A New Style of Education

by Karen Page

Part 41

Mrs Russell was slightly surprised when we enquired about an accordion player, but when we said it was for the revue, she didn't press further. It seemed we were out of luck at keeping it in our year or the year above, as only two people at Hayfield played the accordion and they were in years three and five.

"Let me have a look at Immigration Manor's list," said Mrs Russell, after seeing Helen's disappointed face. Well okay, our disappointed faces. "We have Matthew in Year E and Jean-Paul in Year H."

I cheered up. "Ooh, thank you Mrs Russell."

"It's my pleasure," she replied giving a bewildered laugh. "Now run along, I've been dealing with these queries all day and Mr Hobson has been nagging me to provide some concert details."

Helen and I didn't really know Mathew, and we had three choices, send him a message directly, ask one of the year E team to introduce us, or ask one in year two to introduce us.

"Hey you two," we heard, as we were scurrying back to our year room, debating between ourselves how we should get in touch with Mathew.

"Oh, hi Fran," we replied, coming to a halt.

"I hear you two have roped Pru and Sophia into your performance. A rather interesting combination, isn't it?"

"I suppose. Talking of the revue, do you know Mathew in your year from The Manor?"

"Sure, do you want to ensnare him, too?"

"Got it in one," Helen laughed. I started laughing too as Fran looked very confused.

"Heck, what on Earth are you planning?" Fran murmured.

"Do you want to tell us what you're doing?" I countered.

"Not a chance," she retorted indignantly, which she spoilt with a huge grin. "I'll get Mathew to send you a text later. I'm off to see Mrs Russell, to see if she can help with something. See you later."

That's one thing I love about this school, everyone will help each other. Even with this revue, there might be friendly rivalry, but none of us take the rivalry seriously.

***

"I've never been upstairs in the education wing," I mentioned when I read where we were going to have our special lessons.

"Well, neither have I, so let's get going and find out what we've let ourselves in for," laughed Helen, giving me a push.

There didn't appear to be many rooms on that floor, or at least not many doors, so we weren't surprised that the room we entered was quite large. What did surprise us were the huge mirrors on the wall.

"Hello again Miss Grant and Miss Jackson," Simon formally greeted us as we entered the room. "Please, take a seat."

"So, what can we do for you?" Kelly asked, as we all sat down on the offered settee. Helen and I shared a surprised glance at Kelly's question. Surely since we were in a dance room, they surely must know why we were there.

"Don't you know?" Helen queried, not masking her surprise.

"We know what we were told, but that doesn't always tell us everything. I thought you two realised how we work from when you've had other lessons with us. Unless you tell us exactly what you want to achieve from these lessons, we might leave something out that would be important to you and you wouldn't get the best out of them."

Simon was nodding sagely in agreement. Thinking back to when I'd had my earlier lessons with Kelly and Simon, I remembered how they were sticklers for detail.

Helen quickly suggested to me, "Why don't you explain? It was your idea,"

"We have this revue, and we have to perform something. We had this idea, but it involves us dancing," I explained.

"That much we knew. However, what we don't know is what type of dancing and have you something specific thing in mind?"

"The tango," muttered Helen, slightly embarrassed.

"Ah, now we're getting somewhere. Anything more specific?" pressed Kelly.

"Por Una Cabeza," I said, after Helen prodded me. "I saw it in two films, Scent of a Woman and True Lies; though it seems the school system won't let us see them because of our age."

"Miss Jackson, if I remember correctly you've danced before, but you haven't Miss Grant. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir," Helen replied.

"Final question for now, if you don't mind," smiled Kelly. "Are you planning to dance this as two women, two men, or mixed?"

I blinked in surprise. I hadn't thought about the first two choices. "We planned on me being David for it," I quickly said, before Helen got any ideas of us doing it as two women.

"Having a mixed couple certainly makes things easier," Kelly laughed. "You are aware that the tango can be quite a challenging dance, especially for the male lead. Since Helen has some dancing experience, are you sure you don't want to do this as Christopher and Jayne?"

No, not back as Jayne. Is the whole world trying to say that I would be better as a girl? I'm sure that Helen will agree with them.

"No," said Helen, surprising me. "I know I have more experience in dancing, but for the tango, I'm just as much a novice. Would you mind teaching us as Helen and David?"

I love that girl so much and I assumed she would want me to stay as Jayne. How wrong could I have been? I'll have to do something to make it up to her.

"Not at all," said Simon smoothly. "Just be aware it will be more work, especially for David. Now Jayne, since you are currently portraying a female for the field trip, would you like to change here for the practices?"

"Would that be okay?" I asked, my heart beating slightly faster.

"Of course," laughed Kelly. "You won't be the first student that has needed to change here to learn. Simon and I will need a little preparation for this. Why don't you leave us to it, and come back tomorrow at eleven for a proper practice?"

* * *

The school had a very different feel. With no lessons and the impending revue, the normal year boundaries disappeared. What was important was how we could help each other, no matter the age or school. The afternoon orchestra practice just reinforced that feeling, as most of us didn't sit next to anybody from our year. What was important was sound and ability.

That evening, after our meal, the seven of us that were taking part in the revue got together for a practice. I'd reserved one of the classrooms earlier that day. The caretakers, whoever they were, had moved the tables to one side. In some respects they reminded me of the elves in Harry Potter, always working, but never seen.

When everyone arrived, I handed out the music. I felt a bit guilty as I wasn't playing, and by the looks on Helen's face, I wasn't alone.

"So when do we get to see you dance?" asked Jessica, as she scanned through the music.

"When are we going to hear you play?" responded Helen without batting an eyelid.

"Touché."

"Certainly not in here. I've no piano," pointed out Sophia. The others had brought their instruments with them. I thought it was great how Pru's Double Bass case had wheels on it, so it was easier for her to get around.

"I didn't think of that," I mentally kicked myself.

"The practice rooms might be a bit tight to get us all in," added Sam.

"There is always the main hall, or the classroom we normally have our music classes in," Jessica suggested.

"The music classroom was booked and if we practice in the main hall then everyone will hear."

"I have a keyboard in my bedroom, and that would be private. We could practice there," Sophia offered. "If you want, we could have a run through now, so we can get the hang of how it feels."

Everyone thought that was a great idea, so we all decamped to Sophia's room. As the door opened, we heard the rather interesting sound of Renee practicing on her bagpipes emanating from the adjoined room. I knew that was her instrument of choice, and that she played the trumpet in the school orchestra because it fitted in better, but I'd never actually heard her play.

"Perhaps here isn't a good idea," I said, biting my bottom lip.

"It sounds like Renee is just finishing," Sophia informed us. "That sounds like the tune she finishes the set with. It fits the set well, and she really likes it."

The interconnecting door was wide open, and we could see Renee. Her back was to us, so she didn't see us quietly listening. As Sophia predicted, Renee soon finished.

"Hi Renee," called Sophia. "We have company."

Renee spun round, and blushed when she saw us.

"I knew you should have taken your keyboard," Renee laughed, coming into Sophia's room. By the looks of the books on the table, and the way the room was laid out, it looked like it was really their room.

"I'm sorry if we disturbed your practice," I apologised.

"I was just finished," she smiled. "I'm just not used to people hearing me on the pipes again."

"Hey, you're really good," Helen added. "I wish it fitted in with what we're doing. Anyway, now we can get embarrassed while you listen to us do our first run-through."

"I suppose I better stop getting embarrassed about people hearing me," Renee smiled nervously. "I've been asked to pipe in someone's show."

"Hey, that's great!" shouted Sophia, suddenly jumping up, lifting Renee and swirling her around. Renee gave a yelp of shock and rapidly wrapped her legs around Sophia's waist.

Eventually things calmed down and we had a run through. As with any initial first attempts, it was very rough.

"Are you sure you don't want a different violinist?" Sam asked, as they again came to a halt.

"You're doing great. Remember how bad we were with the first run through of the Beethoven? Look how good we are now," I said, trying to keep the group together.

"Yeah, but we had a lot longer to get it right," Pru pointed out.

"There are only five of us. I'm sure with some practice we should be fine. I have a few other rehearsals early tomorrow morning, so why don't we all have a private practice and meet back at eleven?" suggested Sophia.

"Helen and I have a dance lesson then," I informed them, as everyone checked their PDA's.

"We should be able to practice without you," said Sophia. "Let us concentrate on getting the music right. We can always send you a recording so you can practice with that, and provide us feedback about how you feel. Since it will take us a bit to get the music right, it will let you concentrate on perfecting your dancing. Then we can put on one heck of a performance."

"Thanks," smiled Helen.

"Do you have an example of this?" asked Jessica.

"I saw it in the movie True Lies, but since it is a fifteen, the school system won't let us pull it up," I explained.

"I'm fifteen," said Mathew. "Why don't I try and pull it up?"

We watched the two examples in the movie. Helen's eyes got slightly wide as she saw the dance and the end of the movie.

"No way could I dance like that," she murmured. "I'm not going to make a scene like that."

"No, it is rather OTT," I agreed. "Though I think you'd look nice in a dress like that."

"I'm not developed enough to do it justice, perhaps in a few years. Didn't you say you'd seen it in another movie?"

"Scent of a Woman."

Mathew pulled up the film and we scanned through it until we found the segment we wanted to see.

"Well that was a lot more sedate," said Mathew, as the dance finished.

"It had a different feel to it than the two examples from True Lies," said Sophia. "How do you two want to dance it?"

"That's an issue, we don't know how to dance yet, let alone put any passion into it. I'm worried that we're going to be worrying too much about the moves, and not letting it flow," said Helen, screwing up her nose.

"Do you concentrate on what your fingers do as you play your instrument, or think about what keys you are pressing as you type?" Sam queried.

"I suppose not," I murmured, wondering where Sam was going.

"Well, just treat it like that. Knowing Kelly and Simon, you will be dancing in your sleep before the revue. Then your feet will move without thought and the passion will just flow."

I hoped Sam was right. The school had taught me how to pass as female quickly, so there is hope.

The next day Simon met us at the practice room. He was dressed rather smartly in a tuxedo. As we walked rather bemusedly towards the offered seats, Kelly came out in a long formal dress.

"I feel rather underdressed," I complained as I saw Kelly.

"Don't worry, we just wanted you to see some examples of how it might be done," Kelly explained. "We thought being dressed like you may be for your revue, might give you some ideas. On the table you will find some papers where you can score the dances we do with what you want. That way it might help you remember them better."

"My mum used to do that with the Eurovision Song Contest," I said, remembering the times I'd watched it with the family. My Dad used to have a good laugh about it over far too many beers. Helen must have seen the twinge of pain I felt and gently squoze my hand in a sign of support.

We both settled down on the settee and watched as a number of different versions were demonstrated, not just the versions we'd seen the previous night, but a much wider variety. One of the demonstrations was so romantic. I was gobsmacked that Simon could dance so passionately. My surprise was replaced with embarrassment as the next demonstration could only be described as erotic.

"Well?" enquired Kelly, as she sat down gracefully. The way she glided across the floor, was like she was riding on a cushion of air.

"Did you borrow Hermione Granger's special shoes from The Goblet of Fire?" I laughed, rather nervously.

"She is rather graceful, isn't she?" beamed Simon. "Would you like to sign up for a traditional deportment class?"

"Hey, this isn't a recruitment period," tutted Kelly.

"You mean we are supposed to save the propaganda until after they're already hooked?" lamented Simon, keeping a straight face. "Damn." He gave me a discrete wink. I wonder how much the stiff personality was put on?

"So, back to the dancing. What did you like and what didn't you? What did you give douze points?" I smiled to myself at Kelly's referral to the Eurovision scoring.

We discussed the versions we liked, and the two teachers added details about the difficulty of each dance. "Remember, you are there to entertain, not to do the hardest dance. Do what you feel comfortable doing, rather than something that is going to be beyond your ability to learn in the time you have left. A simple dance done well will look a lot better than a hard dance done badly."

I changed, and tried to style my hair in as masculine a style as I could manage in such a short time. I didn't expect to have to learn to change into male mode so quickly. I sighed to myself. Another thing I'd be learning as well as the dance. What had I got myself into?

Once we had decided which style of dancing we wanted, we got to work very quickly. They started us off at a much slower tempo than the music practice the previous night.

I ended up dancing with Kelly, while Helen got to dance with Simon. Helen was soon being whisked around the floor, learning some of the more advanced moves that she'd never been taught. Meanwhile, I was still learning more of the beginner moves.

At the end of the session, I finally got to dance with Helen. She was certainly more advanced than I was. I was more than a little nervous as we went round the floor.

When we finished I quietly walked to the dressing room to get changed.

"What's up?" said Simon, who followed me.

"When we danced, there didn't seem to be any connection between me and Helen. There certainly wasn't any spark of romance."

When he gave a short laugh, I looked at Simon in amazement. "David, you've only just started to dance. The music you danced to was a recording and was intentionally slow and mechanical. While this can be a very passionate dance, it loses a lot if the basics aren't second nature to you both. Something to remember is that the tango is a live dance, and a big factor is the live music and how you interact with it. If it is played well, that will encourage your dancing and the passion will naturally appear. Don't forget that you are concentrating on moving rather than on romance. Think back to when you learnt to read. I bet you read each word on its own and only later did you read in sentences. Later still you would have started to put emotion into how you read. Your dancing is at the reading each word on its own stage. You will soon improve, just like you did with reading."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm certain. Now I'll leave you to turn yourself back to Jayne."

"Thanks, Simon."

That afternoon, after a successful run through of The Armed Man, we unexpectedly finished early. A ripple of confusion drifted through the orchestra and choir until Mrs Russell said, "Don't run away, Stacy has an announcement. I will see you all tomorrow."

All the teachers departed and Stacy stood at the front. "I know that nobody decided to use the full orchestra or choir out of respect for everyone. However, an idea was raised to give a nice finale for the staff, which involved everyone. After some discussion between myself and Kriss, I approached someone to arrange something. Lewis, would you mind dishing out the parts?"

I smiled as I received my music and noticed the arrangers — R Baldwin & D Humphrey. I quickly scanned the music, playing the notes in my mind as my eyes flicked across the staves. It didn't appear to be anything I recognised. Sometimes that can be good, as you don't go into playing an arrangement with hangovers from what you already know. However, it is certainly a lot easier for timings when you do know how it is supposed to sound.

For once our initial run through wasn't as much of a disaster as it normally was. Perhaps we were all getting to be better players. As with all things at the school, you seemed to learn, even when you didn't expect it. At this rate I would be skipping some of my AB* music exams and doing a higher grade than expected. What helped me was that I vaguely recognised the music from some old movie that my mum used to love. The name of the movie escaped me, so I decided to look up the title later.

Sometimes it is hard to hear the music, but this one you could feel. This must have been some love theme and when it finished, I heard a ripple of sighs.

* * *

The daily practice for the visit to Russia, carol singing and the revue kept everyone at school busy. The dancing improved, and when we weren't having lessons, Helen and I practiced in our room. Towards Christmas Eve, we began to dance with the musicians and gradually we learnt to work as a team. I suppose it was rather like we had to learn how to work with the orchestra when we played the Sinfonia Concertante.

"Happy Christmas," Helen whispered, giving me a discrete kiss. The church clock had just struck midnight and the curate finished off the nativity scene by laying the model of baby Jesus into the cradle.

"Happy Christmas to you, too," I whispered in response. I was totally in awe at the service. This was my first Christmas that I'd been to church, or that I remember going to church. Heck, before coming to this school, I'd only been to church when my parents were both working on Sunday morning.

The school had anticipated that there were going to be a lot of people wanting to attend the midnight service, so after we'd got back from carol singing at the local hospitals, a draw had been held. Those that weren't able to fit in for the midnight service would attend the nine-thirty service on Christmas Day. There was a range of other services too, for people of different denominations, and Helen had arranged for us to attend at least one. I suppose it was a good time to see what others believed.

Christmas day was nothing like any other Christmas day that I'd experienced. Presents had always been small, but today there weren't going to be any, or so I thought. When we came down the stairs, there outside our year room were three large sacks. Others from our year, who had also just arrived, were looking on in amazement.

"Hey, shouldn't you two still be in bed?" asked Jill as she approached us.

"Huh?" I responded rather vaguely.

"You got to go to church last night, so I thought you would still be in bed."

"Ooh, jealous are we?" laughed Helen, as Jill couldn't keep a straight face. "The habit of getting up at a standard time woke us up. At least Jayne stopped us going for a bike ride, otherwise we wouldn't be here to witness this."

"Stacy didn't say anything about presents when she told us about Christmas here at Hayfield," complained Tina.

"Why are we all standing in the doorway talking about them and not taking them into our room?" I asked, wondering why I'd not thought to ask this earlier.

"Oh yeah," nervously laughed Wesley. "Phil and I were down first and should have thought of that earlier. I don't think I'm with it this morning. I blame it on it being such a big surprise."

"That sounds a great excuse. It certainly is a big surprise having sacks of pressies."

We hauled them into our year-room and put them around our Christmas tree, waiting for the others to appear.

"What's this?" asked Paula, as she and Emma arrived and spied the goodies. They were the last two to arrive. Everyone arrived quickly after someone, who shall rename nameless, sent everyone a message.

"We aren't sure," Helen replied. "Do you want to look, or would you rather we go to breakfast early?"

"If Lewis can wait, then so will I," shrugged Paula.

"Even I will wait," admitted Lewis.

It was a silly question really as there were over thirty minutes before breakfast. I don't think we have ever been that early for breakfast, apart from when Helen and I were re-elected as year leaders.

"Any traditions anybody wants to set?" Jill queried. I'd thought about everyone just grab their gift, rip off the paper and see what it was.

"What did you have in mind?" Helen asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"How about you find the gift for your study partner and you give it to them in whatever way you feel fit?"

"How do you mean?" Emma queried.

Jill smiled, went under the tree and rummaged around until she found the gift for Anna. She gently carried it across the room, placed it next to Anna and gave her a rather passionate kiss. "Happy Christmas."

"Ooh," encouraged everyone in the room. Anna didn't blush, but she did have a nice smile plastered across her face.

Some of the Hayfield students were more embarrassed about others knowing that they were romantically involved with their study partner and the gift was just given. There was no such holdback from The Manor students. They'd got past that stage. Perhaps the most emotional response wasn't anything to do with romance, but acceptance. Sam burst into floods of tears after opening the gift. I had to admit it was one heck of a present and fitted in very nicely with what Sam had recently disclosed to us.

"Are you going to keep it in here or in your room?" Jessica asked.

"I'm not sure," Sam slowly said.

"Keep it here," we all chorused.

"Sam, you can't hide yourself in your room. We all accept this part of you, so please share with us."

Sam nodded and burst into tears of happiness. What a magical Christmas.

Hayfield had taken a day where we probably would have most missed our families and turned it into something not so bad. I still felt bereft, but somehow the edge of the hurt had been taken away. Helen and I managed to somehow get through the day and it wasn't until we were safely cuddled in our bed that we burst into tears. Life just seemed so damn unfair.

---

*AB, short for ABRSM = Associated Board of the Royal School of Music. They set the instrument exams for the UK and some other countries.