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“Or…you feel stifled by someone else’s choreography. Maybe what you really want is to teach or to lead?” Reaching over, she rested her hand on Lily’s knee. “You’ve always been a powerhouse. You pick up everything faster than most and sometimes it felt like you were waiting to be challenged. And you know something? You’re not alone.”
“So…what does that mean? What should I be doing?”
“I think you should dance,” she said emphatically. “But you should do it smartly. Take these next several days that you rented space here and think about what gives you joy!” Slowly, Kiki got to her feet. “And most importantly, you should have this surgery so you can achieve whatever it is you decide to do.” She walked over to the door. “I’ve got a class starting, but I hope we’ll get to visit more while you’re here.” And with a wave, she was gone.
Letting out a long breath, Lily sat there for several minutes and tried to figure things out, but ultimately, she wasn’t ready to yet. So rather than frustrate herself, she opted to turn the music back up and finish out her time here in the studio.
By the time her alarm went off on her phone, she was exhausted, but in the best possible way. She put the chairs back and gathered her things before turning out the lights and going upstairs. At the front desk, she smiled at Zoey and was about to walk out when she overheard a conversation between a mother and her daughter.
“I don’t want to do this,” the little girl sobbed. She had to be around six or seven years old. “I’m the worst one in the class and the other girls are mean to me. I want to go home!”
“Jasmine, we’ve paid for the classes,” her mother said with a hint of frustration “I’m sure if we talk to your teacher she can give you some extra help, and I’ll tell her to make the other girls be nice.”
“I hate this! I hate tap, and I’m never going to be able to do it!” she cried.
Without hesitating, Lily walked around the back of the desk and quietly asked Zoey if there were any extra tap shoes around. Zoey silently pointed to the office door and Lily smiled when she realized everything was in the same place it had been when she was a student there.
After putting the tap shoes on, she casually walked back out to the lobby until she was standing beside Jasmine. “Hi,” she said with a big smile. “I’m Lily.”
The little girl looked up at her with mild confusion. “Um…”
“Did I hear that your name is Jasmine?”
She nodded.
“She is myfavoriteDisney princess! I used to wish I could fly on a magic carpet just like her!”
“Me too!” Jasmine said with a shy smile. Then she noticed Lily’s shoes. “Do you dance here?”
“I was a student here for a lot of years. Then I went away to college and danced there and then I went to New York and danced on Broadway and then traveled with one of the shows. And I couldn’t have done any of it if I hadn’t learned how to tap.”
“Oh,” she said miserably. “I’m the worst one in the class.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Lily said. “Come over here with me and let me see what you can do.”
“Um…” She looked up at her mother, who nodded that it was okay. When they were a few feet away from the desk, Jasmine just stared at Lily as if to say, “Now what?”
“Okay, just…humor me for a minute. I’m sure you learned this part, but I just want to see you do it. First, try to heel-step, which is just walking across the floor. Remember, when you place one foot in front of the other, bring the heel of your foot down first. It may help to exaggerate the movement and stomp your heel to the floor. Let’s do it together.”
And they did.
“You did great! Look at that! You’ve already mastered the first part! Yay!”
Then they went through three more basic moves in tap: the shuffle, the single buffalo, and the ball change. Jasmine was a little uncertain and didn’t seem to like that everyone was watching them, but ultimately she knew how to do them all. And because she didn’t want to lose momentum, Lily kept them moving until they were doing the repetitions she knew all students did when warming up. After a few minutes, Jasmine was keeping up and smiling as she danced.
“I’m doing it! Mom! Look, I’m doing it! Do you see me, Miss Zoey?” she asked excitedly.
It wasn’t long before she had to go to class and she turned and hugged Lily tight. “You got this, Jasmine,” she told her. “Now go and have a great class!”
Once she was out of sight, Jasmine’s mom came over with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know how to thank you. We’ve tried at least a dozen different activities, trying to find one that clicked for her. We signed up for eight weeks and this is week three, and she was arguing with me the whole way here.” She sighed. “You have a real gift and you were great with her, so…thank you.”
“It was my pleasure. She looked like she needed a little encouragement, and I’m glad I could help.”
“Do you teach here?”
“Me?” she asked with a small laugh. “No. I’m a former student and I just came to rent some studio space so I could get a little practice in.”
“Well, I’m so glad you were here, and I hope we get to see you again.” Her phone rang and after she said goodbye to Lily, she answered excitedly by saying, “Tom! You’re never going to believe this, but Jasmine was excited to go into dance class today!”
