The A.B.P. (Australian Ballet Program) was the building block for me to become a professional dancer. I started dancing when I was four years old. My mom used to say to me “Gabby, even though you lost this performance, I know you’re going to win the next one.” I have tan skin like the sand on the beach with green eyes like seaweed. My hair is Midnight black. I am nice for the most part but sometimes I get really mad. Most of the time I’m happy but I still get sad now and then. But no matter how I feel I can always dance.
When I was twelve I would go on long trips to faraway places to perform. I had won an award for the youngest dancer to perform in the finals for one hundred dollars and I WON! I love ballet so much and it calms me down when I am upset.
Ava is a dancer. She is nineteen years old. She has been dancing since she was three.
June is her mom and Mac is her dad. Her sister is Dove and Ava's cat is named Pretty Face. Dove also had a dog named Finn. Ava loves to dance.
Ava got a job as a background dancer two years ago but she wants to be the lead dancer. More importantly she wants to dance on the moon, the real moon. Ava has won so many awords in red, blue and yellow and even gold.
Ava’s school is doing a dance recital of the moon landing, and Ava wants the lead role. Mary, the principal's daughter, also wants the part too. She gets everything. Ava thinks of a mad face emoji.
Ava is at work dancing and thinks about how she is left out.She knows this and she also knows that she can do more.
Elena was sick of staring at the perfectly shaped buns of the dancers in front of her. All she wanted was to see the faces of an audience infatuated with her technique. Mesmerized by her perfectly placed steps and her long lines. She’d been trying out for the lead roles for years, but all she’s ever achieved is single song, mediocre, back-row position. Elena still gives it everything she’s got, even though she knows no one can even see her. After 14 years of intense training 6 days a week, she’s still hidden in the shadows of the tutus in front of her. The heat from the stage light barely reaches her, and sometimes she trips over the back curtain. All Elena wants is to be the center of the entire auditorium, to know that everyone's eyes are on her. She’ll continue to work hard and pray that she finally gets noticed. But for now, she stands in b-plus, in the back row, and stares at the perfectly shaped buns.
I hopped, then did a quick pirouette. I had mastered this routine. It didn’t matter if I messed up. No one would see. I was in the back where I was usually placed. In the dark. I stopped. The girl next to me flicked her head to face me. Her black hair was tied up in a tight bun. The instructor motioned for her to come to the front of the stage. She glared at me like she was disgusted and then skipped up to the front. She danced in the bright lights as the audience cheered. A feeling ached inside of me. Jealousy. I thought. I wouldn't let it get the best of me. “That's it.” I said to myself.
That night at dinner I announced that I was quitting dance. My parents looked like they would try to change my mind but they knew I had made my decision. It was against my heart's desire but this was final. I was quitting. No one would notice anyway. Once I went to my room, all I could do was dance but I couldn't. I was done.
It’s never fun being stuck in the background. I’ve been dancing for as long as I can remember and am very passionate about it. I personally believe that I am pretty good and many others could back me up on this but for some reason anytime I am part of a show I am stuck in the back. I feel like this isn’t allowing me to display the full extent of my talent. It feels as though I’m stuck in a cage watching everyone else display what they have to offer while I can’t. I just want to feel the freedom of being in the front with all the eyes on me studying my every move. It's like trying to impress a love interest that's on the other side of a crowd, if you could move a few feet forward maybe you’d be able to get their attention. All I can do is show up and give it my best to try to prove myself every day and hopefully soon I’ll be able to get their attention.
I throw my things down on the floor and sink into the couch when I get home. I sigh as I look at my emails again hoping to find something new. Of course there was nothing. I got up and decided sitting around doing nothing wasn’t going to help get me into a dance as the role lead. I walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water and decided to make dinner. As I was in the middle of it I got a notification from another dance studio. When I looked it said the same as always. I got the role as a background dancer. I was starting to think my dream wasn’t going to happen.
Crowded and hidden, Cassandra was never in the front. She was always kept in the back, like a lost gem trying to shine its way through the darkness. She danced elegantly, as beautifully as she could, never once failing to do what was asked of her. In her eyes, she was the obvious choice for the lead in every show she did. There was no one better than her, except that’s not what the directors thought. The directors always pushed her into the back, locking her into a place where she couldn’t shine. Her glow was dampened and thrown aside every time she danced, but that wouldn’t stop her. One day she would find someone who would recognize her gleaming talent and give her the recognition that she deserved. Today was not that day, so for now she would stay in the back, shining has hard as she could.
It was 1995 and I had just started dance, it caught on immidiatly. I fell inlove I felt like dance was speaking to me. I would dance all morning all night and all day. Dance was my life and It was all I wanted to do. I know I was only 3 at the time but It was my favorite thing to do and it made me feel like nothing else in the world mattered when I was dancing. I could feel the music and could dance for the rest of my life. Fast forward to when I was 14. It was 2006 and I had started doing competitive dance at age 10. I was dancing infront of what felt like tens of thousands of people in dance compatitions. I had taken on gymnastics as well as hiphop, and Jazz and I was already in ballet. Everyone I knew kept telling me how good I was and that I could go to the olimpics if I wanted. Then something happened that could ruin my carrer for a long time. I was up on stage infront of tens of thousands of people and I was dancing with my partner and lover, Leo.
Try me Winter was finally over time to start another long year of ballet. Well she loved doing ballet but there was one problem for all their shows she always placed the second role, never the leading role. That's what bothered Hana most, The meanest person in all of her grade was in HER ballet class Maddie. She was the popular girl, the one who gets all the attention, the one which every one invites to all the parties. She always got the leading role in their shows. That's only because she cheated. First she would pretend to do better than everyone, Next when the ballet teacher wasn’t looking she would make everyone fall down and get hurt so she stood out as the best. That's how she always got the leading role. Anyway It was time for the first day of 7th grade.
