The Eldest Ziegler

Dying to Dance

"I want to talk about this upcoming weekend. It's regionals," Miss. Abby says. We were sitting in front of the chalkboard again because today is pyramid day, "Everybody knows how important that is."

Miss. Abby turned around the chalkboard to show the pyramid for this week and the name of the competition that we are going to for regionals.

"We are going to Starpower. You know that's one of the toughest competitions out there. This is what's going to happen for this next weekend. Maddie, new solo. Brooke, new solo. Chloe, new solo. Monica, new solo. Now... the age categories are a little different. So we want to make sure that your dance reflects you as a dancer now, not the beginning of the season."

The pyramid looks pretty normal, nothing has really changed from last week.

Maddie

Monica Chloe Paige

Brooke Nia Vivi-Anne Mackenzie

We are doing a new group routine this weekend. And everybody's in it-- the entire cast. It is called Where Have All the Children Gone?"

"Yeah, a creepy number!" I say before I could stop myself.

"This is a routine about children who become missing. We've all seen the children's faces on the milk cartons. It's contemporary, it's mature, and it is very dark. You have to be great actresses to pull it off. And they're all in white like they're angels. I don't want any discrepancies. I don't want any opinions. Moms, I'm going to go ahead and dismiss you now. We have a lot of work to do. Girls, up. Let's get moving."

We went into Studio B to start choreographing this piece and I really liked it a lot because it is a spoken song and it gives it an edge. I don't really know the whole story but I am happy that we are doing a creepy number with a story.

Miss. Abby stopped the music and said, "Come close, listen to me. All right, you're dancing, you're doing steps, you're trying to listen to the words. You're not interpreting the story correctly. And this is very serious, because maybe people in the audience have had a child that's gone missing. So you're gonna touch somebody's heart. So this has to be a very serious routine. And right now you're just doing the steps, and we need to get past that and we need to perform."

Then Miss. Abby turned to Mackenzie and Vivi-Anne who were sitting next to her and said, "Do you two understand? It's very serious."

When the class in Studio A was over we went in there to continue learning the choreography.

In a couple of hours, rehearsal was over and it was time for another ballet class and a private.

But before I went to class, I talked to Chloe and Paige.

"Are you excited for this week?" Chloe asked me as I put my ballet shoes.

"Yup, we're finally doing a creepy number," I tell her, "Hopefully, I get a creepy solo too."

"You really like your creepy numbers," Paige says.

"Yup."

"I like creepy numbers too," Chloe tells us.

"Do you understand what the song is about," Paige asked as we shook our heads.

I said goodbye to Chloe and Paige before walking into my ballet class.

My ballet class went by fast and soon I was on my way home excited for the rest of the week.

~~~

I woke up the next morning, I was super tired but I still had to go to school.

The school day was super boring besides recess because that's when me and Katie talk with the other girls from the other classes.