Page 45 of Encore
We were all on point at dress rehearsal. We were dancing our asses off. Every last one of us was trying to bring Marsden’s original vision to life to the best of our abilities, and he was yelling at us like he should have cast someone else.
I got this ballet had initially been his baby. He created a love story for his wife that also paid homage to her heritage. It was almost like he didn’t just need it to see an audience to break his curse. It was like he thought if we pulled this ballet off with Beyla, it would somehow negate the shitty thing he did to his wife that started all this.
I was used to him getting neurotic during our Hell Week. Nothing was ever right. It wasn’t just the dancers. He constantly questioned the sets, lighting, and costumes. Bitch was doing that now, and he was the one that designed all of that.
Marsden was being particularly hard on Beyla on things that made him so excited in rehearsal. He had been falling over himself, kissing her ass over her solos and death scene in rehearsal. Now Marsden was yelling like nothing she did tonight was even remotely correct.
“Curtain goes up in two days, and New York Citycannotsee what I just saw. You’re all sloppy, and I don’t believe the love story. If I don’t believe it, the audience won’t either. Theyhaveto believe it, or the polyamorous relationship won’t sell. So, I want you to go home, rest, and think about your technique and how you’re going to sell this love story to the audience.”
Marsden did this epic flounce out of the theatre. Was he serious right now? How were we not selling this love story when we were all desperately in love with her, and somehow ended up in a polyamorous relationship? We all had to fake being in love with ballerinas before. I loathed Bellatrix, but the audience never knew that. We weren’t faking a damned thing with Beyla, and this bastardknewthat.
Madame Lucinda had been sitting in the audience with him, helping him with his notes. The rest of the cast was filtering out and going home. It had been a long, grueling day, and I, honestly, just wanted to take Beyla home and talk shit about Marsden for being a dick to her.
My group was the last people on stage. Nyx was hanging out with us. We had our rehearsals simultaneously, so I didn’t get to see herpas de deuxuntil tech rehearsal. She was utterly amazing. She did that role more justice than it would have gotten with Ivory in the part.
Madame Lucinda made her way up to the stage and leaned on her cane. We had all changed out of our costumes. We were in our street clothes sitting on the stage for notes. Marsden had been shit to all of us, right down to the corps, but he was especially nasty to his leads.
“Ignore everything Marsden just said,” Madame Lucinda said. “Back in my day, he did a lot more than just choreograph, but not to this extent. The more involved he is, the more neurotic he gets before curtain. That was beautiful, all of you.
“Nyx, you danced your part even better than Ivory did in rehearsal because you weren’t trying to upstage your partner. Now that I see you all in full costume and stage makeup with the lighting and sets, you’re going to be amazing. Idid notcry, but I got something in my eyes several times while you were all dancing.”
“I didn’t take it personally,” Beyla said. “He didn’t have a single note that didn’t sound like he was just nervous because he’s been trying this for so long.”
“I took it personally,” I grunted. “He said it looked like we didn’t love you.”
“We all took it personally,” Nicolai said. “He literally said our stage harem was unbelievable, knowing damned well we’re your real-life harem.”
“Yeah!” Merlin said. “We aren’t minions anymore. We’ve upgraded.”
Sometimes, Merlin would say something so astute it opened up new theories about this curse, and sometimes, I wondered if he ate paste in kindergarten. But I was a grown-ass adult. I had always tried to be her mate, not a minion.
“Don’t let anything he said get to you. Even if I wasn’t your teacher and knew all of you, I could tell there was something deeper here than just the characters you are playing. It was distracting when Arden was being stupid, but now it’s just perfect.”
“I was trying to protect my mate!”
“I had it right the first time. You were being stupid. I only bet on things I know I’ll win, and I’d bet money your mate could hand your ass to you.”
“I know she could. The bureau sent her here without a partner like they were supposed to. So, I was watching her back.”
“No, you were fucking up the role of a lifetime. I’m glad you finally got your shit together. Don’t do that again when you have an audience,” Madame Lucinda said.
“I’m offended. I’m a professional.”
Madame Lucinda just laughed at me. She wasbrutalsometimes. There weren’t many people who would laugh in the face of a gryphon when it involved protecting their mate, but here we were.
“Do you think I got to where I am today, worrying about offending fragile men? I would have said the same thing to you in my twenties. So, get your shit together when the curtain goes up. Do itexactlylike you did tonight because that was perfection.”
“We will,” Beyla said. “We’ve gotten this far without the curse rearing its ugly head. Selena’s curse has always been about punishing Marsden by having him murder dancers under his care. She would have known he knew how to kill someone and disappear a body. If Selena wanted to utterly destroy this company to take Marsden down, she would have done it by now.
“There are plenty of scandals a company can weather, but an artistic director murdering dancers on opening night in front of a paying audience isn’t something you can come back from. I don’t think Selena wanted to end this company. If something were going to happen to stop this ballet, it would have happened in tech or dress rehearsal.”
“And you’d be right,” Madame Lucinda said. “This company welcomed Selena when she had to leave everything behind when she left Mexico. She wanted the people who betrayed her to pay, but I really don’t think she expected her husband to try to break the curse through trial and error. She was always so kind to the ballet students and me when I was an apprentice. I’ve always thought Selena thought her husband was smarter than to attempt this ballet again until he was totally sure. She must not have dated many men before she married him because, on the whole, you’re all kind of stupid.”
“Hey!” Bevan said.
“There are exceptions, of course. Now, go home and prepare for curtain. If something were going to happen, it would have by now.”
Beyla wrapped her arms around my waist.
