“Shit,” said one of the women.“There’s two Craigs.”
“We’ll call them Craig and White Craig,” said the man.“I’m Royston.”
“I’m Stasia,” said one of the women.“And we aren’t starting till I’ve got my tea.”She left through a door and came back a minute later with a bottle of peach iced tea, which, I had to admit, looked pretty good, since my mouth had gone totally dry.
I recognized Annie, so the woman who’d let us in must have been Donie.
“Who are your influences, White Craig?”said Donie.
“Hal Le Roy,” said Royston, looking at me, and he snickered.
“Teddy Hale,” I said.
“Can you rap like Snow?”said Royston.
“I can’t rap,” I said.
I handed Donie a folder with my photos—the ones Eddie had taken me to get—and my résumé.
“I know White Craig,” said Annie.“We used to do competitions together back in the day.”
Craig and I looked at each other.Were they going to have us audition in front of each other?
Yes, they were.They asked Craig to do his audition first.He was a lot more athletic than I was.He was spinning and dropping into the splits like the Nicholas Brothers.I expected him to jump over a chair to finish his routine.When he was done, he looked at me like it was a challenge, and Donie told me to go ahead.I played my music and went into the routine I’d been rehearsing since before Eddie and I split.And I was letter-perfect.
Donie stopped me before I was done.“Let’s see if you can improvise like Teddy Hale, White Craig.”
Then they made Craig and I trade with each other acapella.Which was super hard because we didn’t know each other’s rhythms.It was like kissing someone for the first time when you haven’t quite synched.Craig was a lot faster than I was, and his tempo was making me work above my normal pace.I wasn’t showing off my best work.But the more we got into it, the better we worked together.Then, a couple of minutes in, I felt a shift.We stopped competing and started collaborating.
When Donie told us to stop, we looked at each other, like,That was good, right?
“So, White Craig,” said Donie.“Why should we give a spot in our company to a white boy in favor of Craig here?”
Things got quiet.No more banter.
“You don’t have to,” I said.“You could take both of us.My last company had six dancers.I’m used to choreographing with six people.”
It was clear from their expressions they hadn’t considered that option.They told us to wait outside.Craig stood at the closed door with his hands in his pockets, not hiding that he was listening in.
“What are they saying?”I said.
“Can’t tell.”
That was when I realized how much I wanted to join their company.
Ten minutes later, they called us in.
And they gave us both the good news and took our measurements for our new uniforms.
I left feeling shattered, nerve-racked, and a hundred feet tall.Craig and I walked to the subway together, bumped fists, and separated at the bottom of the steps.
When I got home, I sat on the couch, and I realized I had no one to celebrate with.
He would have been so happy for me.I knew he would.And I cried.
––––––––
Getting into The BlackTap Company was the one good thing that happened to me that shitty spring.I was lonely sometimes—a lot of the time—but I wasn’t alone anymore.On National Tap Dance Day, we drove out to the cemetery in Oakville to pay our respects at Gregory Hines’s grave.There was a portrait on the stone of Hines with his fiancée.They looked so happy.I wondered where I’d be buried and if maybe it would be near Eddie.
