Page 16 of Heartless

Mallory says a quick prayer and a chorus of amen chimes out after she ends it.

I pull the door open, and we excitedly rush down the hall to the backstage. The atmosphere is thick with excitement, and anticipation hums through our bodies. This is the first performance that we’ve had at this theater. Most of our productions are local.

“...performance fromMirage,” Stephanie, the emcee announces.

I look at my girls and note how beautiful each of them is in the sparkling makeup that covers their faces. The only way to identify them is by their eyes. Champion Smith, a famed cosmetologist and videographer, came into town to do our makeup tonight.

Bree, Adalynn, Chelsea, Tara, Leslie, Riyann, Zandra, Giada, and Julieta all beam at me and chills pour over my body at the sound of the applause welcoming us onstage.

The music to Bebe Rexha’sBeautiful Lifeflows from the stringed orchestra just beneath us on the floor. The music is beautiful, powerful, and fast-paced as it washes over us. It lifts us on wings, allowing us to glide through the air with each jump and twirl.

Each of us spins into another orbit as we sail across the stage.

I’m lost in the music and the performance as my dancers move all around me in a circle. Their hands grasp at me when they lift me at the crescendo.

The lights go down, and we run to the rear of the stage, exchanging our pointe shoes for tap shoes and the beautiful tulletutus for nylon shorts. By the time we resume our positions, the lights are slowly coming up again, and Tara and Leslie are lying on the floor at my feet.

Bree and Chelsea are paired up with their hands placed together facing each other. Adalynn and Zandra have their backs pressed together, and Riyann, Julieta, and Giada are on the floor in a little circle.

One by one, each dancer taps out a rhythm with her shoes until the entire theater is full of the sound of us tapping out Marian Hill’sGot It.

Our hips and fingers pop to the snazzy beat as we move from our current positions, forming two single-file lines, allowing the audience to only see the first person in each line. In alternating positions, our left and right feet tap out, giving a centipede effect, and slowly, our hands do the same.

Julieta and Bree do a series of backflips until they’re slightly out of the audience’s view, offstage left and right. They flip canes to each of us, and we catch them, keeping them extended as we wait for the next throw, a perfectly timed toss of our top hats, which we catch with our canes.

One by one, we use our canes to tilt the hats toward our partner’s head as she bows and allows us to place them on her head. Once we’re done and every woman is wearing a hat, Julieta and Bree tap their way back to center stage.

Although I don’t focus my attention on the audience but on the large clock at the back of the theater that sits slightly above the audience’s head, I know they’re captivated. The orchestra joins in, the strings first, the brass next, and then the woodwinds, and finally the percussionists.

The routine is a rousing one that I know will leave us winded in the end, but we’ve been practicing for months for this with the orchestra. We’ve got our breathing timed with our legwork,allowing us to flow seamlessly through each movement as we catch our breaths through every transition.

The applause is thunderous when we’re finished, and once again, the lights go down. The ladies move offstage, and I remain in the spotlight.

The lights slowly go down, and the ladies run back onstage, draping me in my final costume. A series of crepe and satin attachments to my leotard creates a beautiful long skirt with several layers and a colorful cape.

Fleetwood Mac’sGypsybegins to play from the orchestra, and the lights come back on as I perform my solo ballet routine to the music.

They’re my favorite band of all time, and I love theirMiragealbum which is what I’ve named my dance studio after. Like a fairy, I sprint across the stage, allowing the music to envelop me in its arms. The freedom of the music and the potency of the lyrics reflect my carefree nature.

Coddled and protected as the only girl in the family, I’ve lived a relatively untroubled life. My father believed that it would all cease to exist once I married into the powerful family whose fingers were in every aspect of our nation’s society from finance to politics and more.

Love conquers all fear is what I believe and that’s what I’ve stood on. Although we haven’t been married for long, two years to be exact, I still live that same carefree life. Onyx is just as protective of me as my father and brothers have been, if not more so.

They’re out in the audience tonight cheering me on. I saw my father’s and mother’s faces as we took to the stage initially, and my brothers, Marc Jr. and Micah, are sitting on either side of my parents. They’re all seated towards the front center stage.

Alternatively, Onyx’s family, his parents, his sister as well as his cousins and their spouses, are up on the balcony lookingdown on the stage. My husband, though, sits with my best friend, Kaia, and her husband, Chris, on the front row center stage.

All this flows through my mind and then out of it as I continue to dance across the stage.

***

“You ladies did a phenomenal job tonight!” Yesenia says, or Yaya, as we call her.

She’s the wife of Onyx’s cousin, Kincaid, and she’s just as close to me as Mak is.

“Thanks,” the girls each take turns accepting her words of praise.

My dance studio has been transitioned into a celebratory reception for the night with twinkling fairy lights, swaths of sheer pink and white ribbon draped from the beams, and floral arrangements in large urns are positioned throughout the space.

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