I found a place in line out of sight from Jesse and the man next to him. I focused on each movement the dance captain showed for the third time. I flung hips and arms wide, turned out knees until they were flat as plates, pointed my toes like the tip of a long brown knife. I leaped wide, moving away from Jesse’s range of vision as quickly as I felt myself leaping into something of my own. I pliéd and arabesqued grandly until sweat made my feet slippery on the floor. But I kept on dancing and dancing. I knew every step now and could add a little expression of my own. Something with personality in it, something from the inside moving my feet. I flowed into movement, lifted stomach, chest, head, straight and higher than even Jesse could. My hands and feet were feathers. Light as leaves. Then I noticed there were only five dancers left with me on the floor. I danced again and smiled with the movement; everything inside me was light and thin and something new to present. I was the dance and the room itself. There was no more space inside me. Nothing more to hold in guardedly, unsure. No place where anyone could enter so freely and violate with a touch or a broken heart. I had no more room inside myself for that. No more spaces to give. Everything was outside now, and moving through the studio like an express train through a local stop. This time I was full of movement, this time I knew where I was going.

Anna Louise smiled at me. She said again that names would be posted in two days. Some decisions were already made, others were pending. Some dancers would be seen for call-backs. But two days? Could I even wait that long? I headed for the dressing room but just then Jesse came up to me from behind as if to surprise me with something. He wasn’t alone. I could hear the other man’s voice before Jesse spoke to me. I turned away to ease off my leg warmers, and give the hint I was leaving, and only after a considerable pause did I finally say hello. Jesse introduced me to his new acquaintance: Rodney, Rodney Alexander. He smiled and Jesse smiled, but by then I had figured out that they were really smiling for each other, showing all teeth and lips, just like they were really dancing for each other, showing tight chests and thighs. Auditioning, my foot! I secretly hoped neither would pass into the First Company although they needed more male dancers than female. But just who was this new guy, this Rodney?