few of boys were dragged in by their fathers and told to stop being wimps, although we didn't know it the boys were not going to be wearing dresses except for Brian and me as was getting to be customary. That night was spent getting measured for costumes and everyone got measured, the girls were handed folders and like Brian and me were told to work through the exercises.

Tuesday night was our ballet night and as we had been told our routine had been changed, tonight we practicing or in my case learning to do cartwheels, yes I know 13 yr old boys can do cartwheels no problem, but not in my case I'd never tried them before or had the inclination to try them. I knew people that could walk on their hands, but like I always said "what was the point if you can get around on your feet".