Jude led me to the back room, where I stored my boots and bag in his employee locker, and he handed me a pair of grippy orange trampoline socks. As I followed him to the massive trampoline area, I saw a row of photographs lining the walls. I stopped short at one of a guy doing a somersault in midair, his mouth stretched into a smile I’d recognize anywhere, even upside down. “Oh my God.”

Jude spun around, following my gaze to the photo. “Yeah, that’s a requirement. You can’t work here and not know how to do a full twisting back somersault.”

“Oh, sure. I think that’s a requirement in most workplaces.”

Jude laughed, and the air around us suddenly felt less pressurized. Out on the trampoline floor, we made our way to the “15-and-up Section.” The empty space was divided into about thirty connected six-foot-long rectangles of trampoline. The rules said one person per rectangle, so we each had our own personal jumping area and could hop from square to square. My leg, where the metal was, felt a jolt each time I hit the trampoline and was propelled upward, but I was still able to get some decent height.

It was hard not to smile as I boinged up and down, watching Jude do the same, his hair lifting and flopping.

“Show me your full twisting back somersault!” I yelled at Jude, who was happy to oblige.

After he did a few more tricks, he shouted: “You can’t tell me you don’t want to do some bouncy ballet right now.”

I rolled my eyes but thought of an idea. A tour en l’air had to feel amazing on a trampoline. I put my arms in third position, and as I jumped, I used my open arm to spin. The height let me rotate more than I ever had on solid ground. When I landed, I couldn’t stop laughing.

Without thinking, I jumped over to the rectangle in the back corner. I took a breath and then did grands jetés, springing from one rectangle to the next.

God, I’d missed this flying feeling.

Eventually, we looked at the clock and realized Jude’s shift started in ten minutes. As we walked back to the employee room, the floor had never felt weirder. “Trampoline legs,” Jude explained as he opened his locker and handed me my boots and bag.

“Ah,” I said, out of breath. I pulled out my phone and saw a text pop up from Colleen.

Jude looked at his phone, too. “Oops, got a voice mail. One sec.” I nodded and sat down on the bench to put my boots on and read the message.

Cast list posted for Giselle. Guess the Giselles.