Fight Song

Chapter 4

Dianne's PoV
I was always incredibly stressed before going on stage for my solos, and today was NOT helped by the fact Briar Lloyd from the Canadian team was before me, and dancing impeccably. Like, I couldn't find a single flaw. My routine was nowhere near as polished as hers, and I felt sick to my stomach. The only thing that made me feel better is that I could see Amy Dowden from the British Dance Company on the other side, looking equally as nervous.

"Calm down," Katie put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "You'll be great. Positive vibes remember."

I smiled gratefully and closed my eyes, imagining I was back in the rehearsal room and doing it for myself, not for a competition.

"Next to the stage, Dianne Buswell from the Australian Dance Centre with her solo, Torn!" the announcement came for my time to enter the stage.

"Good luck!" Katie whispered before I stepped out.

My solo was about mind struggles, and how you want to do something but your brain prevents you from being able to do it. It's rather emotional, and because of how nervous I was to perform, my performance was ten times better. I was shaky, but it fitted the dance. My skill and technique weren't at the same level as Briar's though, and I knew I couldn't beat her, but I knew Amy probably couldn't either.

I finished my solo, and stepped off the stage into the wings, collapsing into Katie's arms.

"Next to the stage, Amy Dowden from the British Dance Company with her solo, Broken!"

Everyone clapped, as Amy entered the stage looking more nervous than I'd ever seen her in my life.

"It's a really personal dance," a voice behind me said, making me jump.

"Joe," I breathed out, "you scared me. Why are you over here?"

"I'm the first guy to dance my solo and I came to watch Amy," he shrugged. "She's nervous, because it's a dance based on a personal struggle of hers. I wanted to be here to support her. I already told her if she runs off the stage because it's too much that's absolutely fine and nobody will blame her, but she's determined to do it and she's worked so hard. I'm proud of her."

That surprised me. The team that had won the past two Internationals was allowing people to run off stage if they get too emotional? No, it had to be a trick...right?

Amy's PoV
I walked onto the stage and looked into the wings and saw Joe give me the thumbs up. He was standing next to Dianne, who looked worried, which was unsurprising. Briar had outperformed both of us. There was no way I could match that.

My solo was about my experiences in my recent life. My dad abandoned my mum, just left her for another woman he met at the gym. It broke her. He refused to pay for my dance lessons, but my mum saw how happy dance made me and how good I was at it, and worked herself to the bone to pay for it until one day she broke down in front of me and admitted she was in massive debt and couldn't afford classes anymore. Thankfully the studio offered me a full scholarship because of how much I'd contributed, and I offered to teach baby ballet in return. After all this, my mum fell into clinical depression and was drunk most nights. She cried a lot, and it made me feel awful. I struggled to get clean clothes because we couldn't afford the electric bill every month, and couldn't really afford soap, so I wore dirty uniform and smelled pretty bad a lot. I ended up getting bullied for it and became so self conscious about my image I used to hide in the toilets at lunch and break, never eating my free school meals and losing a lot of weight. I didn't have any friends at my school, and it was awful. I got diagnosed with depression myself two months later, and dance soon became my only source of happiness. Dance allowed me to express myself and be free. And the BDC truly were my family. They started offering to do my washing for me, and I managed to transfer to AJ, Sophia and Cinzia's school, so I have friends. My life has got better, but I'm still on anti-depressants, and my mum is just getting worse. So my solo is about being broken, how quickly everything can fall apart, but also how something beautiful can be made from what's fallen apart. Zoe said to me once that she thought humans were like marble. We're born as this perfect block of smooth, untouched marble, but as life goes on it chips away at us, and it hurts like hell. But at the end of it all, our marble slabs become works of art, it shapes us into the people we are. And more often than not, it's the ones with the most chips that are the most beautiful. That's stuck with me my whole life, and is the core meaning of the dance. I find myself crying through most of it, but when I finish it's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I walk off the stage and see Joe grinning, and Dianne with a sort of sad expression. Guilt? Sympathy? I couldn't tell, but I didn't care. I hugged Joe as he congratulated me, and then walked back to my dressing room to see the rest of the team.

Dianne's PoV
Amy's solo had left me truly astounded. The emotion in that performance was more than I'd ever seen in any dance before. Like mine, it wasn't as good technically as Briar's, but in terms of musicality and story telling she stood a good chance of being crowned Miss Internationals again.

"She choreographed that all by herself?" I turned around and looked at Joe.

"Yep," he nodded. "Based upon her life story in the past three years. It's kinda sucked for her, but she's a warrior."

I nodded slowly. "Well, I'm gonna get back to my team...uhh...good luck."

I didn't mean it. I didn't wish him good luck at all, because I didn't want him to win. I wanted my team to win. I wanted my brother to win, not some cocky crumpet.

Joe's PoV
Dianne disappeared quite quickly, but what I couldn't quite get over was that she'd wished me good luck. I almost took it seriously, but she's proven countless times she's all about mind games, and so I wasn't about to let her trick me into believing she was sincere. She was just trying to psych me out.

I waited for the female solos to finish, before it was my turn. Unlike the girls, I'd chosen not to include a storyline in my dance, only a stimulus and dance to describe the stimulus. It was a risky move, because the judging panel often really liked a story, but it just didn't feel right. Instead, I was basing mine off fire. It was possibly one of the best solos I'd ever created. It had passion, adrenaline and tricks, but also slower and more gentle and balletic parts to show the different stages of fire and how it's not always wild, it can be tame too. Shirley had told me to feel the fire igniting my bones when I danced, and that comment really helped fuel the dance. I took a bow at the end and walked off, the audience cheering loudly. I'd done the best I could, so now it was just the waiting game.

I'm quitting twitter for Lent so i'll probs have more time to work on this now!