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He closed his eyes, trying to picture it well enough to really explain.
“It’s like I can’t orient myself in space,” he said. “I’m not dizzy, I just… don’t know which way is up.”
“Do you guys spot when you turn?” she asked.
“You mean setting your eye on a fixed point?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “That’s what keeps me from getting disoriented when I turn. Can you choose a fixed point to work from?”
“It’s hard,” he said. “I can do it in the gym, but not in the ring.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“In the ring, everything is moving,” he said. “Even the crowd is on all sides. There is no one fixed point to choose. And even if I manage to choose a point fast enough, I always lose it in all the light and movement.”
“How many turns?” she asked, nodding.
“Just one,” he told her, looking a little sheepish.
She laughed and he smiled back at her.
“Do you want me to try and help?” she offered.
“Yes, please,” he said immediately, like he’d been waiting for her to ask.
“Okay, come on then,” she said. “Get up, and let’s do it.”
He was on his feet in a heartbeat. She certainly couldn’t fault his enthusiasm.
“Use a fixed point to spot just this once,” she told him, trying not to think about other areas where he’d proven very enthusiastic. “I like the floating exit light at the back of the theater, but you can use whatever you’d like. I just want to see the kick done correctly.”
He took one deep, steadying breath, and then burst into a flurry of motion almost too fast to follow, launching himself into the air as he spun around and shot his foot out with what looked like enough force to stop a hoverbus.
He landed hard, his feet in a wide stance, knees bent to absorb his weight.
“Wow,” she said, impressed. “That looks incredibly dangerous.”
“Well, depends on if you’re throwing it or receiving it,” he said with a wry smile. “But yeah, it’s powerful, and it’s also flashy. The fans go wild for that kind of thing. It makes for a great highlight reel. I’d love to be able to use it in an actual fight.”
“Let’s try something,” she said, working it out in her mind. “What happens if you try to spin in a circle, just a plain circle, without looking?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Wait here,” she said, dashing over to her workout bag to grab the light scarf she often wore to keep from cooling down too quickly when she left the theater.
“I’m going to use this as a blindfold,” she told him. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course,” he told her.
“Good,” she said crisply, trying not to react to thatof course.He was only being polite, that was all.
She went up on her pointes to tie the scarf around his eyes.
He wrapped his hands around her hips, as if to steady her, but she didn’t need steadying.
Focus, Alexis.
A dozen male dancers had held her just this way.
