Ready to Dance?

Victoria stands on the edge of the tournament hall. Her mom is rambling on about finding a seat and looking forward to watching her compete. “Yeah, yeah, mom. I gotta go! Coach isn't going to be happy if I’m late!” Victoria runs off, hearing her mom chuckle making some comment about being in such a rush.

“Hey, kiddo! Perfect you’re early, I’ve got some bad news.” Her coach sets his bag down and sits down so they are closer to the same height.

“What is it?” Her heart races.

“They added a new round of competition - An Improv Round.” He pauses.

Victoria interrupts, “Oh no big deal couch, Becca and I do improv all the time.”

“No, they're going to pull names from a hat. You could be paired with anyone here. They want to test your ability to think on the spot.” He shrugs, “It shouldn’t affect your scores too much, but if you and your partner fail to make a routine both teams will lose points. So play nice.” He gives her a look.

“Hey! I’m always nice!” She throws her hands up.

“Always…” Her coach raises an eyebrow.

“If I get paired with someone from Stormdale I’ll be as nice as they are.” She huffed, “As if dancing with elements was hard enough, sure add in new improv partners.” She chuckles and stretches.

Soon the competition starts, and she only half watches the other competitors, the last thing she needs is for someone to get in her head. To an outsider, she’s watching everyone, but in her mind, she’s playing through her routine, sometimes she matches hers to the beat of the current dancer's music other times it’s as if she is not in her body and she is watching herself dance. She only leaves this zone to watch her teammate's routine.

Eventually they call her number. She stands on the edge of the mat, and all four elements; fire, water, wind and earth, sit on their pedestals waiting for her to tell the ref which two she’s chosen for this dance. After seven years of competing, many of the other veteran dancers know what she’ll choose.

She points to earth and fire - a difficult pairing but she loves the challenge. Soon her music starts. She dances, weaving the fire and earth together to create little statues around the mat. Each one is higher than the last. As the music builds, she jumps and leaps up on each statue. Making it atop her highest stature just as the song ends. She smiles and waves until the runners take their scorecards, then she uses the water element to help her get down. Then with a snap of her fingers, everything vanishes.

Her coach beams with pride, “You get better every time you perform, if you keep at it, you could get a scholarship to one of the magic schools. I’m sure you’ll medal in your age group.”

“I hope so. I’m not sure we could afford it otherwise.” She joins her team in watching the other performances. She watches the girls in the age group above her, none of them used the elements she did, would she stand out when she moved up?

Soon the regular competition was over and it was time for this freestyle improv round. Pairs start being announced, and Victoria listened, “Victoria Evans from Whistle Brooke and Avery Gladice from Stormdale”

Avery from Stormdale? Who was that? Victoria couldn’t remember who she was. Her coach gives a look, she smiles promising to be nice.

Soon a first-year performer was standing in front of her. “‘Hi! I’m Avery!” The young girl waved.

“Hello! Ready to dance?” Victoria led her to their practice area. “My favourites are earth and fire, I was preparing to perform while your group was on the mat. First years only have one element right? So what's yours?”

“Water!” She did some funky hip-hop moves and the water flowed around her.

“That's a cool trick! We should definitely use that!” Soon Victoria and Avery had a routine. They combined Avery’s hip-hop water moves with Victoria's way of making statutes to create a fun flow. While they didn’t place in the top three, they did have fun.

Victoria saw a lot of herself in Avery and from then on, until Victoria graduated she looked for Avery at every meet. Giving her pointers when she could, and ironically enough a magic school in Stormdale offered Victoria a full-ride scholarship to join their college dance team. When Victoria could, she would stop by the local teams practise and help out Avery with her skills and create a bond that would outlast their time on the dance mat.