AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“David, you do realize it is a ballet performance this evening and not an operetta? I had to drag you to any ballet performance with me when you were younger.”
“Mother, I only fell asleep once! I was ten years old! Will you never let it go? I can behave myself for one evening,” David had a hard time keeping his glee out of his voice. He couldn’t believe it was working.This is almost too easy.
“Very well. Meet me in my apartment for dinner before the Gala this evening at five.”
David was struck with a sudden thought. “One more thing, Mother. Dr. Evans has done a great number of favors for us, especially with Eddie. The Evans family always attends the ballet. Would you mind terribly if they attended as my guests in the Royal Box?” David internally patted himself on the back. He’d have backup if Mother decided to investigate his sudden interest in ballet.
David’s mother laughed. “The Evans family is always welcome to the Royal Box. They were already going to be my guests this evening. I shall see you at five.”
David disconnected the call and was relieved to have made it through without giving himself away.
4
Rehearsal With Anton
Clara was in pain, but she was a consummate professional. Meditation and a quick soaking of her feet before rehearsal had helped release some of the stress of the day. She took several deep breaths and pushed all thoughts of her injury down into the far reaches of her mind. She closed her eyes and allowed the first few bars of piano music by the lovely Royal Ballet accompanist to fill her body and soul, and have adrenaline and muscle memory take over the movements she had performed thousands and maybe even millions of times.
There was always a sense of peace as one went through plies, tendus, battements, and frappes. All ballet dancers used the same movements as a basis to prepare their bodies for the day. The barre in ballet was the great equalizer. Clara’s personal warm up included a series of abdominal exercises and stretches for her hips, back, and legs. Everything needed to be warmed up so she wouldn’t injure anything further.
Her arrival to the Covent Garden Royal Opera House had been relatively smooth, owing to the easy car ride over. A kindly Royal Opera House attendant met Clara at the entrance and presented Clara with credentials. They walked through a maze of hallways up into the beautiful studios of the Royal Ballet.I’ve arrived.Clara’s pulse quickened with excitement. The smile on her face was contagious. Her eyes darted in every which direction, taking in her surroundings.
When she was dropped off at the stage door entrance to the Royal Ballet Opera House at Covent Garden, Clara had hoped for the opportunity to walk through the audience areas of the venue before the evening was over. She had dreamed about being able to dance at Covent Garden since she was a little girl. Royal Ballet had been on her list of dream companies. Clara hoped to soak up each and every precious second of her time as a guest in the venue as she might never have another opportunity.
At twenty-six years old, Clara was older than most soloists when she had finally been promoted from the lowest dancing rank of the Corps de Ballet with her company, the Los Angeles Ballet Theater. Ballerinas began their career at an early age, and if their body held up and they were gifted enough with the right physical attributes, the dancer might earn their way into a professional contract. Contracts were never a guarantee and, more often than not, a career for a woman was over by the time they were twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Men were lucky; their careers typically lasted longer than their female counterparts.
Many girls dreamed about being able to wear the magical satin pointe shoes and stand on their toes, but few knew the suffering that came along with it. Clara had devoted her life to dance. Her daily life was consumed by company classes, rehearsals,and performances. While she always felt pain in many places that shouldn’t ache so badly for a person her age, there was nothing like the thrill of being able to dance onstage in front of an audience.
Few people outside the dance would ever understand why a dancer would devote themselves so completely to their art. Ballerinas took classes every day and pushed themselves to the limit of what they could physically and mentally endure. There was a magical moment when one could connect with the audience and become a character in a story. This was what separated the members of the Corps de Ballet from soloists and principal dancers.
Clara was always a quick study for various types of choreography. She was gifted with the ability to watch a movement once or twice and quickly translate it onto herself. The LABT used her often as an understudy. She normally never debuted the parts she learned. Last winter, when one of the principal dancers at LABT became injured thirty minutes before curtain up of theNutcracker, Clara was finally asked to step up and perform the main role of her namesake, Clara.
Clara flourished and was able to dance the role a handful of times during the holiday season by popular demand. The same situation occurred not two months later during the LABT run ofThe Sleeping Beauty. She was asked to step up and dance the title role of Aurora. One of the guests watching that particular evening happened to be the director of the Russian National School of Ballet, Igor Radovsky. Igor was not easily impressed; he watched as Clara seamlessly transitioned from the role of the diamond fairy into Princess Aurora. When you impressed the Russians, you impressed the world.
From there, Clara was offered a soloist contract after being told how vital she was to the company. LABT wanted to ensure Clara was not lured away by another company. Igor hoped to have Clara utilize her talent in a larger capacity. The two kept in contact. The unlikely friendship provided Clara with a few opportunities to be a guest artist in some of the showcases Igor had put together over his months in Washington D.C., New York, and Tokyo.
As she danced outside of California, her artistry caught the eye of a few international and larger companies until she had started to build an international reputation. Today would be her largest test and first time in Europe. If she did well, it would mean companies outside of the United States might be willing to take a chance on the relatively unknown American dancer and allow her to tour with them. Secretly, Clara wished her own company would take greater notice of her and promote her to principal dancer, the highest rank. For the moment, however, Clara tried desperately to focus her thoughts solely on rehearsal. Closing her eyes, Clara listened to the methodic sound of her feet brushing along the wooden floors.
The Royal Opera House had recently been renovated and was a vast contrast to what she was used to. Large and modern dressing rooms and rehearsal rooms littered the building. The Royal Ballet was much larger, and a better-funded company than LABT. Clara was glad to have a guide for the time being. She would have easily gotten lost amidst the excitement and chaos. When she was warm, Clara took notice of the tall, ginger-haired dancer watching her warm up at the door’s entrance, her partner for the evening, Anton Nichols.
“I’m assuming you’re my Aurora,” Anton Nichols joked as he entered the rehearsal room and took a sweaty towel off from around his shoulders. He rubbed his own soft shoe slippers into the rosin box, walked over to the barre Clara stood at, and offered his hand. This wastheAnton Nichols! His smile wasn’t as bright as David’s could be.Why am I thinking about David? Focus.Anton offered her his hand. How was she going to not fangirl and play it cool?
“That I am. I’m sorry my hand is so sweaty. I’m so excited to get to work with you!” Clara flushed, embarrassed. A roaring laugh brought her outside of her shell.
“Not the first time my ballerina has been shy with me. You’ll be just fine as my Aurora. Don’t be nervous. Igor’s assured me you’re a quick study. Now, let’s run the Pas straightaway. I want to see how far we can get.” As the only two dancers in the room, plus the pianist, Clara was able to relax, just a smidgen, without an audience. She could’ve been a real-life Aurora after wanting to nap for a hundred years. Would David come save her?
“Let me put my tutu on and I’ll be ready for a go.” Clara hated wearing the heavy ‘pancake’ tutu more than necessary. She much preferred a light rehearsal skirt or a long, flowing,romantic-style tutu. Stepping into the nine heavy layers of tulle, she snapped the garment into place and rolled her neck to release some of her built-up stress. Clara rolled up onto her toes a few times and met Anton in the center of the room. The pianist accompanying them waited for Anton’s cue. He nodded and the notes filled the room.
Anton Nichols was one of the premier principal dancers of the Royal Ballet. He was known as a dancer who had the rare combination of artistic and technical ability and had sharply risen to the top of the ballet world. He was a past winner of the Prix de Lausanne ten years before; to have the opportunity to dance with a dancer of his caliber was a career-defining moment.
Dancing with Anton, Clara could tell how gifted he was in his ability to coach her and to partner her. She immediately relaxed into his embrace and let him move her about the floor as the dance dictated. The goal was for the male dancer to show off the female. The female needed to be strong too, in a different way. In a Pas de Deux, the female let the male turn her and make her float through the air.
Clara let Anton run the fastest rehearsal she could ever remember. When a ballerina and her partner danced together for the first time, differences took time to iron out. Time the two did not have today. Clara’s meticulous studying of the Royal Ballet’s choreography was ingrained in her body. All of the hours spent in the studio on her own time paid off. The trickiest part they needed to figure out was the timing on the famous fish dives.
The male partner presented himself to the ballerina as she spun around and leaned toward her partner, giving the illusion of diving into the ground. It took an enormous amount of strength on both ends. Anton was strong and ensured Clara wasn’t dropped to the floor when their timing was off. Clara was eternally grateful. Clara shuddered, remembering the first time she attempted the fish dives. Her inexperienced partner dropped her, and Clara fractured her patella bone. Her worst injury over the years.The last thing I need is another broken bone.
At the end of forty-five minutes, they had stopped only a few times and hoped their stage performance looked similar to their rehearsal. Igor poked his head into the rehearsal room already dressed for the evening and nodded once the pair finished. “Is good, is good. You dance nice and put smile on audience faces.”
Coming from Igor, that was a rather larger compliment for the often-stoic Russian. Anton complimented her calm nature and her fast corrections to the movements as he left to prepare himself. Clara thanked him and ran off to prepare her makeup and change into her costume for the evening. Not in as large of a rush as she had been that morning, Clara had time to reflect on all that had happened to her.
