Neon Afterlife

31

The night at The Miami City Ballet theater was buzzing. Students rehearsed in hallways, preparing for their on stage performance. Parents, talent agents, staff and faculty filled the theater. There was an electricity in the air that a dancer could either tap into and excel or get fried by.

Alex and Jason watched from the wings as a group of dancers performs a number from Swan Lake. The audience sat silently, intensely engaged as the dancers moved and leaped across the stage. The music filled the auditorium as the performance continued.

Alex Nudged Jason and he leaned down to hear her.

"I'm nervous."

"Everything will be fine," he assured her.

"That's easy for you to say," she smiled. "You've got nothing to lose."

"Is that right?" Jason mocked offense.

"Your parents will love you no matter what," she teased. "Even if they think you're nuts. And you've got to tell them sometime." She shrugged.

"So, why not embarrass them publicly in front of all of their friends and colleagues?" he shrugged back at her and chuckled.

"You're an amazing poet," she assured him. "They won't be embarrassed. You'll see."

"I'm not so sure about that."

Alex grinned, "So you are nervous."

The music stopped and the dancers took their bows to solid applause.

"One more group then we're up," Jason said. He bounced up and down to shake out his limbs and his nerves.

"Do some of that for me too, will you?" Alex said playfully. He smiled at her.

Markus and Joy popped by backstage to join them.

"You ready?" asked Markus as he looked out to the stage where a group of three male dancers were taking their positions.

"Your group was great Joy," Jason said.

"You think so?"

"You're a beautiful dancer," Alex chimed in.

Joys smiled at Alex, "Thanks."

Alex peaked out at the audience, "How do you think they'll react? I mean, it's not exactly ballet."

"It's ballet... ish," Joy responded.

"They're going to love it," said Markus.

"Or hate it," said Jason.

"I've never seen you nervous."

Jason glared at him and bounced some more then rolled his neck to stay loose.

Markus got the hint, "I'm going to head over to my place then."

Jason nodded.

"Thanks," said Alex.

Markus kissed her on the cheek, "Break a leg."

She smacked him in the arm as he left.

The male group on stage finished their piece with a brilliant flourish and the audience applauded enthusiastically when they took their bows. Alex thought about how professional everyone was. The dancers were as good as any in the companies that she'd seen. Every student was performing at such a high level, she wasn't sure their piece could compete. It was so different from what everyone else was doing. Her confidence level dropped with each passing moment until the dancers ran off stage past them and silence filled the air.

The house lights and stage lights all went black. The crowd murmured softly then died down to silence once more. In the audience, Lidia and José sat next to the director and his wife in the pitch blackness. José squeezed his wife's hand as Jason's voice pierced the darkness.

"Dark hypnotic beats pounding, cardiac rhythm rebating flesh.

Pulse racing, veins throbbing with searing circulation, ice that burns.

Emotions swirling in intoxicating haze.

Agony of existence, consuming sagacity.

Redemption falls and rises anew, a phoenix blaze.

Spontaneous human combustion giving birth to crying surrender.

Nostril flare, inhaling divine breath, the winds of eternity.

The body stirs.

Dancing in a neon afterlife."

A lone violin cried out in the silence as a single spotlight kicked on. Joy stood on point, bathed in its glow, unmoving until Jason joins her. They began to dance together, enraptured in each other's movements. They transitioned from one position to the next with such fluidity that they seemed to melt into one another. Passion and romance as the caressed each other and stared longingly into each other's eyes until Joy leaped out of the light and into the darkness. Jason reached for her, trying to catch her, but she was gone. He looked after her, lost in the shadows.

Across the stage a second spotlight kicked on. The sound of a drum replaced the violin; like the beating of a heart. Alex sat onstage, illuminated in her wheelchair, her back to Jason. He looked up and saw her there. Running to her to attempted to get her attention, but she'd turn away from each attempt until in frustration he grabbed the handles of her chair and shoved her across the stage. She glided. And when she came to a stop she spun and looked at him and he at her; stunned. The drums were joined by violins and a hip-hop melody erupted from the speakers. As the two dancers engaged each other. They spun in synchrony as they drew nearer to one another.

When they got close enough, Jason perched in a handstand on the front of Alex's chair while she spun center stage. They moved back and forth across the stage with breakdance freezes while the chair would glide like a skater on ice. They split apart and pop-locked to the beat, completely in sync.

Jason lifted Alex out of her chair and tossed her into the air. She spun 720 degrees before he caught her again and she pivoted around his torso to his back. Her arms and left leg wrapped around him while her right leg hung unused. He danced for the both of them as her hands moved across his body while he bounded across the floor. He spun as she climbed higher on him so that she could bend over his head and he pulled her down in front of him.

Their bodies pressed together, faces mere millimeters apart as her hands caressed his cheek. She slid down his body until her right foot dragged on stage as he strode towards her chair. He stopped and let her slide back into her seat.

Jason moved to the back of her chair as she settled. She looked for him over her shoulder and he dropped to the floor and slid under her chair, between the wheels, to the front where he emerged in front of Alex to her delight. Then he began to spin her chair until Alex was spinning rapidly with lights reflecting off of the metal and spokes, sparkling with a mystical glimmer.

Jason pranced off into the darkness, leaving her alone spinning in the light until the chair and Alex toppled over sideways as the music hit its crescendo. She spilled out to the ground. Broken.

Slowly she crawled away from the chair, pulling herself across the stage to the edge where she pushed herself to a full standing position. She winced in pain, but didn't shy away from it. The spot light behind her, on her chair slowly faded to black; leaving her alone. Standing.

The lights went out completely and the audience sat in silence for a moment until applause erupted. The house lights came up and the audience was standing. Lidia wiped away tears as she clapped wildly. The Director leaned close to her and spoke in her ear so she could hear him over the raucous applause. Lidia turned to him and responded. Then they faced the stage where Jason, Alex, and Joy had emerged to take their bow.