Page 44 of Forbidden Dance
A couple figures pass the window, and Blitz pauses by the light switch, waiting for them to enter Studio 3 across the hall. When the corridor is clear, he turns on the lights. “Being alone with you is bad for my self-control,” he says.
I have nothing to say to that, so I return to the barre, holding on with one hand as I stretch the muscles that are critical to toe work, calves and feet and ankles.
“I could watch you all day,” Blitz says. “I wish I’d done ballet first.” He comes to the barre and mimics my movements.
“You’re doing well without it,” I say. “Pretty much every dancer wants to be you.”
“Not lately,” he says.
He’s very good at matching my poses. I’m sure he learns choreography very fast. “What happened to all the staff people on the show? Did they lose their jobs?”
“They had contracts,” he says. “They should be okay. But many of them will have moved on, so even if we get to do the finale, I’ll probably only have half the staff.”
“Wasn’t that one going to be live?”
“Yes,” he says with a sigh. “I’m not sure we can risk that without the team. But again, they haven’t exactly agreed to do it. I haven’t made a lot of headway.”
“Kissing a pig didn’t help?” I tease.
“It made for some funny Tweets,” he says. “There’s a meme going around where they caption the image. My favorite was ‘He ate him like bacon.’”
I shift away from the barre and hop in place, warming my legs. Blitz continues to copy everything I do.
“Is the charity work embarrassing for you?” I ask. “You seem okay with it.”
“It’s all by design,” he says. “Hannah set up the embarrassing stuff to give everyone a chance to purge their feelings. But it also keeps my name out there. The worst thing in Hollywood isn’t to be hated or ridiculed. It’s being forgotten.”
I run through the five basic positions as I think about what Blitz said. If I were going through all the hate that Blitz is, I would want to be forgotten fast. But then, I’ve always shied away from the spotlight.
“And now she thinks the wheelchair ballet class will help?”
Blitz holds fifth position. “Hannah thinks so. Nobody’s talking about the scandal anymore, just the pig. She’ll keep the social media manager feeding them topics to shift their attention.”
I begin to practice my turns. Blitz should know as well as anybody how long the public’s memory can be. But I do hope their plan works.
Or do I?
“If you don’t get the show back, will you stay here?” I ask.
He stops his spin and grins at me. “I’m starting to see some reasons why I might.”
In three quick steps, he’s crossed the space between us and taken my hand. “Would you like to try a lift?” he asks.
“Okay,” I say.
He drags a mat to the center of the room and unfolds it. “I’ve never dropped anyone, but we usually have spotters,” he says. “We’ll do something easy.”
“I’ve seen some of the dancers practice on the floor to start,” I say.
“I remember doing that in the early days,” he says with a smile. He kneels down. “The dancers on the first season of my show weren’t as experienced as this last group. I had to start some of them from scratch.”
“Like me,” I say.
“There’s nobody like you,” he says.
My body warms over. “So show me what I don’t know,” I say.
“Come here.” He motions me close. “Now sit on my shoulder.”
