Amolina watched Vanari and her dance partner withdraw to the back of the stage while the audience still clapped and shouted. It was obviously time now for the famous seduction dance. The problem was that Amolina mostly used to act and though she was competent at acting and even knew “Rozita’s” role, there had always been a “double” doing the dance scene. While the audience still was clapping Seymor Essing sent Alice Lark to do a small extra performance of the jumping dance and make the audience laugh and keep them occupied so he could speak with Amolina. Alice danced to her hearts contents, the patrons cheering her on as usual. Amolina recieved her instructions: “I take it you’re not a dancer exactly. But I remember how you did the dance part of the audition for The Happy Stryfer, in summer. I hope you recall it too. We’ll use that one now, so just do it the same way as in the audition and I’ll do the rest of the dancing.” Essing was off to speak briefly with the drummer. Meanwhile Aydury Hines gave Amolina an elegant long stemmed red silk flower to hold in her hand. Obviously a quick try to improve the costume. Amolina felt relieved. They would use that home made “choreography” she had invented in order to try to perform a dance at an audition despite being a novice at it. She had rehearsed for that one and remembered how to do it. This made her feel confident and with her head held high and her face very serious she followed Essing to the middle of the scene when he returned, took her hand and said: “Do exacly as you did in that audition.” The drummer, who seemed to be the only musician around, started drumming. The beat was a varied and complex rhythm, a mix of slow dramatic hard punches, quick rattling passages, silences. Hearing this unusual music Amolina felt an unexpected inspiration. Perhaps they could make this work. Using the dance she had done at the auditions she started to move around slowly, very slowly extremely slowly even. She moved like she was moving in water and not in air. It was perhaps not what was normally called dance, but it was…movement. She did the movements like she had rehearsed them in summer and done them in the audition - but now, with the music and with Seymor Essing dancing too, the result was greatly different. Amolina danced slowly, but now following the music and it’s shifting rhythms. The drum rattled, a low but resolute sound. She walked slowly forward, straight and proud, moving like she was walking on a line. Then… dramatic POW! Essing stepped in with an abrupt dramatic stop. The drum fell silent and the two dancers seemed to be completely frozen, staring at each other. Essing was now wearing his black jacket draped over his shoulders, but … new dramatic POW from the drum…and with a flamboyant and somewhat violent gesture he tore the jacket off and threw it away like he was trying to kill something with it. Ratatatata-tata-tata, Ratatatataaaaa …Essing walked forward, grabbed Amoliona’s hand and pulled dramatically, and she made a few running steps to conter it. BOOM-POW ! Essings free arm came around her back and he yanked her close, staring deeply into her eyes, his facial expression serious and tense like this was a fight of life or death. It seemed right to stare back the same way, so Amolina did that. Both of them were moving the way she had started, like they were moving in water and not in air. Ratata-tata-tata-tataaaa … holding her in a firm grip Essing walked forward slowly in the same style Amolina had started out with, and she found herself walking backwards like he was constantly stepping closer while she was constantly taking a step back, their gazes locked. It was more like walking than what people normally called dancing…but with the aggressive and cocksure way Essing was carrying it out, and the way they stared at each other like combatants, it seemed to make the audience hold their breath and stare, like they were watching a match in The Pit and waiting for a killing blow. Silence…stillness…like under water, with no air to breathe… POW! Carried away with the abrupt sound of the drum, Amolina smacked Essing in his face with the silk rose and gave him a shove when she pushed herself out of his grip, whirled around, turned her back on him and dance-marched away proudly in the other direction, still walking like on a line, straight and proud. Ratata-POW! She swirled around again and faced Essing, locking gazes again, now holding the rose in a challenging manner, like it was a sword that had drawn blood. POW-rata-tatatatata- tata-tata … Essing rallied, walking towards her. BOOM-POW! With an incredibly swift move he snatched the rose out of her hand and threw it away in the same furious manner as when he had tossed the jacket. The he grabbed her again, and yanked her close anew. Aratatatatah! Tata-tartartata-tata-taataa… Standing on her toetips Amolina stretched one hand dramatically up towards the ceiling of the tavern and bent down backwards over Essings arm like she touched the floor with her other hand, one of her legs kicking out, upwards, dramatically yet slowly, like a series of slowly floating movements under water, not in air. POW! Essing pulled her up again, and their gazes locked again. They continued in the same way a bit more, until it ended with an amazingly dramatic posture where Amolina slowly stretchted her arms out to the sides, then upwards … just like in the audition in summer sitting on the floor, but this time in front of Essing and holding his hand, looking like she was about to yank him down on top of her next moment. Silence, utter silence. But then Essing pulled Amolina to her feet and bowed elegantly to the audience in the manner actors do when a show is over. Amolina made a curtsey. The dance was done. The guests in The Spot started clapping and screaming for more, also giving few ideas of their own about how to proceed. But Seymor Essing and Amolina ran away to the back of the stage, where they bowed and curtseyed again before they disappeared behind a screen. Essing looked at her with his usual serious facial expression and stared at her in the silent way she remembered from the auditions. They stood there still like fish under water, looking into each other’s eyes. None of them spoke a single word when they reached out for each other, embraced each other and met in a passionate kiss. But this was quickly over! The show must go on! Essing sprinted out on the stage again and did a narrative part where he told the audience that “Rozita” had succeeded at convincing the dastard she deserved to be employed, a few happy days had passed and now it was a normal evening in the dastardly tavern in the docks. It was time for the love scene: the waiter had been in love with the bardancer for a long time and now he had decided to confess his feelings and ask her to marry him ! Amolina peeked out from her position behind the screen and saw Vanari be pushed into the center of the stage again, while the drum played a merry, comedic rhythm. The blond actor was back, staring at Vanari with a starved expression on his face, looking like he'd had nothing to eat for days, or for weeks even. The romantic waiter-bardancer love scene was starting ! |