Joe's PoV
Dianne and I had agreed not to talk to one another until after we'd performed. We had to pretend like we weren't dating. We'd also agreed the same with Briar and Milo - we weren't friends, we were competition. It was the way it had to be.
I was pretty confident with our routine. It was commercial, contemporary and acro built into one routine, and we all looked amazing doing it. It incorporated everyone's strengths, meaning we all looked good doing it. The costumes were aesthetically pleasing and matched our story: Rumpelstiltskin, a Twisted Tale. We'd focused on different stimuli for our GCSE choreography, and one stimulus our teacher had suggested to us was twisted fairytales, which I loved. There was so much to explore. So, I'd choreographed a Rumpelstiltskin routine, which was essentially taking my GCSE choreography and stepping it up a notch. It also highlighted the theme of power in the story, and how the King, the Miller's Daughter and Rumpelstiltskin all hold power in different ways and how they fight for it and manipulate others. I didn't have specific characters in my GCSE piece, but for this I'd made Anna the Miller's Daughter, me the King and Amy as Rumpelstiltskin. It was honestly amazing if I do say so myself. We'd choreographed it to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song originally as a joke, but it had stuck and now we liked it, so...yeah. My favourite part had to be when I did my round off flick tuck, and on the tuck landing Amy and Anna rolled over their toes to their knees, everyone else turning and leaping to land at the same time I did. It looked awesome and went wonderfully with the music. We were definitely going to put up a strong fight, but I knew how fierce the competition got at this stage, and I could only hope we'd done enough.
Briar's PoV
I looked at my team, and we looked gorgeous. It was an lyrical acro number, which was kind of risky at this point in the game, but it looked pretty and showed off our gymnastic ability which was definitely our strong suite...so I guess we just had to hope the judges liked acro. It was to the tune Flying With Mother from the How To Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack - a true beauty. All the girls were dressed in flowy, baby blue dresses with white tights that made us look like woodland faeries, and the boys dressed in white shorts and baby blue tank tops. Our dance's theme was air, and how it moved - we were dancing as wind and clouds, as though we were flying. There were quite a few lifts in the dance, and a lot of contortion and aerials and layouts. It was genuinely a beautiful dance, but I kind of worried that at this stage in the game it could be considered too basic. It could win us Nationals hands down, but Internationals? I suddenly felt extremely nervous.
Dianne's PoV
To say I was nervous would've been an understatement. Our dance was great, don't get me wrong, but I knew that Briar and Joe also had amazing concepts. We were using 'The Battle' from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and we were retelling the fight through a contemporary number. Half of us were on the White Witch's side, dressed in complete white, down to the white hairspray and our hands painted white, and the other half of us were on Aslan's side, dressed in Narnian colours with the Narnia crest on our outfits. As dance captain I'd been able to pick my side, and I am pleased to say I loved being a Narnian. We'd even choreographed a sword fight sequence with actual fake swords and had a fake lion run in around 3/4 of the way through the dance. It was pretty darn cool. I just hoped it was enough to beat the other teams.
Joe's PoV
Brazil had just danced, and it had only just dawned on me that Brazil had made it to the semi finals.
"Zoe," I went up to her.
"Yeah?" she looked at me.
"Brazil are still in the competition," I said. "I swear Zo, if Brazil win again I will resign as dance captain and I'm never dancing again."
Zoe looked at me and burst out laughing. "Okay, firstly how the hell have you only just noticed Brazil are still in the competition?! Also, after that dance I don't think they'll win. Their dance was literally about food. A hip hop number about food. They stand no chance."
"You say that now, but that year they won was the year they danced about penguins. A ballet dance about penguins and they won the whole freaking thing," I said.
"Joe, relax," Zoe laughed. "But thank you for making me less nervous. That's honestly hilarious."
I rolled my eyes. Canada were currently on stage, and although they were dancing well and had a pretty darn good concept, Brazil could still win. Brazil were sneaky. You think you've sussed them and then BAM! They win the whole competition.
Watching Canada did make me kind of nervous though. Their dance was beautiful, and I'd never seen a team dance so in time in my life. They were like really flexible robots. I was very impressed. However, the amount of acro in their routine could bring them down... Judges often didn't like acro, which was another thing that concerned me about our dance. They weren't big on hip hop and commercial either, so basically Australia were guaranteed a spot in the final. The second spot was anyone's game. We had shit music too, which can't have helped. Dear Lord.
Before I knew it, Canada had taken their bow and we were up.
"Good luck," Briar said to us as we all took our places.
"Thanks Bri," I smiled, and Zoe hugged her.
The music started. Everyone was on stage except for me, Amy and Anna. They were kneeling, ready to do the tutting sequence that me, Amy and Anna would repeat later. The music started, everyone looked up and we entered the stage, me doing a flick, Amy doing a free cartwheel and Anna doing a turn into a renverse jump. We then all did scissor leaps to the back corner as the others stood up and we went into a turn sequence which went absolutely superbly if I do say so myself. We then split off into groups, some of us being Rumpelstiltskin, some of us being the King and some of us being the Miller's Daughter. We used manipulation techniques to lift and throw each other about in separate trios, mixing everyone up and together, adding in free walkovers and even throwing Anna from one side of the stage to the other. Then came the first of the three main power battles - the King having control of the Miller's Daughter and Rumpelstiltskin. I used hand movements to throw them around the stage and manipulate their body parts as though I were touching them, but I wasn't. Everyone fell into splits when I was standing in the middle with my hands moving them like a puppeteer. Then they got up either through a shoulder roll or pushing up from the ground. The dance went perfectly, with no mess ups at all. It was exactly what we needed to get through to the next round.
Dianne's PoV
Joe's team finished, and for the first time I was worried. It was an exceptional dance. I just had to hope ours could top it. Narnia was strong and powerful, it was moving and our dance could be considered breathtaking if done right.
We took the stage, and our music began. I'd always been able to play off the music, and boy was this music powerful. It gave me the adrenaline I needed, and I truly felt like I was in the story, that I really was a Narnian. As I was dancing, I decided I didn't care what the result was, so long as I had the time of my life performing to the soundtrack of my favourite movie. We leapt into motion, everyone grabbing a sword and acting out the battle scene through dance...then finally at the end, Andrew as Peter, Katie as Susan, one of our dancers called Julian as Edmund and our little 12 year old Isabelle as Lucy were crowned Kings and Queens is Narnia, the rest of us bowing at them. It was perfect. Even if we didn't win, we'd done the very best we could and I had zero regrets.
I stepped off the stage to find Joe waiting. There was no need for us to not talk any more - we'd finished our performances.
"You were incredible," he embraced me in a hug. Normally I would've objected, saying that I was too sweaty, but we were both sweaty at this point, and we'd been apart for the whole day. It felt nice to be in his arms again.
"So were you," I said, leaning my head on his shoulder. "I hope we both get to the final."
"Same," Joe smiled. "I mean, we'd have to go against each other, but then at least we're still finalists."
"Exactly," I giggled.
"Would all four teams please take the stage," the announcer said, the loud speaker echoing throughout the whole theatre and backstage.
"Here we go," I breathed. I was going to go and return to my team, but Joe took my hands and pulled me in for a kiss.
"Positive vibes," he smirked at me.
"Positive attracts positive," I laughed, shaking my head. "Let's go."
I let go of his hands and we walked on stage, both standing on the ends of our respective teams, so even though we couldn't touch each other, our hands still brushed against each other every so often.
"Everyone here danced incredibly, and you should all be so proud of yourselves," the announcer said. "But only the top two scoring teams can make it to the Internationals Grand Final. The scores have been calculated and confirmed, and I can now announce that the first team going through to the Final is..."
To say the air was tense would've been an understatement. I could barely breathe. Last year we hadn't made it to the final. I couldn't let us fall short this year too.
"Australia!"
My whole team screamed with joy, jumping and hugging each other. WE'D MADE IT TO THE FRIGGING FINAL!!!!
Joe's PoV
I grinned at Dianne and her team celebrating. They'd made it, and I couldn't have been more proud of my beautiful girlfriend. But there was only one spot left... I prayed it was us. Or Canada. If it was Brazil I would jump off the fucking stage.
"Now, to announce the second team advancing and facing Australia in the final," the announcer said.
I took a deep breath, grabbing Zoe's hand and squeezing it. I wanted this so badly.
"Great Britain!"
My whole team went to pieces as the audience erupted it applause, and Brazil and Canada clapped politely. I felt bad for Briar and her team, but I was so overjoyed for my own team. We had to take home the Internationals title, we just had to. Please.
Sorry for a shorter chapter and a very low quality one at that, but I think there's only gonna be two or three more chapters now. The semi finals were just a bit of a filler tbh, like the final climax begins now.
I've started writing the sequel and I think y'all are gonna love it. I won't lie, it's probably a better storyline than this one, and will definitely have more Joanne!
Also, fun fact, all these dances were based off my own choreography. So the Rumpelstiltskin dance was actually taken from my BTEC Performing Arts choreography trio, and the round off tuck my 'King' did that caused the other two dancers to roll over their toes to their knees was truly my favourite part because it just looked so cool. Managed to pull off a distinction in that. And the acro dance Canada did was my GCSE choreography (originally a solo but I changed it to a group dance for this). Only got a C in that though, oof - I reckon it was because it kinda ended up looking like a gymnastics routine more than a dance solo. Then Australia's was my BTEC solo choreography IDEA, because I ran out of time to choreograph and totally improvised my way through that (still got a distinction so I reckon I did okay).
I'll update soon! - B x