The Royal Scandal | Prince William |

What We Do For Love

Class progressed, and by the halfway point Jaclyn was soaked to the bone with sweat, the few stray waves that escaped her ponytail plastered to her head in awkward long straggly strands.

"Now dancers make a circle, a large circle," he added like an after thought. Wayne excitedly made his way to the center. "There is a common misconception that dance is solely used to forget your problems. It can be used for that, but today I would like us to remember. I'm going to present you with one of the most pressing questions we as performers face, and remember all that you are to answer it." Wayne looks around at all of them, water like eyes piercing them till everyone's squirming where they stand.

"Who would like to go first?" He asks, and there's a synchronized gulp from all them. Jaclyn focuses her gaze up, in the crevice of where the ceiling and mirrors meet to avoid the choreographer's teasing stare. Thomas is nudging her, and across the circle Natania and Leo are sending silent messages with their eyes.

A long lanky arm shoots up, and eyes turn to see Leo, nervously chewing his lip but otherwise determined. Natania beamed behind him, clenching her hand excitedly as he stood his ground, and put himself out there, but Jaclyn couldn't look past her bouncing knee. For a second Jaclyn worried for his back as well, but she understood Leo knew his limitations.

Wayne did an excited little dance, but then turned serious taking the chance to survey them all. "You all know the Broadway show A Chorus Line," he waited for them to nod, "You'll be dancing to "What I Did For Love" which means your question is... If today were the day you had to stop dancing how would you feel?"

He turned to her, stare settling, and as everyone registered the question slowly they did as well. Her heart that had been racing for the past hour, stilled so the echoing beat could not be heard even in her own ears. Her mouth dried up, and her palms turned sweaty, and Jaclyn felt absolutely trapped. She knew the second Wayne ended his question on her that there would be no way to weasel out of this.

Ragged breaths puffed from her chest softly, but she tried to focus on Leo and his movement as music filtered through the studio. Leo was captivating with his liquid like movements, eyes focused up for awhile until they drifted down to zone in on Natania. She was his world. Where dance would one day fail him, and cripple his bones with infinite pain, she would not.

That was the first realization. Jaclyn held to dance so desperately because it felt like the one thing that would never let her down, but that wasn't true. She thought back to her snapping hip, the wobble in her knees when they got tired. What would they do to her?

Halfway through the song Wayne pointed to her, and before she could stand Thomas was pushing her to her feet. The music was still pulsing, hopeful words turned to nostalgic lyrics, and before she could think she moved.

"Look my eyes are dry
The gift was ours to borrow
It's as if we always knew"

Jaclyn exhaled and moved, arms carving out space through the air, and arcing with graceful beauty. It was a challenge to think of movement while also trying to remember everything that led her to this moment.

Sparing a glance towards Wayne, she saw it. His nervous anticipation, the pleading in his eyes. She wasn't touching anyone, she was simply dancing. As near to perfection as a person could be, but it was two dimensional because she was holding back.

She closed her eyes building up the illusion that she wasn't trapped in a circle of her colleagues. That they weren't all leaning forward to see what she would do. Something about that made it easier to open up, and when her eyes opened she was back home, dancing across peeling sticky marley.