The Life of a Juilliard Dancer Book #1

Chapter 3

      I stayed there, lying on the floor for the entire 15 minutes we had for break. "Lily, it's time to get off the floor." Zachary said. "But I'm tired." I whined in a childish voice. "Dammit you sound like you're 5, Lily, up, now." he said with an annoyed tone. Good, I was getting on his nerves. "Uh, do I have to." I complained finally opening my eyes. "Yes, you have to, one, because the 15-minute break is up and two, because you're lying down in the middle of the dance floor." he said folding his arms. "Can't you just dance around me." I groaned turning to the opposite direction of him. "That's it, you leave me no choice." he said in a very annoying tone. Great Lil, you've done it this time. He grabbed both my arms and attempted to pull me up off the floor.

       If only he knew how tomboyish I was, I grew up with family, mainly boys, so this little trick he's trying won't work on me. I transferred my body weight onto my mid and lower half anchoring myself to the floor. "Get up." he groaned pulling for dear life. "Nooooooooo." I squealed pulling back in retaliation. "Fine." he huffed releasing me to fall back down with a thud. "Ouch;" I groaned, "meanie.". "What do you offer a five-year-old to make them listen." he asked to group visibly frustrated. "Money." Alejandro said laughing. "Absolutely not." he replied. "Candy." said Sky in her usually bubbly tone. "Candy it is." he said turning to me. I raised an eyebrow. "If you get up and proceed with the class so the others who want to learn may learn I'll give you a lollipop; deal?" he said extending his right arm.

     I tapped my chin with the index finger on my left hand pretending to think even though I already knew my answer, I couldn't keep back the class any longer, that would be inconsiderate. "Deal," I said with a smile taking his hand. He pulled me up hard on purpose and I landed in his arms across his chest with a hard thud. Automatically my arms gripped around his neck for support, damn my reflexes. Whistles and taunts came for the class as he smirked at me making me quickly remove my arms. Before I could walk away he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I'll give it to you after class". I looked up at him because he had 5 inches on me and I replied, "That statement makes me both worried and scared.". He rolled his eyes at me huffing as his sign of finally giving up. "I'm a handful when you get on my bad side." I replied with a smirk as I walked away filing into the sea of students, "Next time, keep those extra laps for yourself, you look like you definitely need it.". The class erupted into a fit of giggles and snickers.

    He turned to face us, demanding our attention with his serious facial expression alone; and said, "ok, today we'll be working on a piece of choreography to the song 'Talk Dirty' by Jason Derulo. The style of the piece is hip hop mainly, but since I decided to use the Sax Solo Version of the song, a mix of the Latin ballroom style Swing as well as some Samba steps will be used. Most likely this dance will be done with partners, so not everyone will be allowed to dance the ballroom piece but everyone will be partaking in the hip hop choreography. "Some girls began to smile, and get extremely excited especially this redhead girl who's name was Denise; they were so excited to partner up because yeah, you guessed it, intimacy with the boys. I sighed muttering, "some girls.".

     I took refuge at the back of the class when he began showing us the step by step choro break down for the introduction without the music. We worked into the first verse for about an hour and a half before we started piecing it together as a group. I was so certain that he couldn't see me I began to get sloppy and I didn't really care until he said, "Lily, you look like you've got it, come here.". And this my friends is why we don't go to the back of the classroom. I made my way to the front reluctantly and stood there. He was right, I knew every step but I didn't feel like dancing after eight laps around the studio, which wasn't small by the way; I was feeling worn. He shuffled around to give me enough space and then he put on the music.

        I executed the steps exactly how they were taught but my form was terrible, I was being very sloppy with my movements even though I fully well knew they were supposed to be sharp. Walking back to the front of the class, in front of me, his facial expression told me that he was highly annoyed and I knew, he knew I could do better. "Lily spread your legs and arms apart." he instructed. I did as I was told, strangely and without question, which is very unlike me. "Stiffen up and make sure you're stiff, lock all your muscles in your arms and legs and make sure you are tense enough to stand your ground." I tensed my muscles in my arms as tight as possible but I couldn't do it for legs, they were still weak from running. I also tend to get bad calf cramps if I run or like exercise and don't put back some sodium into my system but I wasn't going to tell him that, my ass has too much pride.