From Russia With Love

Dominika worked through her classes that day without paying attention to anything she was doing, her body on auto-pilot whilst her mind was distracted, replaying scenes from The Sleeping Beauty over and over. She didn’t know if she would even be expected to know the steps, but it couldn’t hurt to try to memorize them anyway.

It was her last class of the day, drills with Miss Langmead. Miss Langmead was one of Dominika’s favorite teachers, stern but pleasant with a rigid sense of discipline when it came to the art of ballet. She had taken a liking to Dominika and she now looked forward to classes with the young female teacher the most. Harriet and Daphne were also in this class, but the girls rarely had a chance to converse during the strenuous routines. Miss Langmead’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, attention turning to her teacher.

“Nice work girls” she said, pausing the stereo next to her and folding her legs to sit on the floor in front of them “let’s cool down”

Dominika went back into her erratic thought mode as she lay on the floor with the rest of the class, the opening notes to “Danse d'Aurore avec le fuseau” playing in her head. She tried to concentrate on the cool-down but her mind kept wandering back to the beautiful ballet piece. Her heart leapt into her throat as Miss Langmead spoke again, the girls around her sitting upright.

“That’s it for today ladies. I believe some of you have a very important appointment to keep with Mr. Rush now, so I won’t keep you. See you in class again tomorrow”

Her friends wandered over to her, pulling on their over clothes. Dominika retrieved her bag from underneath the bar next to her and smiled as they approached, digging for her water bottle.

“I’m so nervous I’m shaking” Harriet said, holding her hand out in front of her. Dominika sipped from her water bottle and tried to feign indifference.

“We’ll be okay, don’t worry about it” she said, hoping she sounded convincing. Daphne’s blue eyes widened and she shoved Dominika’s shoulder lightly.

“You have no idea who we’re dealing with, Mr. Rush is scary” Daphne interjected.

“Pfft!” Dominika sniggered “Mr. Rush isn’t scary at all, he’s nice, I thought he was funny, actually”

“You met him already?” Harriet asked.

“I had to audition for him to get into this place, didn’t you?”

Daphne shook her head.

“No, we were poached straight out of high school by talent agents” she laughed “we’ve never even spoken to Mr. Rush before”

“He’s really not scary at all” Dominika assured “just relax, we’ll do fine”

“Easy for you to say, teacher’s pet” Harriet teased. Dominika rolled her eyes and slipped her jumper over her head. She smoothed her hands over her hair, flat against her head and coiled in a tight bun and gathered her bag over her shoulder.

The three of them left the studio, walking side by side and made their way slowly, anxiously to the building where the auditions were to be held. They walked silently for once, and nervous anticipation hung in the air as they crossed the field. At the audition studio, lights burned brightly overhead, making the room warm and stuffy. A few girls milled about the floor, perhaps in their own way of pacing, others were glued to the floor in various poses, stretching in preparation. Dominika’s heart thumped in her chest as she felt the anxiety in the room and she looked to her friends nervously.

“Where’s Mr. Rush?” Daphne hissed behind her. She dumped her bag in the corner and looked back to her friend.

“I don’t know, I guess he’s not here yet”

She stretched her quads while she was still standing, swapping legs before leaning down to press her arms against the floor, inhaling deeply.

“Good afternoon ladies” a male voice announced loudly. The quiet whispers in the room went silent immediately and Dominika knew it had to be Mr. Rush.

“Thank you for coming. Some of you will know the story of The Sleeping Beauty, but others will not. It’s a classic Russian folk tale turned into one of the most beautiful and notorious ballets of all time, and also contains some of the most challenging sequences you will have ever learnt. The story is simple really, a beautiful Princess, the starring lead, is born to the King and Queen, on her Christening Day she is cursed by a vengeful witch who determines she will die after being pricked with a spindle on her sixteenth birthday. The Lilac Fairy, another important role, reverses the spell enough that the Princess will not die at sixteen, and will instead fall into a deep sleep which she can only be awoken from by the kiss of a prince after one hundred years. A little cliché? Maybe, but the piece itself is beautiful”

The class remained silent as Mr. Rush clapped his hands enthusiastically, rubbing them together.

“We’ll have two rounds of auditions. Today, I will simply ask you to dance to my verbal instruction to a three minute piece as a group, from there I will narrow down the candidates for the final audition and provide you with written choreography for a small section of The Sleeping Beauty for you to take home and learn over the next week”

Dominika was instantly in game mode, every ounce of concentration she had focused on the task ahead of her as Mr. Rush queued the music. An upbeat piano rhythm played out of the speakers overhead and he began to shout instructions.

Dominika used every muscle in her body as she moved to Mr. Rush’s commands. She barely noticed the other girls around her, keeping her eyes trained on her own image reflected in the mirrored wall ahead. She watched herself carefully, ensuring perfection. The song seemed to drag on forever, much longer than three little minutes. She realized her body was sore as she stopped and was afraid for a moment that maybe she’d tensed herself up too much. Mr. Rush began to walk along the girls, touching some on the shoulders. Those he missed looked deflated and defeated, and whilst Dominika felt bad for them, she also didn’t want that to be her. So much of who she was seemed to be wrapped up in her dancing, and to be rejected would be hard. Her pulse raced madly as Mr. Rush approached her, a small smile tugging up the corners of his mouth that reminded her of Gerard for a split second. She broke eye contact for a moment to wipe her brow.

Mr. Rush said nothing as he passed her, simply touching the back of her shoulder for a second before moving on. In that moment she was too excited to see who else had been selected, imagining what it would be like to dance on the company’s stage in front of a huge crowd, the deafening roar of applause ringing in her ears.

When the auditions were dismissed, Dominika met her friends in the courtyard. Daphne ran up to her excitedly and jumped up and down, squealing.

“We made it!” she yelled triumphantly, punching the air above her head. Dominika laughed and hugged the red-head as Harriet joined them, beaming from ear to ear.

“We did it girls! Well done!”

“We need to celebrate” Daphne announced, pulling the elastic from her hair and allowing it to fall loose down her shoulders.

“Now?” Dominika asked “I need to get home…they’re expecting me for dinner”

Daphne and Harriet glanced at each other, exchanging a look before they turned back to her.

“Not now. My parents are going out of town this weekend, what do you say we have a little gathering at my place? Invite a few people…maybe have a few drinks, what do you think?” Daphne asked.

Dominika was instantly unsure, doubting a teenage drinking party was on the list of things that were deemed safe for her to do in America. She hadn’t been left alone at all beyond the Way house and the ballet company. Both Donna and John had emphasized it wasn’t safe for her to go wandering off on her own. Daphne seemed to sense her hesitation.

“You know I have some really cute guy friends who I could invite…I bet a few of them are just your type” she hinted. Dominika blushed and covered one side of her face with her slender hand.

“I already have a boyfriend…guy friend…male friend…a guy” Dominika mumbled, mortified. She hadn’t been ready to have this conversation with her friends yet and she didn’t feel like being pressed for details.

“What?” Daphne said, shocked “Who? How come you never told us about him?”

“It’s complicated” she murmured, looking down at her feet.

“Oh come on, Domi!” Harriet protested “who is he?”

“Yeah, spill, you’ve been holding out on us!” Daphne added. Dominika sighed and shuffled her feet nervously, trying to edit the story quickly in her head enough that she could tell her friends without giving away too much of who she actually was.

“He’s my…godmother’s son. We grew up together as children. His name is Gerard, he’s a soldier in the military”

“So he’s American?” Daphne asked, as if it came as a surprise to her.

“Yes” Dominika replied softly “he’s on deployment in Russia and I’m not sure when I’ll see him again, that’s why it’s complicated”

Notes

I've edited some of these chapters down as I felt I was waffling on too much, but now I think they feel a little rushed hmmm, what do you guys think? Just a heads up we are still only about 1/3 of the way through this story!