Broadway Baby by Samantha-Ellen Bound Page A

believable!’
    I chased her with the tub of black paint, threatening to dye her pretty red hair.
    The dancing was so athletic, Periwinkle had outdone himself. We were doing constant side kicks, side leaps, tuck jumps and a lot ofpartner work where we would swing off and launch each other into the air.
    It wasn’t just jazzy musical theatre technical steps. After we finished each technique or trick, we then had to connect it to some kind of tap combination so that everything was fluid and linked together.
    We even had a chorus line with Mary and Bert in the middle where we would tap up, kick forward then back, jump, lay out and add forward springs. I don’t know about you, but trying to do that alone, much less connected to sixteen other people, is hard work!
    The way we moved in rehearsal reminded me a bit of puppets being jigged up and down by giants up in the rafters, making us do the silliest things. At the start of the song when it was just Bert, Mary and the two kids on stage, and the song was building to its crescendo, all the chimney sweeps had topeep and clamber out of these chimney props and be very cheeky.
    It was the best mix of acting, dancing and singing I could hope for! I was now a certified triple threat!
    The final step, of course, was to pull off the perfect, most energetic performance.
    Then I could rightly say that Broadway had better watch out, ’cause there was a new kid on the scene, and her name was Eleanor Irvin.

Chapter Eighteen
    This Mary Poppins performance for variety night wasn’t like any other performance I’d done in my time at Silver Shoes.
    This was something that was mine, something that I’d pursued and worked hard for. It was me showing everyone that all my talk of the past few months was because of this; that the world of the stage was what I’d dreamed about and lived for.
    So it was extra exciting. But it also made me extra nervous.
    I was a mess backstage at the Entertainment Centre. I forgot my false eyelashes. And when I came back from the bathroom I thought I’d lost my Mary Poppins crew because there were so many other acts from other schools and companies rushing about and crowding the hallways.
    When I tried to sing some quiet warm-up notes to myself, I felt like a frog had died in my throat. My voice sounded like a husky old ear of corn and no amount of clearing my throat made it better.
    Then I couldn’t get the braces to attach on my pants! They kept popping off and one sprang off, hit me in the neck and left an ugly red mark on my skin.
    â€˜Cadence!’ I turned to her, my eyes all big and wet from the panicky tears that were threatening to ruin my moment.
    Cadence, the pro, turned my way like she was twenty years older than me and not just a few months. ‘Yes, Ellie?’ she said.
    I pointed at my neck, which was really meant to somehow sum up my whole freak-out. Lucky Cadence was smart as well as talented.
    â€˜Well, that’s easy enough to disguise,’ she said, reaching for a tub of greasepaint and painting over the red welt with one swipe of her fingers.
    â€˜Thank you,’ I said, reaching for the snakes like my life depended on it.
    â€˜Okay,’ said Cadence. ‘I know how to fix this.’ She grabbed my hand and pulled me stumbling out of the dressing room (one of my tap shoes was unbuckled and kept catching on my heel).
    â€˜Where are we going?’ I asked through a mouthful of snakes.
    â€˜Ssshh,’ said Cadence. ‘Follow me. We’re not supposed to be there, but no one’s around at this time just before they open the house.’
    â€˜Where?’ I asked. ‘What?’
    Cadence peeped over her shoulder before dashing up the steps to the backstage area and creeping through the cracked open door.
    â€˜Here.’ She pulled me out through the dark silent wings to the empty stage, which was lit by one spotlight.
    It was just like in my dreams. The dust motes