Page 49 of Encore
Marsden commissioned every single prop in this ballet from Mexican immigrants. He also went a step further. If they weren’t here legally, he paid for their time and labor and sponsored their citizenship. He could be a total shit sometimes, but he went all out when he wanted to do right.
When the curtain came up, we were all on stage mourning. Marsden had Damita’s funeral coincide with The Day of the Dead. He would have had to use real candles in the original production, but we were all sitting on a dimly lit stage surrounded by those candles with LED flames.
We started this dance of grief. I could hear a few people in the audience crying as we all dealt with it in different ways with the choreography. The dance became increasingly frenzied before we all collapsed in front of a sugar skull in Damita’s sugar skull on a large pedestal.
All the stage lights went dark, and the only illumination on the stage was the flickering of the LED candles. When the lights came back up, Beyla was standing there, and the sugar skull was gone. Marsden had designed her stage makeup so that it was apparent she was that sugar skull and that she was alive again and not a ghost.
She had her hands on Arden and Merlin’s heads and was looking at us with love. Oh, holy shit. The musicians paused, and we had to wait for the audience to stop clapping. Then, finally, some of them gave her a standing ovation. I was trying so hard not to break character and lose my shit, hugging her because it was always such a massive moment for any performer to get a standing ovation in the middle of a show.
Beyla stepped off her box and kissed all four of us. This wasn’t some fake stage kiss. We all went for it and branded her as ours in front of this entire audience. After we kissed her, we started the mother of all seduction dances.
If anyone in the audience was waffling between a favorite warrior for Damita to end up with, it was about to become crystal clear this was not that kind of ballet. I was in a book club with a bunch of lesbians from the gay club, and there was a whole genre of books like this now. We read them a lot, and I adored them. I was betting there were some smut readers in the audience who had been rooting for this since we showed up on stage.
There would have been limits to what Marsden could get away with in a seduction scene when he originally choreographed this ballet one hundred and fifty years ago. Marsden brushed right up against them and then backed off. The scene ended with all of us on our knees, offering her the ring off of our finger.
The audience went nuts clapping. Boy, did I have some books to recommend to them at the meet and greet after the show. They loved us, but I didn’t have time to stand here and soak up the applause.
As soon as the lights dimmed, we bolted. We had a fast costume change that needed to take place in the wings. I had to peel myself out of these sweaty tights to put different color tights on for the wedding. We all did. Marsden did the whole professional dancer thing several times so he could get hired as the artistic director here, and he knew damned well that was mean as hell.
Beyla’s change was worse than ours. She had a whole team helping her. She didn’t just have to get into this absolutely fantastic wedding costume with the most gorgeous tutu I’d ever laid eyes on. She had to completely remove the sugar skull makeup and paint her face like she was getting married.
It was kind of a shit situation and super stressful, but you always had a team to help you. Even when I was a baby ballet dancer playing a mouse in the Christmas show, we didn’t have to pause the whole ballet because the prima ballerina was still naked. We got it done.
I made sure my costume was perfectly secure. I didn’t want to have to leave the country because I had a costume malfunction opening night. I also didn’t want Beyla to have one, so as soon as I changed, I joined the army of people trying to help her.
Someone had already removed her makeup. There was a person behind her fastening the hooks on the corset of her costume and another in front of her doing her makeup. It looked like they had it handled.
Someone stepped to the side to pin the tiara on her head. I never wanted to grace this stage in drag ever again, but I was still kind of mad I never got a tiara every time I did. I didn’t make it a point to do drag much, but I could still rock a tiaramuchbetter than Julian ever did.
“Two minutes!” someone called.
The corps was on the stage dancing for the wedding celebration. They finished with Beyla’s lipstick and all stepped back. We took off running to the wings. Damita was supposed to be a simple village girl, but she was about to get carried out to her wedding by four warriors like a fucking queen. This was totally reverse harem before it became a book genre, and I was here for it.
Everyone exploded with applause as we carried Beyla out. The lift was pretty complicated, especially with the four of us lifting her. Finally, we set her down and sat on the chairs provided for us.
The corps did their thing, and then we moved on to thepas de deux.It was meant to be people from the village dancing out scenes from Mexican folklore. I didn’t have to pretend to be interested. The choreography was unique, and this was the kind of ballet that gave more dancers the chance to shine.
It wasn’t just Nyx. She was utterly fantastic tonight, but the other dancers reenacting Mexican folk heroes didn’t get featured nearly enough. Sometimes, we did shows with many supporting roles, or Marsden would choreograph completely abstract performances where dancers other than his girlfriends got to shine.
It was amazing, and I wanted more of this. The ballet was almost over, and nothing terrible had happened. I stood up when I was supposed to. The only thing we had left to do was fake marry Beyla and take our bows.
Chapter44
Beyla
We did it. We successfully brought this ballet to a live audience, and it felt so satisfying. The audience didn’t know about the curse or any of the drama at rehearsal. They just knew we gave them a damned wonderful show.
They gave us a standing ovation and threw so many roses at the guys and me. Every time we’d try to leave, they’d start chanting for us to come back. Finally, when the crowd died down, Marsden came out with an armload of flowers and a microphone.
He presented me with the flowers, and it looked like he intended to address the crowd. Ireallyhoped he wasn’t so excited about this curse being broken that he said something that blew everything and got him arrested in front of all these people.
“Thank you for coming tonight. It’s long been my dream to bring this ballet to a New York audience. Now that it’s done, I’m thinking about the next chapter in my life and what’s next forThe P.We need fresh blood and new ideas. After this season wraps up, I’ll be stepping down as artistic director. I’ve already suggested Nyx Reid, who you saw dancing tonight, as my replacement to the board. It’s all done if she accepts.”
Oh, holy fuck! This was huge and a big thing to drop on Nyx in front of an audience without talking to her about it first. But it was actually a pretty good idea because I knew Nyx could run a ballet company without a single shred of favoritism like he did. She also wouldn’t tolerate drama and wouldn’t have a problem making hard decisions about contracts. I looked over at Nyx, and her mouth was hanging open.
“Is he utterly, chicken-shit insane?” Nyx hissed.
“I think we know he is, but not about that,” Arden said.
